Case Digest (G.R. No. 167546)
Facts:
Sonny Romero y Dominguez v. People of the Philippines, G.R. No. 167546, July 17, 2009, the Supreme Court First Division, Corona, J., writing for the Court. The petitioner is the driver of a JC Liner bus; the respondents are the People of the Philippines and several heirs of victims (including Regina Breis and Ofelia Belando Breis) who sued civilly for damages arising from the collision.On April 1, 1999, at around noon, the JC Liner driven by petitioner and an Apego taxi were involved in a head-on collision along Governor Jose Fuentebella Highway in Ocampo, Camarines Sur. The crash resulted in six deaths, including Jimmy Padua (the regular taxi driver), and serious injuries to two others. Edwin Breis and his son Edmund survived with grave injuries.
Petitioner was charged in the Municipal Trial Court (MTC) of Ocampo with reckless imprudence resulting in multiple homicide, multiple serious physical injuries, and damage to property. After trial, the MTC (Judge Manuel E. Contreras) acquitted petitioner criminally in a decision dated November 9, 2000, but nonetheless found him civilly liable and awarded P3,541,900 in various damages to the victims' heirs. Petitioner appealed to the Regional Trial Court (RTC) of Pili, Camarines Sur, which, in a decision dated July 17, 2001 (Judge Martin P. Badong, Jr.), affirmed the MTC judgment in toto.
Petitioner escalated the case to the Court of Appeals under Rule 42; the CA (Justice Eliezer R. De Los Santos, penned) on March 3, 2005 affirmed the lower courts' dispositions. Petitioner then filed a petition for review on certiorari under Rule 45 with the Supreme Court, arguing primarily that his acquittal should have extinguished any civil liability and alternatively asserting that the taxi was...(Pro-only)
Issues:
- Does the criminal acquittal of petitioner extinguish his civil liability arising from the same act?
- Should petitioner be exonerated from civil liability because, petitioner claims, Gerardo Breis, Sr. (not the regular driver Jimmy Padua) was driving the taxi at the ti...(Pro-only)
Ruling:
- (Pro-only)
Ratio:
- (Pro-only)
Doctrine:
- (Pro-only)