G.R. No. 151452 - Spouses Santos vs. Pizardo

On April 25, 1994, Sibayan was charged with Reckless Imprudence Resulting to Multiple Homicide and Multiple Physical Injuries in connection with a collision between a Viron Transit bus and a Lite Ace van, causing four deaths and injuries to five passengers.
On December 17, 1998, the municipal circuit trial court convicted Sibayan to two years, four months and one day to four years and two months imprisonment, with a reservation by the offended parties to file a separate civil action; no civil liability was adjudged.

On October 20, 2000, petitioners (relatives and heirs of the victims) filed a separate civil complaint for damages against Sibayan, Viron Transportation Company, Inc. and its president, Virgilio Q. Rondaris, relying on the final judgment of conviction and their prior reservation.
Viron Transit moved to dismiss on grounds of improper service, prescription and laches, and argued that Rondaris should be dropped as a party. Petitioners opposed, asserting a ten-year prescriptive period for actions to enforce civil liability arising from crime.

By Order of February 26, 2001, the trial court dismissed the complaint primarily for prescription, construing the cause of action as one ex quasi delicto subject to a four-year prescriptive period under Article 1146, Civil Code. It also initially found summons improperly served.
Petitioners’ motion for reconsideration reiterated that their cause of action was ex delicto under the Revised Penal Code, prescribing ten years from finality of the criminal judgment; the trial court denied it on July 16, 2001, reaffirming the quasi-delict theory.

Petitioners filed a petition for certiorari in the Court of Appeals, which on September 10, 2001 dismissed it for invoking the wrong remedy (certiorari instead of appeal).
On January 9, 2002, the Court of Appeals denied their motion for reconsideration, holding that appeal was available and certiorari was inappropriate absent recognized exceptions.

On March 1, 2002, petitioners filed a Petition for Review on Certiorari before the Supreme Court, arguing that the action is ex delicto, prescribes ten years, and that certiorari should be allowed to prevent denial of civil indemnity.
In their Comment dated June 13, 2002, private respondents maintained the complaint sounded in quasi delict (four-year prescription), denied subsidiary liability of Viron Transit, and faulted petitioners’ procedural lapses including improper remedy and defective certification. Petitioners and respondents filed further pleadings by September and October 2002.

Whether petitioners’ cause of action is based on civil liability arising from crime (ex delicto under the Revised Penal Code) or on quasi delict under the Civil Code.
What prescriptive period applies: ten years from the finality of the judgment of conviction or four years from the accrual of a quasi-delict cause of action.
Whether the trial court’s dismissal orders and the appellate court’s denial of certiorari should stand despite the procedural misstep of invoking certiorari instead of appeal.
Whether Viron Transportation Company, Inc. is subsidiarily liable for Sibayan’s criminally-imposed civil indemnity.