Title
Manay, Jr. vs. Cebu Air, Inc.
Case
G.R. No. 210621
Decision Date
Apr 4, 2016
Passengers failed to review flight tickets for 37 days, leading to denied boarding; Supreme Court ruled no damages due to their negligence.
passengers
flight details
purchasing tickets

Case Summary (G.R. No. 210621)

Factual Background

On June 13, 2008, Carlos S. Jose purchased twenty round‑trip Cebu Pacific tickets from Manila to Palawan at Robinsons Galleria and paid PHP 42,957.00 by credit card. He instructed the ticketing agent that the group should depart Manila July 20, 2008 at 08:20 and return July 22, 2008 at 16:15. The printed tickets comprised three pages. On July 20, 2008 the group flew to Palawan together. On July 22, 2008, during return check‑in, petitioners discovered that nine of the passengers were booked for the 10:05 flight that day. The group rebooked as many as possible at higher fare, paid additional sums in cash, left four companions overnight in Palawan, and later purchased four more tickets for PHP 5,205. Petitioners sent demand letters and complained to the Department of Trade and Industry.

Trial Court Proceedings

Petitioners filed a Complaint for Damages in the Metropolitan Trial Court, Branch 59, Mandaluyong. The Metropolitan Trial Court found Cebu Pacific liable for negligent issuance of the tickets, held that as a common carrier it must exercise extraordinary diligence in ticketing, and awarded actual damages of PHP 41,044.50 and attorney’s fees of PHP 20,000.00. The court reasoned that the ticketing agent should have marked or otherwise highlighted the differing schedule on the third page to avoid the erroneous booking.

Regional Trial Court Disposition

On appeal, Branch 212 of the Regional Trial Court, Mandaluyong, affirmed the Metropolitan Trial Court’s factual findings and liability determination but deleted the award of attorney’s fees for lack of a statutory ground under Article 2208, Civil Code. The RTC thus sustained the finding of respondent’s breach of its ticketing obligations while removing attorney’s fees.

Court of Appeals Reversal

The Court of Appeals reversed. It held that the duty of extraordinary diligence applicable to common carriers governs the carriage of passengers but does not extend to the mechanical act of encoding or entering the requested flight schedule. The Court of Appeals placed the burden on passengers to exercise ordinary care in reviewing issued tickets and concluded that respondent had not been shown liable. The Court of Appeals denied respondent’s counterclaim for litigation expenses.

Petition for Review to the Supreme Court

Petitioners filed a Petition for Review on Certiorari under Rule 45 assailing the Court of Appeals’ December 13, 2013 decision. They sought actual damages (adjusted to PHP 43,136.52), moral damages of PHP 100,000.00, exemplary damages of PHP 100,000.00, and attorney’s fees of PHP 100,000.00. Cebu Pacific filed an answer and maintained that petitioners were negligent, that a full recap had been given, and relied on the plane tickets and the Parol Evidence Rule to show the written tickets reflected the agreed terms.

Procedural Issue on Timeliness

The Supreme Court addressed a procedural question not raised by the parties: petitioners received the Court of Appeals decision December 27, 2013, and filed a Motion for Extension of Time on January 13, 2014 seeking thirty additional days from that date. Under Rule 45, Section 2, the reglementary fifteen‑day period expired January 11, 2014. The Court applied A.M. No. 00‑2‑14‑SC and concluded that petitioners’ request for extension should have been reckoned from the original due date. The petition was therefore filed out of time if strict computation were applied. The Court exercised its discretion to consider the petition on the merits in order to decide the case substantively.

Legal Framework on Common Carriers and Ticketing

The Court restated that a common carrier is defined by Article 1732, Civil Code, and that common carriers must observe extraordinary diligence under Articles 1733 and 1755, with the presumption of fault in injuries under Article 1756. The Court held that the obligation of extraordinary diligence commences upon issuance of the contract of carriage and that ticketing is part of the performance of that obligation. The Court cited Cathay Pacific Airways v. Reyes for the principle that issuance of a ticket confirming a passenger on a particular flight creates a contract of carriage and obligates the carrier to deliver the passenger on the date and flight stated.

Ticket Content, Parol Evidence, and Evidentiary Burden

The Court examined the three pages of tickets. The first two pages reflected the return flight at 16:15; the third page reflected the return flight at 10:05. The comments section on the tickets contained statements such as “FULL RECAP GVN TO CARLOS JOSE.” Cebu Pacific argued the written tickets were the best evidence of the agreement and invoked the Parol Evidence Rule. Petitioners invoked the exception in Rule 130, Section 9(b) to show that the written agreement failed to express their true intent. The Court required that extrinsic evidence to modify a written instrument must satisfactorily demonstrate an intrinsic ambiguity, mistake, or failure of the written agreement to express true intent. The only evidence offered by petitioners to dispute the written contents was Jose’s self‑serving testimony that the last page was not recapped.

Passenger’s Duty of Ordinary Diligence

The Court reaffirmed that passengers have the correlative duty to exercise ordinary diligence in their affairs. It emphasized that tickets were issued 37 days before departure, that flight information was plainly printed above passengers’ names on each page, and that petitioners, many of whom were balikbayans familiar with air travel, had ample opportunity to detect and correct any mistake. The Court cited Crisostomo v. Court of Appeals to illustrate the passenger’s duty to read travel documents and take ordinary care after receipt of tickets.

Application of the Air Passenger Bill of Rights

The Court considered the DOTC‑DTI Joint Administrative Order No. 1 (2012), the Air Passenger Bill of Rights, requiring airlines to provide full, fair, and clear disclosure of terms and conditions and to print or attach key terms to tickets and to verbally explain limitations and restrictions. The Court recognized that the Bill of Rights aims to protect passengers against adhesion contracts and to mandate written disclosure. The Court nonetheless held that the statutory duty to disclose does not eliminate the passenger’s correlative duty to exercise ordinary diligence in reviewing the contract of carriage before purchase.

Court’s Analysis and Conclusion on Liability

Applying the foregoing principles, the Court concluded that the written tickets governed the parties’ contractual obligations and

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