GV Florida Transport Inc vs. Heirs of Romeo Battung

GV Florida Transport, Inc.
v Battung (2015)
GV Florida Transport, Inc., Petitioner v Heirs of Romeo L. Battung GR No. 208802, October 14, 2015
FACTS: Romeo Battung boarded the bus of petitioner in Delfin Albano, Isabela, bound for Manila. He was
seated at the first row behind the driver and slept during the ride. Battung was seated at the first row
behind the driver and slept during the ride. When the bus reached the Philippine Carabao Center in
Muoz, Nueva Ecija, the bus driver, Duplio, stopped the bus and alighted to check the tires. At this point,
a man who was seated at the fourth row of the bus stood up, shot Battung at his head, and then left with a
companion. The bus conductor, Daraoay, notified Duplio of the incident and thereafter, brought Romeo to
the hospital, but the latter was pronounced dead on arrival. Hence, respondents filed a complaint on July
15, 2008 for damages in the aggregate amount of P1,826,000.00 based on a breach of contract of
carriage against petitioner, Duplio, and Baraoay (petitioner, et al.) before the RTC, docketed as Civil Case
No. 22-1103.
ISSUE: Whether petitioner is liable for damages arising from culpa contractual
RULING: No.
Where, as in the instant case, the injury sustained by the petitioner was in no way due to any defect in the
means of transport or in the method of transporting or to the negligent or wilful acts of [the common
carrier'sl employees, and therefore involving no issue of negligence in its duty to provide safe and suitable
[care] as well as competent employees, with the injury arising wholly from causes created by strangers
over which the carrier had no control or even knowledge or could not have prevented, the presumption is
rebutted and the carrier is not and ought not to be held liable. To rule otherwise would make the common
carrier the insurer of the absolute safety of its passengers which is not the intention of the lawmakers.
(Emphasis and underscoring supplied)
The case involves the death of Battung wholly caused by the surreptitious act of a co-passenger who,
after consummating such crime, hurriedly alighted from the vehicle.
The law exacts from common carriers (i.e., those persons, corporations, firms, or associations engaged in
the business of carrying or transporting passengers or goods or both, by land, water, or air, for
compensation, offering their services to the public) the highest degree of diligence (i.e., extraordinary
diligence) in ensuring the safety of its passengers.
Articles 1733 and 1755 of the Civil Code state:
Art. 1733. Common carriers, from the nature of their business and for reasons of public policy, are bound
to observe extraordinary diligence in the vigilance over the goods and for the safety of the passengers
transported by them, according to all the circumstances of each case.
Art. 1755. A common carrier is bound to carry the passengers safely as far as human care and foresight
can provide, using the utmost diligence of very cautious persons, with a due regard for all the
circumstances.
In this relation, Article 1756 of the Civil Code provides that "[i]n case of death of or injuries to passengers,
common carriers are presumed to have been at fault or to have acted negligently, unless they prove that
they observed extraordinary diligence as prescribed in Articles 1733 and 1755." This disputable
presumption may also be overcome by a showing that the accident was caused by a fortuitous event.
The foregoing provisions notwithstanding, it should be pointed out that the law does not make the
common carrier an insurer of the absolute safety of its passengers.
While the law requires the highest degree of diligence from common carriers in the safe transport of their
passengers and creates a presumption of negligence against them, it does not, however, make the carrier
an insurer of the absolute safety of its passengers.
Article 1755 of the Civil Code qualifies the duty of extraordinary care, vigilance[,] and precaution in the
carriage of passengers by common carriers to only such as human care and foresight can provide. What
constitutes compliance with said duty is adjudged with due regard to all the circumstances.
Article 1756 of the Civil Code, in creating a presumption of fault or negligence on the part of the common
carrier when its passenger is injured, merely relieves the latter, for the time being, from introducing
evidence to fasten the negligence on the former, because the presumption stands in the place of
evidence. Being a mere presumption, however, the same is rebuttable by proof that the common carrier
had exercised extraordinary diligence as required by law in the performance of its contractual obligation,
or that the injury suffered by the passenger was solely due to a fortuitous event.
In fine, we can only infer from the law the intention of the Code Commission and Congress to curb the
recklessness of drivers and operators of common carriers in the conduct of their business.
Thus, it is clear that neither the law nor the nature of the business of a transportation company makes it
an insurer of the passenger's safety, but that its liability for personal injuries sustained by its passenger
rests upon its negligence, its failure to exercise the degree of diligence that the law requires.
Therefore, it is imperative for a party claiming against a common carrier under the above-said provisions
to show that the injury or death to the passenger/s arose from the negligence of the common carrier
and/or its employees in providing safe transport to its passengers.
In Pilapil v. CA, the Court clarified that where the injury sustained by the passenger was in no way due
(1) to any defect in the means of transport or in the method of transporting, or (2) to the negligent or
willful acts of the common carrier's employees with respect to the foregoing
such as when the injury arises wholly from causes created by strangers which the carrier had no control
of or prior knowledge to prevent there would be no issue regarding the common carrier's negligence in
its duty to provide safe and suitable care, as well as competent employees in relation to its transport
business; as such, the presumption of fault/negligence foisted under Article 1756 of the Civil Code should
not apply:
First, as stated earlier, the presumption of fault or negligence against the carrier is only a disputable
presumption.[The presumption] gives in where contrary facts are established proving either that the
carrier had exercised the degree of diligence required by law or the injury suffered by the passenger was
due to a fortuitous event.
Since Battung's death was caused by a co-passenger, the applicable provision is Article 1763 of the Civil
Code, which states that:
"a common carrier is responsible for injuries suffered by a passenger on account of the willful acts or
negligence of other passengers or of strangers, if the common carrier's employees through the exercise
of the diligence of a good father of a family could have prevented or stopped the act or omission."
Notably, for this obligation, the law provides a lesser degree of diligence, i.e., diligence of a good father of
a family, in assessing the existence of any culpability on the common carrier's part.
Case law states that the concept of diligence of a good father of a family "connotes reasonable care
consistent with that which an ordinarily prudent person would have observed when confronted with a
similar situation.
The test to determine whether negligence attended the performance of an obligation is:
Did the defendant in doing the alleged negligent act use that reasonable care and caution which an
ordinarily prudent person would have used in the same situation? If not, then he is guilty of negligence."
At bar, no danger i.e. intelligent reports from law enforcement agents that certain lawless elements were
planning to hijack and burn some of its buses, as to impel petitioner or its employees to implement
heightened security measures to ensure the safety of its passengers. There was also no showing that
during the course of the trip, Battung's killer made suspicious actions which would have forewarned
petitioner's employees of the need to conduct thorough checks on him or any of the passengers.
Relevantly, the Court, in Nocum v. Laguna Tayabas Bus Company, has held that common carriers should
be given sufficient leeway in assuming that the passengers they take in will not bring anything that would
prove dangerous to himself, as well as his co-passengers, unless there is something that will indicate that
a more stringent inspection should be made. Not to be lightly considered must be the right to privacy to
which each passenger is entitled. He cannot be subjected to any unusual search, when he protests the
innocuousness of his baggage and nothing appears to indicate the contrary, as in the case at bar.
in compelling the passenger to submit to more rigid inspection, after the passenger had already declared
that the box contained mere clothes and other miscellaneous, could not have justified invasion of a
constitutionally protected domain.

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