LILUS V Manila Railroad Company

ALEKO E.
LILIUS v MANILA RAILROAD COMPANY,

G.R. No. 42551 September 4, 1935
GODDARD, J
FACTS: In G.R. No. L-39587, Aleko E. Lilius, a well-known and reputed journalist, author and
photographer and a staff correspondent in the Far East of the magazines The American Weekly of New
York and The Sphere of London, his wife Sonja Maria Lilius, and their daughter, Brita Marianne Lilius,
met an accident, wherein their Studebaker car, collided with locomotive No. 713, Manila Railroad
Companys train. They sustained life-threatening wounds, fractures and other injuries, which left them
permanently disfigured and as a result thereof, Aleko suffered great financial loss as he was unable to
concentrate and write articles and short stories for the newspapers and magazines. The Supreme Court
ruled in favor of Aleko Lilius, et al, awarding them in the amount of P33,525.03 as damages, including
interest and costs. Laura Lindley Shuman, the Manila Wine Merchants, Ltd., the Bank of the Philippine
Islands and the Manila Motor Co., Inc., have appealed from an order of the CFI of Manila fixing the
degree of preference of the claimants and distributing the proceeds of the judgment of this court in the
case of Lilius vs. Manila Railroad Co. the amount of which judgment including interest and costs, was
deposited by the railroad company with the clerk of the lower court in that case.
Under her third assignment of error this appellant contends (1) that the funds separately awarded the
wife, Sonja Maria Lilius, partake of the nature of conjugal property, at least to the extent of the sum of
P800 awarded to her as interest on the principal award of P10,000 made in her favor by the trial court,
and as such should respond for the support of the family, including medical expenses and (2) that even
assuming that the sums awarded separately to Sonja Maria Lilius are not conjugal property, but her own
paraphernal property, still under the provisions of the Civil Code payment may be required out of said
funds, her husband being insolvent, under her liability for the medical expenses incurred by her husband,
one of the obligations imposed by law upon the wife.
ISSUE: WON the amount of damages arising from an injury suffered by one of the spouses should be
considered part of the conjugal or separate property
HELD: It appears that there are two distinct theories as to whether damages rising from an injury suffered
by one of the spouses should be considered conjugal or separate property of the injured spouse. The
theory holding that such damages should form part of the conjugal partnership property is based wholly
on the proposition, also advanced by the Manila Wine Merchants, Ltd., that by the injury the earning
capacity of the injured spouse is diminished to the consequent prejudice of the conjugal partnership.
Assuming the correctness of this theory, a reading of the decision of this court in G. R. No. 39587 will
show that the sum of P10,000 was awarded to Sonja Maria Lilius "by way of indemnity for patrimonial and
moral damages." The pertinent part of that decision on this point reads:
"Taking into consideration the fact that the plaintiff Sonja Maria Lilius, wife of the plaintiff Aleko E. Lilius is-
in the language of the court, which saw her at the trial "young and beautiful and the big scar, which she
has on her forehead caused by the lacerated wound received by her from the accident, disfigures her
face and that the fracture of her left leg has caused a permanent deformity which renders it very difficult
for her to walk', and taking into further consideration her social standing, neither is the sum of P10,000,
adjudicated to her by the said trial court by way, of indemnity for patrimonial and moral damages,
excessive.".
It should be added that the interest on that sum is part of the damages "patrimonial and moral" awarded
to Sonja Maria Lilius. Furthermore it appears in the decision of the trial court in G. R. No. 39587 that
Aleko E. Lilius claimed the sum of P10,000 as damages on account of the loss of the services of Sonja
Maria Lilius as secretary and translator, her particular work as a member of the conjugal partnership. The
trial court disallowed this claim and neither of the plaintiffs in that case appealed to this court. In view of
the foregoing it is held that the sum of P10,000 with interest thereon awarded to Sonja Maria Lilius as
damages is paraphernal property.

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ALEKO E.

LILIUS v MANILA RAILROAD COMPANY,

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