Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Court of
Appeals
G.R. No. 125948. December 29, 1998
FIRST
PHILIPPINE
INDUSTRIAL
CORPORATION,
petitioner, vs. COURT OF APPEALS, HONORABLE
PATERNO V. TAC-AN, BATANGAS CITY and ADORACION
C. ARELLANO, in her official capacity as City Treasurer
of Batangas, respondents.
Contracts; Common Carriers; A common carrier is
one who holds himself out to the public as engaged in
the business of transporting persons or property from
place to place, for compensation, offering his services
to the public generally.There is merit in the petition.
A common carrier may be defined, broadly, as one
who holds himself out to the public as engaged in the
business of transporting persons or property from place
to place, for compensation, offering his services to the
public generally. Article 1732 of the Civil Code defines
a common carrier as any person, corporation, firm
or association 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.
Same; Same; Test for determining whether a party is a
common carrier of goods.The test for determining
whether a party is a common carrier of goods is: 1. He
must be engaged in the business of carrying goods for
others as a public employment, and must hold himself
out as ready to engage in the transportation of goods
for person generally as a business and not as a casual
occupation; 2. He must undertake to carry goods of the
kind to which his business is confined; 3. He must
undertake to carry by the method by which his
business is conducted and over his established roads;
and 4. The transportation must be for hire.
Same; Same; The fact that petitioner has a limited
clientele does not exclude it from the definition of a
common carrier.Based on the above definitions and
requirements, there is no doubt that petitioner is a
common carrier. It is engaged in the business of
transporting or carrying goods, i.e. petroleum products,
for hire as a public employment. It undertakes to carry
for all persons indifferently, that is, to all persons who
choose to employ its services, and transports the
goods by land and for compensation. The fact that
petitioner has a limited clientele does not exclude it
from the definition of a common carrier.
Same; Same; Words and Phrases; The definition of
common carriers in the Civil Code makes no
distinction as to the means of transporting, as long as
it is by land, water or air.As correctly pointed out by
petitioner, the definition of common carriers in the
Civil Code makes no distinction as to the means of
transporting, as long as it is by land, water or air. It
does not provide that the transportation of the
passengers or goods should be by motor vehicle. In
fact, in the United States, oil pipe line operators are
considered common carriers.
Same; Same; Taxation; Legislative intent in excluding
from the taxing power of the local government unit the
imposition of business tax against common carriers is
xxx
xxx
xxx
its
respondent
19, 20, 21, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28 and 29 (pp. 85, 88,
92-96, 99-103, 117-128, 119-120, 121-128, BIR rec.) all
tending to prove the same thing 9 7 th at the Cen tral
Synd icate and /or t he gro financiers composing it and
not Dee Hong Lue was the real purchaser (importer) of
the 'Mystery Pile' from the FLC; that in the contract of
sale between Dee Hong Lue and the FLC the former
acted principally as agent (Article 1930, New Civil
Code) of the petitioners Yu Khe Thai, Sy Seng Tong,
Alfonso Z. Sycip and Tan Tiong Bio who advanced the
purchased price of P1,125,000.00 out of the
P1,250,000.00 paid to the FLC, Dee Hong Lue being the
purchaser in his own right only with respect to the
amount of P69,000.00; and, that the deed, Exhibit 13
(p. 77, BIR rec.) purporting to show that Dee Hong Lue
sold the 'Mystery Pile' to the Central Syndicate for a
consideration of P1,250.000.00 is but a use to evade
payment of a greater amount of percentage tax.
"To our mind, the deed of sale, Exhibit 13 (p. 66, BIR
rec.) as well as the circumstances surrounding the
incorporation of the Central Syndicate, are shrouded
with as much mystery as the so-called 'Mystery Pile'
subject of the transaction. But, as oil is to water, the
truth and underlying motives behind these transactions
have to surface in the end. Petitioners would want us to
believe that Dee Hong Lue bought i n h is own r igh for
himself
the
surplus
goods
in
question
for
P1,250,000.00 from the FLC and then, by virtue of a
valid contract of sale, Exhibit 13 (p. 66, BIR rec.)
transferred and conveyed the same to the Central
Syndicate at cost. If this be so, what need was there for
Dee Hong Lue to agree in the immediate organization
and incorporation of the Central Syndicate with six
other capitalists when he could very well have
disposed of the surplus goods to the public in his
individual capacity and keep all the profits to himself
without sharing 9/10th of it to the other six
incorporators
and stockholders
of
the newly
incorporated Syndicate.
"It appears that Dee Hong Lue 'sold' the pile to the
Central Syndicate for exactly the same price barely
forty-six (46) days after acquiring it from FLC and
exactly five (5) days after the Syndicate was registered
with the Securities and Exchange Commission on
August 19, 1946. This is indeed most unusual for a
businessman like Dee Hong Lue who, it is to be
presumed, was out to make a killin g wh en he acqui
red surplus goods from the FLC for the staggering
amount of P1,750,000.00 in cash.
"Again, why did Dee Hong Lue waste all his time and
effort not to say his good connections with the FLC by
acquiring the goods from that agency only to sell it for
the same amount to the Central Syndicate? This would
have been understandable if Dee Hong Lue were the
biggest and controlling stockholder of the Syndicate.
He could perhaps reason out to himself, 'the profits
which h i am sacrific ing no w in this sa the Syndicate,
h i wi ll ge t it a ny way in t he form of d from it after it
shall have disposed of all the "Mystery Pile" to the
public.' But then, how could this be possible when Dee
Hong Lue was the smallest subscriber to the capital
stock of the Syndicate? It appears from the Articles of
Incorporation that of the authorized capital stock of the
corporation in the amount of P500,000.00, Dee Hong
judgment
is
I
It is respectfully submitted that the Honorable Court of
Appeals committed a reversible error in reversing and
setting aside the decision of the trial court by ruling
that the petitioner is not entitled to a refund of the cost
of unavailed jewels of Europe tour she being equally,
if not more,negligent than the private respondent, for
in the contract of carriage the common carrier is
obliged to observe utmost care and extra-ordinary
diligence which is higher in degree than (he ordinary
diligence required of the passenger. Thus, even if the
petitioner and private respondent were both negligent,
the petitioner cannot be considered to be equally, or
worse, more guilty than the private respondent. At
best, petitioners negligence is only contributory while
the private respondent [is guilty] of gross negligence
making the principle of pari delicto inapplicable in the
case;
II
The Honorable Court of Appeals also erred in not ruling
that the Jewels of Europe tour was not indivisible and
the amount paid therefor refundable;
III
The Honorable Court erred in not granting to the
petitioner the consequential damages due her as a
result of breach of contract of carriage.8
Petitioner contends that respondent did not observe
the standard of care required of a common carrier
when it informed her wrongly of the flight schedule.
She could not be deemed more negligent than
respondent since the latter is required by law to
exercise extraordinary diligence in the fulfillment of its
obligation. If she were negligent at all, the same is
merely contributory and not the proximate cause of the
damage she suffered. Her loss could only be attributed
to respondent as it was the direct consequence of its
employees gross negligence.
Petitioners contention has no merit.
By definition, a contract of carriage or transportation is
one whereby a certain person or association of persons
obligate themselves to transport persons, things, or
news from one place to another for a fixed price.9 Such
person or association of persons are regarded as
carriers and are classified as private or special carriers
and common or public carriers.10 A common carrier is
defined under Article 1732 of the Civil Code as persons,
corporations, firms or associations engaged in the
business of carrying or transporting passengers or
goods or both, by lane, water or air, for compensation,
offering their services to the public.
It is obvious from the above definition that respondent
is not an entity engaged in the business of transporting
either passengers or goods and is there fore, neither, a
private nor a common carrier. Respondent did not
undertake to transport petitioner from one place to
another since its covenant with its customers is simply
to make travel arrangements in their behalf.
Respondents services as a travel agency include
procuring tickets and facilitating travel permits or visas
as well as booking customers for tours.