Professional Documents
Culture Documents
L-18965
for assessment
Number of freight tickets per booklet
of 100 tickets each
As its third assignment of error, the petitionerappellant questions the validity of Section 127 of
Regulation No. 26, insofar as it provides that chits,
memoranda and other papers not in the usual
commercial form of bill of lading, when used by the
common carrier in the transportation of goods for
the collection of fares, are to be considered bills of
lading subject to documentary stamp tax, alleging
that said section is beyond the powers of the
Secretary of Finance, which are contained in
Section 388 of the Tax Code. This argument should
also be dismissed for lack of merit. As the Solicitor
General correctly argues the validity of Section 127
of Regulation No. 26 should be upheld under the
principle of legislative approval by reenactment.
Section 127 of said regulation sought to implement
Section 1449 (q) and (r) of the Revised
Administrative Code, and the latter provisions were
reenacted in Section 227 of the National Internal
Revenue Code. Section 127 is in the same
Regulations as Section 121. We are quoting
hereunder a portion of the decision of this Court in
the case of Interprovincial Autobus Co., Inc. vs.
Collector, supra, to sustain our ruling that the third
assignment of error in the case at bar should be
dismissed:
ESCOLIN, J.:
This appeal, originally brought to the Court of
Appeals, seeks to set aside the decision of the
Court of First Instance of Negros Occidental in Civil
Cases Nos. 7354 and 7428, declaring appellant
Philippine Steam Navigation liable for damages for
the loss of the appellees' cargoes as a result of a
fire which gutted the Bureau of Customs'
warehouse in Pulupandan, Negros Occidental.
Clara Uy Bico
1,528 cavans of
rice valued
at P40,907.50;
Amparo Servando
44 cartons of
colored paper,
CUEVAS, J.:+.wph!1
In its dissertation of the phrase 'caso fortuito' the
Enciclopedia Juridicada Espanola 5 says: "In a legal
sense and, consequently, also in relation to
contracts, a 'caso fortuito' presents the following
essential characteristics: (1) the cause of the
unforeseen and unexpected occurrence, or of the
failure of the debtor to comply with his obligation,
must be independent of the human will; (2) it must
be impossible to foresee the event which
constitutes the 'caso fortuito', or if it can be
foreseen, it must be impossible to avoid; (3) the
occurrence must be such as to render it impossible
for the debtor to fulfill his obligation in a normal
manner; and (4) the obligor must be free from any
participation in the aggravation of the injury
resulting to the creditor." In the case at bar, the
burning of the customs warehouse was an
extraordinary event which happened
independently of the will of the appellant. The
latter could not have foreseen the event.
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October 3, 1921
(2) The invoice value of the said twelve 8day Edmond clocks in the city of New York
was P22 and the market value of the same
in the City of Manila at the time when they
should have been delivered to the plaintiff
was P420.
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The authorities relied upon by the plaintiffappellant (the Harter Act [Act of Congress of
February 13, 1893]: Louisville Ry. Co. vs. Wynn, 88
Tenn., 320; and Galt vs. Adams Express Co., 4
McAr., 124; 48 Am. Rep., 742) support the
proposition that the first and second stipulations in
a bill of lading are invalid which either exempt the
carrier from liability for loss or damage occasioned
by its negligence, or provide for an unqualified
limitation of such liability to an agreed valuation.
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July 7, 1966
ZALDIVAR, J.:
Before the municipal court of Zamboanga City,
plaintiff-appellee Parmanand Shewaram instituted
an action to recover damages suffered by him due
to the alleged failure of defendant-appellant
Philippines Air Lines, Inc. to observe extraordinary
diligence in the vigilance and carriage of his
luggage. After trial the municipal court of
Zamboanga City rendered judgment ordering the
appellant to pay appellee P373.00 as actual
damages, P100.00 as exemplary damages,
P150.00 as attorney's fees, and the costs of the
action.
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xxx
xxx
xxx
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MELENCIO-HERRERA, J.:
In this Petition for Review by Certiorari, petitioner,
a practicing lawyer and businessman, seeks a
reversal of the Decision of the Court of Appeals in
CA-G.R. No. 45005-R, which reduced his claim for
damages for breach of contract of transportation.
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Very trul
PHILIPPIN
(Sgd) JER
Meanwhile, petitioner asked for postponement of
the hearing of Civil Case No. 1005 due to loss of his
documents, which was granted by the Court (Exhs.
"C" and "C-1"). Petitioner returned to Cebu City on
August 28, 1967. In a letter dated August 29, 1967
addressed to PAL, Cebu, petitioner called attention
to his telegram (Exh. "D"), demanded that his
luggage be produced intact, and that he be
compensated in the sum of P250,000,00 for actual
and moral damages within five days from receipt of
the letter, otherwise, he would be left with no
alternative but to file suit (Exh. "D").
Branch S
Cebu
(Exhibit G, Folder of Exhibits)
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No costs.
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SO ORDERED.
CORTES, J.:
Before the Court is a petition filed by an
international air carrier seeking to limit its liability
for lost baggage, containing promotional and
advertising materials for films to be exhibited in
Guam and the U.S.A., clutch bags, barong tagalogs
and personal belongings, to the amount specified
in the airline ticket absent a declaration of a higher
valuation and the payment of additional charges.
The undisputed facts of the case, as found by the
trial court and adopted by the appellate court, are
as follows:
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CONDITIONS OF CONTRACT
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8. BAGGAGE
LIABILITY ... The
total liability of the
Carrier for lost or
damage baggage
of the passenger is
LIMITED TO
P100.00 for each
ticket unless a
passenger declares
a higher valuation
in excess of
P100.00, but not in
excess, however, of
a total valuation of
Pl,000.00 and
additional charges
are paid pursuant
to Carrier's tariffs.
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MELENCIO-HERRERA, J.:
These two cases, both for the recovery of the value
of cargo insurance, arose from the same incident,
the sinking of the M/S ASIATICA when it caught fire,
resulting in the total loss of ship and cargo.
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limitation scheme
suffers from
internal illness,
Congress alone
must undertake the
surgery. There is, in
this regard, obvious
wisdom in the
Ninth Circuit's
conclusion in
Hartford that
technological
advancements,
whether or not
forseeable by the
COGSA
promulgators, do
not warrant a
distortion or
artificial
construction of the
statutory term
"package." A ruling
that these large
reusable metal
pieces of transport
equipment qualify
as COGSA
packages at
least where, as
here, they were
carrier owned and
supplied would
amount to just such
a distortion.
Certainly, if the
individual crates or
cartons prepared
by the shipper and
containing his
goods can rightly
be considered
"packages"
standing by
themselves, they
do not suddenly
lose that character
upon being stowed
in a carrier's
container. I would
liken these
containers to
detachable
stowage
compartments of
the ship. They
simply serve to
divide the ship's
overall cargo
stowage space into
smaller, more
serviceable loci.
Shippers' packages
are quite literally
"stowed" in the
containers utilizing
stevedoring
practices and
materials
analogous to those
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employed in
traditional on board
stowage.
(Admiralty
Litigation in
Perpetuum: The
Continuing Saga of
Package Limitations
and Third World
Delivery Problems
by Chester D.
Hooper & Keith L.
Flicker, published in
Fordham
International Law
Journal, Vol. 6,
1982-83, Number
1) (Emphasis
supplied)
2 Containers
(128) Cartons)
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NARVASA, J.:
The main issue here is whether or not the
consignee of seaborne freight is bound by
stipulations in the covering bill of lading limiting to
a fixed amount the liability of the carrier for loss or
damage to the cargo where its value is not
declared in the bill.
The factual antecedents, for the most part, are not
in dispute.
On or about January 8, 1981, Sea-Land Service, Inc.
(Sea-Land for brevity), a foreign shipping and
forwarding company licensed to do business in the
Philippines, received from Seaborne Trading
Company in Oakland, California a shipment
consigned to Sen Hiap Hing the business name
used by Paulino Cue in the wholesale and retail
trade which he operated out of an establishment
located on Borromeo and Plaridel Streets, Cebu
City.
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