Republic of the Philippines

National Capital Judicial Region

REGIONAL TRIAL COURT
Branch 86, Manila

NATIONAL SUPPLIES CORPORATION

and NATIONAL TRUCKING
CORPORATION
Plaintiffs,

Civil Case No.

62709
-versus-

ALLIED SHIPPING CORP.,

Defendant.

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DECISION

This is an action for damages filed by National Supplies

Corporation (NSC) and National Trucking Corporation (NTC)
against Allied Shipping Corporation (Allied Shipping) for the
alleged breach of contract of carriage and failure to deliver
the 5,824 bags of non-fat dried milk to NSAs consignee, the
NTC.

Stipulated Facts

During the pre-trial, the parties stipulated on the following

facts:

1. On April 20, 2003, NSC and CARE entered into an

Agreement under which they undertook to continue a
Food Assistance Program.
2. In order to comply such Agreement, NSC engaged the
services of NTC to receive and store the commodities
including the transshipments and deliveries to various
beneficiaries.
3. Accordingly, NTC shipped Five Thousand Eight Hundred
Twenty Four (5,824) bags of non-fat dried milk to its
consignee Hassan Salim, NTC Branch, Zamboaga City,
thru various vessels of the common carrier, defendant

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Allied Shipping which issued the corresponding Bills of
Lading in favor of NTC.

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 The Evidence of the Parties

Vicente Tuason, NSAs manager, testified that they engaged

the services of Allied Shipping to ship the commodities to its
consignee, the NTC, upon presentation of the latter the
corresponding bill of lading to Allied Shipping issued by NSC
to NTC representative namely, Mr. Hassan Salim. NTC is still
in possession of the consignees copy of the bill of lading
covering the commodities because they were not received
by Salim. However, salim had no letter explaining why he
was returning the bill of lading to NSC.

Ruiz who is in charge of relief operations testified that Salim

allegedly reported by telephone call the non-delivery of the
said commodities to supervisor Leonora Sotto, who was in
charge of shipping but is no longer connected with the NTC.
However, they did not require Salim to report in writing the
non-delivery of the commodities.

Atty. Gregorio Lantana, the claim insurance manager of NTC,

testified that he went to Zamboanga City and conferred with
Hassan salim, Branch Supervisor of their Zamboanga Office.
Salim informed Lantana that he did not receive the shipment
and showed the original copies of the bill of lading. Lantana
then went to Allied Shipping and the latters representative
told him that the goods were already withdrawn by Salim but
he could not produce any receipt signed by Salim. Lantana
made investigations with Salim but he insisted to him that
he did not withdraw the goods from Allied Shipping. Salim
postponed the investigation the following day, however,
Salim did not appear and, instead, send somebody to submit
his signed resignation to him. Lantana conferred to Allied
Shippings representative and they insisted that the goods
were already withdrawn by Salim. They gave xerox copies of
the cargo delivery receipts which did not bear the signature
of Salim since Lantana knew of Salims signature. Not
satisfied with the first investigation, Lantana made further
investigations. After talking to the checker of Allied Shipping,
he wanted to test the credibility of Salim whose credibility he
doubted to some extent. Lantana never saw Salim again
after receiving his resignation. Allied Shipping checker gave
him copies of the cargo delivery receipts showing that Salim
received the goods.

The defendant presented Ricardo Samson as witness who is

a delivery checker and took care of the delivery of cargoes
from the port to the consignee or his authorized

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representative. He testified that he knows NTC and made
deliveries to Hassan Salim whom he had known personally
since 1998. Samson had the original and xerox copies of the
cargo delivery receipts as proof of the deliveries he made to
Salim from October to December 2003. Also, he has other
original delivery receipts but they got lost because their
office was renovated and allrecords were placed temporarily
in boxes and cannot be located despite diligent efforts.
Samson presented various cargo delivery receipts
evidencing the actual delivery made by Allied Shipping to
NTC with signatures of Hassan Salim, Lito Asis (another
representative of NTC) and other whom Samson cannot
identify. Upon presentation of a certified true copy of the bill
of lading stamped Please Release by the person carrying it,
Samson had no doubt in releasing the cargo to such person.

Ismael Zamora, second witness for the defendant, testified

that he has been a delivery and release checker since 1986
to present and he knows NTC which frequently shipped
goods through Allied Shipping. Zamora asserts that from
October 2003 to January 2004 they handled similar
shipments of non-fat dried milk and delivered those cargoes
to Hassan Salim who received the cargoes himself. He saw
Salim personally receive the cargoes for every delivery
made. After the deliveries, Salim either sign personally or
made his companion sign the delivery receipts. Zamora
contends that Hassan Salim was present all the time during
the deliveries and there were times when Salim did not sign
the delivery receipts because sometimes he went to attend
some important appointments and left before the deliveries
were completed and just directed his subordinates to sign for
him.

Atty. Ariel M. Luna, third witness for the defendant and who
is the corporate secretary and administrative head of Allied
Shipping, testified that thru Artemio Carpio, head of claims
department, investigated and wrote a letter to NTC informing
him that the 5,824 bags of milk were delivered to the
consignee Hassan Salim. Luna contends that the filing of this
case affected the business credibility of the defendant and
brought hardship in soliciting business.

The Issue

The case presents the following issues:

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 1. Whether Allied Shipping was able to deliver the cargo to
the consignee Mr. Hassan Salim of NTC.

2. Whether the parties are entitled to damages and

attorneys fees.

Discussion

From the evidence adduced by the parties during the trial, it

appears that Hassan Salim was the consignee named in all
the bills of lading. Hassan personally attended the deliveries,
there were times when, although present, he had to leave in
order to allegedly attend other appointments and authorized
his subordinates to continue receiving the deliveries and to
sign the corresponding delivery receipts.

Ricardo Samson and Ismael Zamora, who were there,

attested to the presence of Hassan Salim when Allied
Shipping made its deliveries to NTC. NSC and NTC never
effectively rebutted these. They utterly failed to present
Hassan Salim to refute or deny the allegations if they were
not true. Hence, the delivery of the commodities in question
by Allied Shipping to NTC is established.

Also, NTCs witness, Atty. Gregorio Lantana, testified that

when he conducted investigation, he doubted the credibility
of Salim due to the latters hesitance to answer his
questions. And, instead of Salims appearing for further
investigation, he sent somebody else to submit his
resignation letter and Atty, Lantana never saw Salim
anymore.

Furthermore, why was Salim allowed to resign? Why were

administrative charges not filed against him? And why was
he not included as a party defendant in this case so that the
plaintiffs could have recovered damages for him?

Considering the evidence presented, the plaintiff have failed

to prove their causes of action by clear preponderance of
evidence. Hence, there complaint must be dismissed.

WHEREFORE, judgment is rendered in favor of the

defendant, plaintiffs complaint is dismissed and is ordered
to pay defendant jointly and solidarily the amount of
50,000 for actual damages and 70,000 for attorneys fees
plus the costs of the suit.

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SO ORDERED.

Manila, May 14, 2008.

JOHN MARK B. RAGUINDIN

16-07301
Judge

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