1|Torts & Damages CASE NOTES (LARGO: ASSUMPTION OF RISK p84)

6. Culion Ice, Fish and Electric Co., Inc., vs Philippine Motors Corporation
Facts:
Both parties are domestic corporations. Culion ice was the registered owner of the motor schooner Gwendoline,
used in the fishing trades in the Philippine Islands. H.D. Cranston (representative of Culion ice in Manila)
contracted defendant Philippine Motors, under the supervision and directions of C.E. Quest (general manager in
charge of corporations in all its branches) to change the engine of Gwendoline from a gasoline consumer to a
crude oil burner to lessen the costs of running the boat.
Quest decided to install a new carburetor. The said appliance was installed, the engine was tried with gasoline
supplied from the tank already in use. This being successful, they introduced a baser fuel comprised of low grade
of mixed oil with distillate through a temporary tank which was placed on deck above and at a short distance from
the compartment covering the engine, connected to the carburetor by a piece of tubing not well fitted to the tank.
This caused the fuel mixture to leak from the tank and drip down to the engine compartment. During the course
of the preliminary work upon the carburetor it was observed that the carburetor was flooding, that the fuel dripped
from the carburetor to the floor. This was called to Quests attention but be brushed it aside and said that the
flooding would disappear when the engine had gotten to running well.
When the boat was taken out for a trial after preliminary experiments and adjustments, the engine stopped a few
times due to the improper mixture of fuel. As the boat was passing near Cavite, its engine stopped, and the
connection was made with the gasoline to get a new start. A backfire occurred and the carburetor, and
subsequently Gwendoline, was engulfed in flames.
CFI: Ruled in favor of Culion ice to recover damages plus interest, Phil motors appealed.
ISSUE: WHETHER OR NOT QUEST CAN BE HELD LIABLE NEGLIGENCE
HELD: YES. When a person holds himself out as being competent to do things requiring professional skill, he
will be held liable for negligence if he fails to exhibit the care and skill of one ordinarily skilled in the particular
work which he attempts to do.

Quest did not use the skill that would have been exhibited by one ordinarily expert in repairing gasoline
engines on boats : Quest had had ample experience in fixing the engines of automobiles and tractors, but it
does not appear that he was experienced in the doing of similar work on boats. For this reason, possibly the
dripping of the mixture form the tank on deck and the flooding of the carburetor did not convey to his mind an
adequate impression of the danger of fire. There was a blameworthy antecedent inadvertence to possible harm
constituting negligence.

This accident is chargeable to lack of skill or negligence in effecting the changes which Quest undertook to
accomplish;

The burning of the Gwendoline may be said to have resulted from accident, but this accident was in no sense an
unavoidable accident. It would not have occurred but for Quest's carelessness or lack of skill. The test of
liability is not whether the injury was accidental in a sense, but whether Quest was free from blame. (fire not
casus fortuitous as the origin of the same is not so inscrutable).