PERTINENT PROVISIONS

from the Civil Code of the Philippines

Article 1163. Every person obliged to give something is also obliged to take care of it
with the proper diligence of a good father of a family, unless the law or the stipulation of
the parties requires another standard of care.
Article 1170. Those who in the performance of their obligations are guilty of fraud,
negligence, or delay, and those who in any manner contravene the tenor thereof, are liable
for damages.
Article 1174. Except in cases expressly specified by the law, or when it is otherwise

declared by stipulation, or when the nature of the obligation requires the assumption of risk, no person shall be

responsible for those events which could not be foreseen, or which, though foreseen, were inevitable.

Article 1732. Common carriers are persons, corporations, firms or associations engaged
in the business of carrying or transporting passengers for passengers or goods or both, by
land, water, or air for compensation, offering their services to the public.

Article 1732 makes no distinction between one whose principal business activity is the carrying of persons or goods

or both, and one who does such carrying only as an ancillary activity (in local idiom, as “a sideline”). Article 1732

also carefully avoids making any distinction between a person or enterprise offering transportation service on a

regular or scheduled basis and one offering such services on a an occasional, episodic or unscheduled basis. Neither

does Article 1732 distinguish between a carrier offering its services to the “general public,” i.e., the general

community or population, and one who offers services or solicits business only from a narrow segment of the

general population. Article 1733 deliberately refrained from making such distinctions.

Article 1733. Common carriers, from the nature of their business and for reasons of

public policy, are bound to observe extraordinary diligence in the vigilance over the goods and for the safety of

the passengers transported by them, according to all the circumstances for each case.

Such extraordinary diligence in vigilance over the goods is further expressed in Articles 1734, 1735, and 1745,

Nos. 5, 6, and 7, while the extraordinary diligence for the safety of the passengers is further set forth in

Articles 1755 and 1756.

Article 1734. Common carriers are responsible for the loss, destruction, or deterioration
of the goods, unless the same is due to any of the following causes only:

(1) Flood, storm, earthquake, lightning, or other natural disaster or calamity;

(2) Act of the public enemy in war, whether international or civil;

(3) Act or omission of the shipper or owner of the goods;

(4) The character of the goods or defects in the packing or in the containers;

(5) Order or act of competent public authority.