Damages recoverable from common carriers; Actual or compensatory The Alcantara case is not applicable because none of the
plicable because none of the parties questioned
G.R. No. VILLA REY TRANSIT v. CA the propriety of the four-year basis; what was questioned was the amount in that the
CONCEPCION original award did not include the bonus that the victim’s employer awarded to deserving
officers and employees. It had nothing to do with the length of time.
Policronio died in a vehicular accident. His heirs sued the company of the bus he was riding, Life expectancy is an important element in fixing the amount recoverable. It is
and the bus company contested the amount of damages assessed. The Court determined not the sole determinant, but there is no reason to disregard it. On the other hand, the 4-
the proper damages, resulting in an award lower than that originally assessed (but still higher year rule is purely arbitrary.
than if the bus company had had its way).
II. Rate at which the damages will be computed: Policronio’s yearly salary as a training
assistant less necessary living expenses
DOCTRINE Villa Rey argues that he is erroneously being made to pay all damages at once when most of
[T]here can be no exact or uniform rule for measuring the value of a human life and the the damages sought to be indemnified (loss of income) will be suffered years later. The SC agrees,
measure of damages cannot be arrived at by precise mathematical calculation, but the but this is offset by the fact that the liability of Villa Rey has been fixed at the rate of P2,184 per
amount recoverable depends on the particular facts and circumstances of each case. year. This was the annual salary of Quintos as a training assistant in Bacnotan Cement Industries,
Inc. at the time of his death. In other words, the RTC and CA did not consider Policronio’s capacity
to increase his future income. He was under training and would have received a better job and
FACTS promotions from time to time, and stood to earn much more.
1. 1:30AM, March 17, 1960: Policronio Quintos was on the first seat, second row, right The award should not, however, consist of Policronio’s full salary, as the damages sustained
side of an Isuzu First Class passenger bus owned by Villa Rey Transit. He was a are the support they would have earned from him had he lived. So it should be his salary less the
paying passenger. necessary expenses for his own living.
2. 4:55AM: Nearing a bridge on the national highway in Barrio Sto. Domingo, P100 a month should be deducted, so the loss sustained by the sisters may be roughly
municipality of Minalin, Pampanga, the vehicle frontally hit the rear side of a bullcart estimated at P1,000 a year or P33,333.33 for the 33.33 years of his life expectancy.
filled with hay. A bamboo pole on top of the hay and tied to the cart, extending 8ft So:
from the rear, pierced the windshield and landed on Quintos’s face.
a. P33,333.33 – loss of earnings
3. The pole landed on Quintos’s left eye and fractured the bone of the left side of his
plus P12,000 – pursuant to Art. 104 and 107 of the RPC and 2206 of NCC
face. He also suffered a severe cerebral concussion.
4. A La Mallorca bus going the other way was stopped by a patrolman who went to b. P1,727.95 – medical and burial expenses
investigate. It took Quintos and three injured bullcart riders aboard and brought them c. P2,500 - attorney’s fees
to the provincial hospital of San Fernando, Pampanga. Quintos died that day. Aggregate: P49,561.28 with legal interest
5. Respondents, the Quintos sisters, (Trinidad, Prima, and Julita) are Policronio’s only
surviving heirs (he died single, without descendants or ascendants). DISPOSITIVE PORTION
6. The Quintos sisters sued Villa Rey for damages for berach of contract of carriage. Decision modified. Costs against Villa Rey.
Villa Rey interposed the defense of fortuitous event, but the RTC and CA rejected it,
ruling that the death was due to the negligence of the bus driver.
7. RTC: The complaint alleged a total damage of P63,700, but elsewhere shown in the DIGESTER: Gabi Timbancaya
decision, the damages for wake and burial expenses, loss of income, death of the
victim, and attorney’s fees reach the aggregate of P79,615.95. Damages assessed:
P63,750, as prayed for. The CA affirmed.
8. The present review on certiorari questions only the amount of damages recoverable.
ISSUE with HOLDING
What should the amount of damages be? P49,561.28 with legal interest.
Factors: (1) number of years to be used as basis, and (2) rate at which the losses
sustained should be fixed.
I. Number of years: life expectancy or 4 years? – Life expectancy
Life expectancy: 33 1/3 years.
Policronio was over 29, round up ~ 30 2/3 x 80 – <age: 30> = life expectancy
^ this was the computation of the RTC and the CA, following the American
Expectancy Table of Mortality or the actuarial of Combined Experience Table of Mortality.
Villa Rey says that the courts erred in not acting in accordance with Alcantara v.
Surro in which damages were computed on a 4-year basis. (In Alcantara, the victim was
39 at the time of his death, and had a life expectancy of 28.90 years).
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