G.R. No. 84458, 6 November 1989, 179 SCRA 95

FACTS:

On May 11, 1975, Anacleto Viana boarded M/|V Antonio from Occidental Mindoro bound for Manila. Upon arrival on May 12, 1975, the passengers therein disembarked through a gangplank connecting the vessel to the pier. Viana, instead of disembarking through the gangplank, disembarked through the third deck, which was at the same level with the pier. An hour after the passengers disembarked, Pioneer stevedoring started to operate in unloading the cargo from the ship. Viana then went back, remembering some of his cargoes left at the vessel. At that time, while he was pointing at the crew of the vessel to where his cargoes were loaded, the crane hit him, pinning him between the crane and the side of the vessel. He was brought to the hospital where he died 3 days after (May 15). The parents of Anacleto filed a complaint against Aboitiz for breach of contract of carriage.

The trial court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs. Then both Aboitiz and Pioneer filed a motion for reconsideration, upon which the trial court issued an order absolving Pioneer from liability but not Aboitiz. On appeal, CA affirmed the trial court ruling. Hence, this petition.

ISSUE:

Whether or not Viana is still considered a passenger at the time of the incident.

HELD:

Yes. The La Mallorca case is applicable in the case at bar.

The rule is that the relation of carrier and passenger continues until the passenger has been landed at the port of destination and has left the vessel owner’s dock or premises. Once created, the relationship will not ordinarily terminate until the passenger has, after reaching his destination, safely alighted from the carrier’s conveyance or had a reasonable opportunity to leave the carrier’s premises. All persons who remain on the premises a reasonable time after leaving the conveyance are to be deemed passengers, and what is a reasonable time or a reasonable delay within this rule is to be determined from all the circumstances, and includes a reasonable time to see after his baggage and prepare for his departure. The carrier-passenger relationship is not terminated merely by the fact that the person transported has been carried to his destination if, for example, such person remains in the carrier’s premises to claim his baggage.

The reasonableness of the time should be made to depend on the attending circumstances of the case, such as the kind of common carrier, the nature of its business, the customs of the place, and so forth, and therefore precludes a consideration of the time element per se without taking into account such other factors.

Where a passenger dies or is injured, the common carrier is presumed to have been at fault or to have acted negligently. This gives rise to an action for breach of contract where all that is required of plaintiff is to prove the existence of the contract of carriage and its non-performance by the carrier, that is, the failure of the carrier to carry the passenger safely to his destination, which, in the instant case, necessarily includes its failure to safeguard its passenger with extraordinary diligence while such relation subsists.

*Case digest by Hipolito R. Bael, LLB-III, Andres Bonifacio Law School, SY 2018-2019