G.R. No. L-8095, 31 March 1915, 31 Phil 1

FACTS:

Plaintiff is a stockholder in the Yangco Steamship Company, the owner of a large number of steam vessels, duly licensed to engage in the coastwise trade of the Philippine Islands; that on or about June 10, 1912, the directors of the company adopted a resolution which was thereafter ratified and affirmed by the shareholders of the company, “expressly declaring and providing that the classes of merchandise to be carried by the company in its business as a common carrier do not include dynamite, powder or other explosives, and expressly prohibiting the officers, agents and servants of the company from offering to carry, accepting for carriage said dynamite, powder or other explosives;”
Thereafter the respondent Acting Collector of Customs demanded and required of the company the acceptance and carriage of such explosives; that he has refused and suspended the issuance of the necessary clearance documents of the vessels of the company unless and until the company consents to accept such explosives for carriage

ISSUE:

Whether the refusal of the owners and officers of a steam vessel, duly licensed to engage in the coastwise trade of the Philippine Islands and engaged in that trade as a common carrier, to accept for carriage “dynamite, powder or other explosives” is a valid act.

RULING:

The traffic in dynamite gun powder and other explosive is vitally essential to the material and general welfare of the inhabitants of this islands and it these products are to continue in general use throughout the Philippines they must be transported from water to port to port in various island which make up the Archipelago.

It follows that a refusal by a particular vessel engage as a common carrier of merchandise in coastwise trade in the Philippine Island to accept such explosives for carriage constitutes a violation. The prohibition against discrimination penalized under the statute, unless it can be shown that there is so Real and substantial danger of disaster necessarily involved in the courage of any or all of this article of merchandise as to render such refusal a due or unnecessary or a reasonable exercise or prudence and discretion on the part of the ship owner

*Case digest by Ana Azalea O. Adraincem, LLB-IV, Andres Bonifacio Law School, S.Y 2018-2019