G.R No. 116863, 12 February 1998

FACTS:

Plaintiff (herein private respondent), a shipping company, is a foreign corporation licensed to do business in the Philippines. On June 29, 1982, plaintiff received at its Hong Kong terminal a sealed container, containing seventy-six bales of unsorted waste paper for shipment to defendant (herein petitioner), Keng Hua Paper Products, Co. in Manila. A bill of lading to cover the shipment was issued by the plaintiff.

On July 9, 1982, the shipment was discharged at the Manila International Container Port. Notices of arrival were transmitted to the defendant but the latter failed to discharge the shipment from the container during the free time period or grace period. The said shipment remained inside the plaintiffs container from the moment the free time period expired on July 29, 1982 until the time when the shipment was unloaded from the container on November 22, 1983, or a total of four hundred eighty-one (481) days. During the 481-day period, demurrage charges accrued. Within the same period, letters demanding payment were sent by the plaintiff to the defendant who, however, refused to settle its obligation which eventually amounted to P67,340.00. Numerous demands were made on the defendant but the obligation remained unpaid. Plaintiff thereafter commenced this civil action for collection and damages.

In its answer, defendant, by way of special and affirmative defense, alleged that it purchased fifty (50) tons of waste paper from the shipper in Hong Kong, Ho Kee Waste Paper, as manifested in Letter of Credit issued by Equitable Banking Corporation, with partial shipment permitted; that under the letter of credit, the remaining balance of the shipment was only ten (10) metric tons as shown in Invoice that the shipment plaintiff was asking defendant to accept was twenty (20) metric tons which is ten (10) metric tons more than the remaining balance; that if defendant were to accept the shipment, it would be violating Central Bank rules and regulations and custom and tariff laws; that plaintiff had no cause of action against the defendant because the latter did not hire the former to carry the merchandise; that the cause of action should be against the shipper which contracted the plaintiffs services and not against defendant; and that the defendant duly notified the plaintiff about the wrong shipment through a letter dated January 24, 1983.

ISSUE:

1. Whether or not the petitioner was bound by the bill of lading.

2. Whether or not interest may not be allowed to run from the date of private respondents extrajudicial demands on March 8, 1983 for P50,260 or on April 24, 1983 for P37,800, considering that, in both cases, there was no demand for interest.

RULING:

A bill of lading serves two functions. First, it is a receipt for the goods shipped. Second, it is a contract by which three parties, namely, the shipper, the carrier, and the consignee undertake specific responsibilities and assume stipulated obligations.

Petitioner admits that it received the bill of lading immediately after the arrival of the shipment on July 8, 1982. Having been afforded an opportunity to examine the said document, petitioner did not immediately object to or dissent from any term or stipulation therein. It was only six months later, on January 24, 1983, that petitioner sent a letter to private respondent saying that it could not accept the shipment. Petitioners inaction for such a long period conveys the clear inference that it accepted the terms and conditions of the bill of lading. Moreover, said letter spoke only of petitioner’s inability to use the delivery permit, i.e. to pick up the cargo, due to the shippers failure to comply with the terms and conditions of the letter of credit, for which reason the bill of lading and other shipping documents were returned by the banks to the shipper. The letter merely proved petitioners refusal to pick up the cargo, not its rejection of the bill of lading.

In the case at bar, the prolonged failure of petitioner to receive and discharge the cargo from the private respondent’s vessel constitutes a violation of the terms of the bill of lading. It should thus be liable for demurrage to the former.

On behalf of the interest jurisprudence teaches us:
2. When an obligation, not constituting a loan or forbearance of money, is breached, an interest on the amount of damages awarded may be imposed at the discretion of the court at the rate of 6% per annum. No interest, however, shall be adjudged on unliquidated claims or damages except when or until the demand can be established with reasonable certainty. Accordingly, where the demand is established with reasonable certainty, the interest shall begin to run from the time the claim is made judicially or extrajudicially (Art. 1169, Civil Code) but when such certainty cannot be so reasonably established at the time the demand is made, the interest shall begin to run only from the date the judgment of the court is made (at which time the quantification of damages may be deemed to have been reasonably ascertained). The actual base for the computation of legal interest shall, in any case, be on the amount finally adjudged.

3. When the judgment of the court awarding a sum of money becomes final and executory, the rate of legal interest, whether the case falls under paragraph 1 or paragraph 2, above, shall be 12% per annum from such finality until its satisfaction, this interim period being deemed to be by then an equivalent to a forbearance of credit.

The case before us involves an obligation not arising from a loan or forbearance of money; thus, pursuant to Article 2209 of the Civil Code, the applicable interest rate is six percent per annum. Since the bill of lading did not specify the amount of demurrage, and the sum claimed by private respondent increased as the days went by, the total amount demanded cannot be deemed to have been established with reasonable certainty until the trial court rendered its judgment. Indeed, (u)nliquidated damages or claims, it is said, are those which are not or cannot be known until definitely ascertained, assessed and determined by the courts after presentation of proof. Consequently, the legal interest rate is six percent, to be computed from September 28, 1990, the date of the trial court’s decision. And in accordance with Philippine Natonal Bank and Eastern Shipping, the rate of twelve percent per annum shall be charged on the total then outstanding, from the time the judgment becomes final and executory until its satisfaction.

 * Case digest by Aileen B. Buenafe, LLB-1, Andres Bonifacio Law School, SY 2017-2018