Torts and Damages Midterms)

TORTS and DAMAGES (Reviewer for Midterms)Atty. Galahad Pe Benito

Articles 19, 20 & 21

19. Every person must, in the exercise of his rights and in the performance of his duties, act with justice, give everyone his due, and observe honesty and good faith.

(INTENTIONAL)

* exercise of rights entails corresponding duties.

* law frowns on abuse of rights.

20. Every person who, contrary to law, willfully or negligently causes damage to another, shall indemnify the latter for the same.

(may be NON-intentional)

* covers all legal (not moral) wrongs.

21. any person who willfully causes loss or injury to another in a manner that is contrary to morals, good customs or public policy shall compensate the latter for the damage.

(INTENTIONAL)

*willfully and contrary to morals, good customs or public policy.

*unlike Art. 20, either willfully or negligently and is contrary to law.

Nuisance

Article 694, Civil Code

- Injures or endangers the health or safety of others.

- Annoys or offends the senses- Shocks, defies or disregards decency or

morality- Obstructs or interferes with the free

passage of any public highway or street, or any body of water

- Hinders or impairs the use of property

Nuisance – incapable of exact and exhaustive definition.

- Derived from French “Nuire”- Literally – annoyance or anything that

works hurt, inconvenience, or injury.

Abatement of Nuisance:

Nuisance per se – affects the immediate safety of persons and property.

- May be summarily abated under the undefined law of necessity.

Nuisance per accidens

- Even the municipal authorities, no right to abate.

- Must comply with due process: Notice and Hearing (Monteverde v. Generoso)

Doctrine of Attractive Nuisance

- Dangerous instrumentalities or appliances likely to attract children at play.

Concept of Negligence

Negligence – failure to observe the protection of the interests of another person, that degree of care, precaution and vigilance which the circumstances justly demand, whereby such other person suffers injury.

Presumption of Contractual Negligence

- Where the source of the obligation is derived from a contract, the mere breach or non-fulfillment of the prestation gives rise to the presumption of fault on the part of the obligor.

DEFENSES OF ACTIONS BASED ON NEGLIGENCE

1. Emergency Rule2. Assumption of Risk

©Manuel Rodriguez II (2011)FEU – Institute of Law


- “volenti non fit injuria” – specie of assumption of risk

- “to which a person assents is not esteemed in law as injury”

- Consented to the act complained3. Contributory Negligence

Fortuituous Event

- Any event which cannot be foreseen, or which foreseen, is inevitable.

GR: Obligation is extinguishedXPNS:LAW1) Fraud, negligence or delay, or

contravention of the tenor.2) Deliver the same (thing) to two or

more persons…3) Proceeds from a crime4) Generic object

STIPULATION – freedom of contract

NATURE – assumption of risk. E.g: insurance

DOCTRINE OF ASSUMPTION OF RISK

- Complete defense by the defendant in a quasi – delict action.

- Voluntarily assumes a risk of harm from the negligent conduct.

CONCEPT OF PROXIMATE CAUSE

- Any cause which in natural and continuous sequence, unbroken by any efficient intervening cause, produces the result complained of and without which would not have occurred and from which it ought to have been foreseen or reasonably anticipated by a person of ordinary case that the injury complained of or some similar injury would result therefrom as a natural and probable consequence. (Pilipinas Bank v. Court of Appeals)

DOCTRINE OF CONTRIBUTORY NEGLIGENCE

- Conduct on the part of the injured party, contributing as a legal cause to the harm he has suffered, which falls below the standard to which he is required to conform for his own protection. (Valenzuela v. CA) Shall reduce the damages that he

may recover

DOCTRINE OF COMPARATIVE NEGLIGENCE

- Modification of “Contributory Negligence.”

- Comparison is made in terms of the degree of the negligence of the plaintiff and that of the defendant and the amount of damages recoverable.

- This is considered more equitable system of apportioning liability for damages.

DOCTRINE OF LAST CLEAR CHANCE

- Where it appears that the defendant, by exercising reasonable care and prudence, might have avoided injurious consequences to the plaintiff notwithstanding the plaintiff’s negligence.

- A person who has the last clear chance or opportunity of avoiding an accident, notwithstanding the negligent acts of his opponent.

- This doctrine of common law was imported into our jurisdiction by Picart v. Smith but it is a matter for debate whether, or to what extent, it has found its way into the Civil Code of the Philippines.

- It is difficult to see what role, if any, the common law last clear chance doctrine has to play in a jurisdiction where



contributory negligence as an absolute bar to recovery has itself been rejected. (Phoenix v. IAC)

- Phoenix v. IAC – seemingly rejected the principle of last clear chance.

DOCTRINE OF “ RES IPSA LOQUITUR”

- Latin “the thing, or transaction speaks for itself.”

Requisites:

- Accident is of a kind which ordinarily does not occur in the absence of someone’s negligence.

- Caused by an instrumentality within the exclusive control of the defendant or defendants; and

- The possibility of contributing conduct which would make the plaintiff responsible is eliminated.

EMERGENCY RULE

- Person placed in an unexpected danger and compelled to act instantly and instinctively with no time for reflection and exercise of the required precaution, is not guilty of negligence and, therefore, exempt from liability.

STANDARD OF CARE for PROFESSIONALS

- In cases involving professionals, the rule is that compliance with custom insulates the defendant from liability, and failure to comply with custom is malpractice.

4 Elements of Medical Malpractice: Duty, Breach, Injury, Proximate Causation (Reyes v. Sisters of Mercy Hospital)


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Torts and Damages Midterms)