1. Tan vs. OMC Carriers Digest G.R. No. 190521: January 12, 2011
LT!C!" T"N, M#RN" MD!N", M"R!LO$ %&OONR, RO%"L!ND" T"N, an' M"R# J"N T"N, M"R# L#N T"N, CLDON!O T"N, JR., M"R# O# T"N, an' M"R( "LL"N "N, re)resente' *erein +y t*eir ot*er, LT!C!" T"N,&etitioners vs. OMC C"RR!R%, !NC. an' -ON!"C!O "R"M-"L", Res)on'ents. Respondent dent OMC Carriers Carriers owned a truck, truck, driven driven by responde respondent nt "CT%: Respon Arambala, which crashed into the home of petitioners Tan when its brakin mechanism failed. This caused the death of the head of the family, Celedonio Tan. Tan. The Tans Tans went to court to demand damaes damaes due to the nelience of OMC. OMC counters that the truck went out of control because of motor oil spilled on the road. road. The The RTC found found OMC to be liable, liable, that that the brake brake of the truck truck malfunctioned, and that there was no motor oil which caused the accident. The driver, Aramballa, abandoned the truck when the brakes did not work which caused the truck to slam into the home of the Tans. The RTC awarded actual damaes, damaes, both on the loss of property property and earnin capacity capacity of Celedonio Celedonio.. !"emplary damaes were also awarded. #pon appeal to the Court of Appeals, the actual damaes for loss of property was reduced as they were insu$ciently substantiated. The damaes for loss of earnin capacity was deleted for bein totally totally unsubstan unsubstantiate tiated. d. The Tans Tans were unable to present present documents documents to ascertain the amount of earnin capacity lost. !"emplary damaes were also reduced.
!%%$%: %hether or not& a' the reduction of actual damaes for l oss of property was proper( b' the removal of actual damaes for loss of earnin capacity was proper( and c' whether or not the reduction of e"emplary damaes was proper. /LD: The petition is partly meritorious. Civil Civil )aw& )aw& Tempera emperate te dama damaes es are are award awarded ed when when the e"act e"act amount amount of damaes is unknown. The petitioners clearly su*ered damaes. Their home and property were damaed. The provider of the family passed away. away. +t i s clear and undisputed that they did su*er losses. owever, since the value of the properties damaed could not be determined with certainty because of the nature of the property, temperate damaes are i n order. Also, even if there are no documents supportin the earnin capacity of the deceased, the damae caused caused is still still undisp undispute uted. d. Tempera emperate te dama damaes es must must be award awarded. ed. The The
reduction of e"emplary damaes are proper as e"emplary damaes are not meant to enrich or reduce another party to poverty.
Consistent with pertinent -urisprudence, the interest on these awards must be computed from the date when the RTC RTC rendered its decision in the civil case, or on une 1/, 02, as it was at this time that a 3uanti4cation of the damaes may be deemed to have been reasonably ascertained.
