Singson v. CA

Facts:

Carlos Singson and his cousin Crescentino Tiongson bought 2 identically routed, round-trip tickets from Cathay Pacific. Each ticket consisted of 5 coupons, and the procedure is that one coupn will be detached from the booklet at every start of the flight. The two left Manila on June 6, 1988. On July 1, 1988, Singson’s coupon corresponding to the San Francisco-Hongkong trip was found to be missing. Instead, what was there is the ticket for Los Angeles-San Francisco, which was supposed to be already detached. It was only on July 6 that the airline company arranged for his flight back to Manila. Singson filed a complaint for damages. The trial court ruled in his favor, but the decision was reversed by the Court of Appeals.

Issues:

(1) Whether a breach of contract was committed by Cathay when it failed to confirm the booking of petitioner for its July 1 flight

(2) Whether the carrier was liable not only for actual, but also for moral and exemplary damages

Held:

(1) CATHAY undoubtedly committed a breach of contract when it refused to confirm petitioner's flight reservation back to the Philippines on account of his missing flight coupon. Its contention that there was no contract of carriage that was breached because petitioner's ticket was open-dated is untenable. To begin with, the round trip ticket issued by the carrier to the passenger was in itself a complete written contract by and between the carrier and the passenger. It has all the elements of a complete written contract, to wit: (a) the consent of the contracting parties manifested by the fact that the passenger agreed to be transported by the carrier to and from Los Angeles via San Francisco and Hongkong back to the Philippines, and the carrier's acceptance to bring him to his destination and then back home; (b) cause or consideration, which was the fare paid by the passenger as stated in his ticket; and, (c) object, which was the transportation of the passenger from the place of departure to the place of destination and back, which are also stated in his ticket.

Interestingly, it appears that CATHAY was responsible for the loss of the ticket. One of two (2) things may be surmised from the circumstances of this case: first, US Air (CATHAY's agent) had mistakenly detached the San Francisco-Hongkong flight coupon thinking that it was the San Francisco-Los Angeles portion; or, second, petitioner's booklet of tickets did not from issuance include a San Francisco-Hongkong flight coupon. In either case, the loss of the coupon was attributed to the negligence of CATHAY's agents and was the proximate cause of the non-confirmation of petitioner's return flight on 1 July 1988. It virtually prevented petitioner from demanding the fulfillment of the carrier's obligations under the contract.

(2) Although the rule is that moral damages predicated upon a breach of contract of carriage may only be recoverable in instances where the mishap results in the death of a passenger, or where the carrier is guilty of fraud or bad faith, there are situations where the negligence of the carrier is so gross and reckless as to virtually amount to bad faith, in which case, the passenger likewise becomes entitled to recover moral damages. To be stranded for five (5) days in a foreign land because of an air carrier's negligence is too exasperating an experience for a plane passenger. For sure, petitioner underwent profound distress and anxiety, not to mention the worries brought by the thought that he did not have enough money to sustain himself, and the embarrassment of having been forced to seek the generosity of relatives and friends.

Private respondent's mistake in removing the wrong coupon was compounded by several other independent acts of negligence above-enumerated. Taken together, they indubitably signify more than ordinary inadvertence or inattention and thus constitute a radical departure from the extraordinary standard of care required of common carriers. Put differently, these circumstances reflect the carrier's utter lack of care and sensitivity to the needs of its passengers, clearly constitutive of gross negligence, recklessness and wanton disregard of the rights of the latter, acts evidently indistinguishable or no different from fraud, malice and bad faith. As the rule now stands, where in breaching the contract of carriage the defendant airline is shown to have acted fraudulently, with malice or in bad faith, the award of moral and exemplary damages, in addition to actual damages, is proper. In the instant case, the injury suffered by petitioner is not so serious or extensive as to warrant an award amounting to P900,000.00. The assessment of P200,000.00 as moral damages and P50,000.00 as exemplary damages in his favor is, in our view, reasonable and realistic.