Law School Noob: [CASE DIGEST] Darang v. Belizar (G.R. No. L-19487)

Tuesday, November 9, 2021

[CASE DIGEST] Darang v. Belizar (G.R. No. L-19487)

January 31, 1967

FACTS:

Rosario Darang is a holder of a certificate of public convenience to maintain a bus transportation line between MacArthur-Balangiga and MacArthur-Guiuan in Samar.

Pedro Ty Belizar is engaged in the public utitlity business for transportation and freight by means of trucks between several towns in Samar, but not on the MacArthur-Balangiga line.

By a decision of the Public Service Commission (PSC), Andres Salamida was authorized to maintain bus transportation lines on the MacArthur-Balangiga and MacArthur-Guiuan lines.

Darang filed a complaint with the PSC against Belizar for encroaching on her line without authority to do so.

Darang also instituted a civil case before CFI-Samar alleging that Belizar violated Darang’s cert. of public convenience and connived with Salamida in illegally operating and soliciting passengers and cargoes along the lines of Gen. MacArthur, Quinapundan, Giporlos, and Balangiga in spite of frequent prohibitions by the PSC;

CFI Samar held that Salamida failed to register the trucks allegedly bought from Belizar, that the supposed certificates of registration are null and void for not having been properly accomplished, and that in PSC records, the trucks are registered under the names of Belizar and Salamida which shows that the deeds of sale are fictitious.

A petition for review and certiorari with preliminary injunction was filed in the SC on the ground that the oppositors were not given the chance to present surrebuttal evidence in the PSC case.

ISSUE:

Whether the previous approval of PSC is a condition precedent for sale of the trucks. – NO.

Whether moral damages can be awarded to the plaintiff even though no claim for moral damages is included in the complaint. – NO.

HELD:

Sec. 16(h) of Act 3108 provides that the sale without the approval of the Public Utility Commission was declared null and void; under the new law (CA 146), the sale may not be only be negotiated but also completed before said approval.

This analysis would not alter the lower court’s decision that the sale of the trucks is null and void for other reasons, which are not questioned in this appeal.

On moral damages:

In order that moral damages may be awarded, there must be a pleading and proof of moral suffering, mental anguish, fright and the like.

The general prayer in the complaint for “other remedies which may be just and equitable in the premises” warrants the award of P3,000 in favor of the plaintiff in the form of exemplary damages only.

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