PHOENIX CONSTRUCTION, and ARMANDO U. CARBONEL vs THE INTERMEDIATE APPELLATE COURT and LEONARDO DIONISIO

G.R. No. L-65295 March 10, 1987

FACTS:

Respondent Leonardo Dionisio was driving on his way home from a cocktail-and-dinner party, from which he had a “shot or two” of liquor.  He had just crossed the intersection of General Lacuna and General Santos Streets at Bangkal, Makati when allegedly his car headlights suddenly failed.

He switched his headlights on "bright" and saw a Ford dump truck looming some 2-1/2 meters away from his car. The dump truck, owned by and registered in the name of petitioner Phoenix Construction Inc. ("Phoenix"), was parked on the right hand side of General Lacuna Street, facing the oncoming traffic. It also did not have any lights nor any so-called "early warning" reflector devices.

Dionisio claimed that he tried to avoid a collision by swerving his car to the left but it was too late and his car smashed into the dump truck. Due to the event therefore the herein private respondent filed an action for Damages on the grounds that the legal and proximate cause of his injuries was the negligent manner in which Phoenix had allowed its truck to be parked.

Petitioners’ defense: that the proximate cause of Dionisio's injuries was his own recklessness in driving fast at the time of the accident, while under the influence of liquor, without his headlights on and without a curfew pass. Phoenix also sought to establish that it had exercised due rare in the selection and supervision of the dump truck driver.

The petitioners Phoenix and Carbonel contend that if there was negligence in the manner in which the dump truck was parked, that negligence was merely a "passive and static condition" and that private respondent Dionisio's recklessness constituted an intervening, efficient cause determinative of the accident and the injuries he sustained.

Trial court rendered judgment in favor of Dionisio and against Phoenix and Carbonel.

Intermediate Appellate Court confirmed.

ISSUE:

Whether or not Phoenix’s negligence is the proximate cause?

HELD:

YES.

We agree with the Court of First Instance and the Intermediate Appellate Court that the legal and proximate cause of the accident and of Dionisio's injuries was the wrongful — or negligent manner in which the dump truck was parked in other words, the negligence of petitioner Carbonel. That there was a reasonable relationship between petitioner Carbonel's negligence on the one hand and the accident and respondent's injuries on the other hand, is quite clear. Put in a slightly different manner, the collision of Dionisio's car with the dump truck was a natural and foreseeable consequence of the truck driver's negligence.

The truck driver's negligence far from being a "passive and static condition" was rather an indispensable and efficient cause. The collision between the dump truck and the private respondent's car would in an probability not have occurred had the dump truck not been parked askew without any warning lights or reflector devices.

We hold that private respondent Dionisio's negligence was "only contributory," that the "immediate and proximate cause" of the injury remained the truck driver's "lack of due care" and that consequently respondent Dionisio may recover damages though such damages are subject to mitigation by the courts (Article 2179, Civil Code of the Philippines).

Turning to the award of damages and taking into account the comparative negligence of private respondent Dionisio on one hand and petitioners Carbonel and Phoenix upon the other hand, 17 we believe that the demands of substantial justice are satisfied by allocating most of the damages on a 20-80 ratio.