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By William B. Depasupil Reporter
AFTER 12 years of litigation, a
former law student of the Far Eastern University (FEU) has finally
achieved justice following a Supreme Court (SC) decision finding the
university and its hired security agency liable for damages from his
accidental shooting inside the school campus.
In a 13-page decision penned by
Justice Consuelo Yñares-Santiago, the SC’s third division ordered
FEU and its security agency, the Galaxy Management and Development
Corp. (Galaxy), to pay Joseph Saludaga almost P1 million in damages.
It reversed and set aside an
earlier ruling by the Court of Appeals (CA), which dismissed
Saludaga’s complaint for damages against FEU and its former
president, Edilberto de Jesus for breach of the school’s
obligation to provide students with a safe and secure learning
atmosphere.
The High Court found FEU liable
for damages under Article 1170 of the Civil Code, which penalizes
those negligent in the performance of their obligations.
De Jesus, on the other hand, was
cleared of liabilities by the Court for being a separate and
distinct personality from FEU, ruling that corporate officers cannot
be held personally liable for the liabilities of their corporation
except under certain conditions, which were not established in the
case.
The Court also ordered Galaxy and
its president, Mariano Imperial, to jointly and severally pay FEU
damages equivalent to the amount awarded to Saludaga. Imperial and
Galaxy were found guilty of gross negligence in running the affairs
of the security agency.
Records show that in 1996,
Saludaga was accidentally shot by security guard Alejandro Rosete
inside the school premises. This prompted the former to file a
complaint for damages before Branch 2 of the Manila Regional Trial
Court.
FEU, in turn, filed a Third-Party
Complaint against Galaxy to indemnify FEU for whatever damages would
be awarded to Saludaga. Galaxy then filed a Fourth-Party Complaint
against AFP General Insurance.
In 2004, the trial court ruled in
favor of Saludaga, ordering FEU and De Jesus, in his capacity as FEU
president, to pay the complainant jointly and severally P935,298.25
in actual, moral, and exemplary damages, attorney’s fees and the
cost of the suit.
The trial court also ordered
Galaxy to indemnify jointly and severally the university and de
Jesus for the same amount. The complaint against AFP General
Insurance, meanwhile, was dismissed.
But the appellate court reversed
the RTC’s decision in favor of FEU and De Jesus, prompting
Saludaga to elevate his case to the High Tribunal.
In its decision, the High Court
held that FEU breached the school-student contract for its failure
to undertake steps to ascertain that security guards assigned in the
campus possess the required qualifications.
“Total reliance on the security
agency about these matters or failure to check the papers stating
the qualifications of the guards is negligence on the part of
respondents. A learning institution should not be allowed to
completely relinquish or abdicate security matters in its premises
to the security agency it hired. To do so would result to
contracting away its inherent obligation to ensure a safe learning
environment for its students,” said the SC.
It likewise dismissed FEU’s
defense that the shooting incident was a fortuitous event they could
not have reasonably foreseen nor avoided, as the security guard who
shot Saludaga was not a school employee.
The Court held that a fortuitous
event does not exempt one from liability “when the effect is found
to be partly the result of a person’s participation—whether by
active intervention, neglect, or failure to act—[as] the whole
occurrence is then humanized and removed from the rules applicable
to acts of God.”
The Court also found Galaxy
negligent in the selection and supervision of its employees, as
supported by the lack of administrative sanction against Rosete, who
was instead allowed to go on leave after the shooting incident and
who later disappeared without a trace.
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