APPLICABILITY
(1) All international carriage of persons, baggage, or cargo performed by aircraft for reward.
(2) Gratuitous carriage by aircraft performed by an air transport undertaking (Art. 1, No. 1, WC)
INTERNATIONAL AIR TRANSPORTATION
Transportation by air between points of contact of two high contracting parties, or those countries that have acceded to the Convention, wherein the place of departure and the place of destination are situated:
(1) Within the territories of two High Contracting Parties regardless of whether or not there be a break in the transportation or a transshipment; OR
(2) Within the territory of a single High Contracting Party if there is an agreed stopping place within a territory subject to the sovereignty, mandate or authority of another power, even though the power is not a party to the Convention. (Sec. 1, No. 2, WC)
A carriage to be performed by several successive air carriers is deemed, for the purposes of this Convention, to be one undivided carriage, if it has been regarded by the parties as a single operation, whether it had been agreed upon under the form of a single contract or of a series of contracts. (Sec.
1, No. 3, WC)
PERIOD COVERED
The period during which the baggage or goods are in charge of the carrier, whether in an airport or on board an aircraft, or, in the case of a landing outside an airport, in any place whatsoever. (Sec. 18, WC)
LIABILITY OF CARRIER FOR DAMAGES
(1) Death or injury of a passenger if the accident causing it took place
(a) on board the aircraft,
(b) in the course of the operations of embarking, (c) in the course of disembarking, or
(d) when there was delay (Sec. 17 and 19, WC);
(2) Destruction, loss, or damage to any baggage or goods that are checked in, if damage occurred
(a) during the transportation by air, or (b) when there was delay (Sec. 18 and 19, WC)
Transportation by air is the period during which the baggage or goods are in the charge of the carrier whether in an airport or on board an aircraft, or in case of a landing outside an airport, in any place whatsoever. (Sec. 18, WC) (3) Delay in the transport by air of passengers, baggage or
goods.
LIMITATION OF LIABILITY
LIABILITY TO PASSENGERS
General rule: 250,000 francs per passenger
Exception: Agreement to a higher limit (Art. 22(1), WC)
LIABILITY FOR CHECKED BAGGAGE
General rule: 250 francs per kg
Exception: In case of special declaration of value and payment of a supplementary sum by consignor, carrier is liable to not more than the declared sum unless it proves the sum is greater than actual value. (Art. 22(2), WC)
LIABILITY FOR HAND-CARRIED BAGGAGE
General rule: 5,000 francs per passenger (Art. 22(3), WC) (1) An agreement relieving the carrier from liability or fixing
a lower limit is null and void. (Art. 23, WC)
(2) Carrier is not entitled to the foregoing limit if the damage is caused by willful misconduct or default on its part. (Art. 25)
(3) The right to damages under the WC is extinguished after 2 years from the date of arrival at the destination or from the date on which the aircraft ought to have arrived, or from the date on which the carriage stopped.
(Art. 29(1), WC)
Note: The Guatemala Protocol of 1971 increased the limit for passengers to $100,000 and $1,000 for baggage. However, the Supreme Court noted in Santos III v. Northwest Orient Airlines, G.R. No. 101538, June 23, 1992, that the Guatemala Protocol is still ineffective. (Sundiang and Aquino)
The WC should be deemed a limit of liability only in those cases where the cause of death or injury to person, or destruction, loss or damage to property or delay in its transport is not attributable to or attended by any willful misconduct, bad faith, recklessness, or otherwise improper conduct on the part of any official or employee for which the carrier is responsible; and there is otherwise no special or extraordinary form of resulting injury. (Alitalia v. CA) WILLFUL MISCONDUCT
When can a common carrier not avail itself of this limitation?
(1) Willful misconduct (Art. 25, WC)
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(2) Default amounting to willful misconduct (Art. 25, WC) (3) Accepting passengers without ticket (Art. 3, No. 2, WC) (4) Accepting goods without airway bill or baggage without
baggage check. Carrier guilty of willful misconduct cannot avail of the provisions limiting liability but may still invoke other provisions of the WC. (see Art. 25) Receipt by the person entitled to the delivery of baggage or cargo without complaint is prima facie evidence that the same have been delivered in good condition and in accordance with the document of carriage. (Art. 26, WC).
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Corporation
DEFINITION
A corporation is an artificial being created by operation of law, having the right of succession and the powers, attributes, and properties expressly authorized by law or incident to its existence. (Sec. 2, unless otherwise indicated, all sections cited herein are from B.P. 68, or the Corporation Code)
ATTRIBUTES OF THE CORPORATION
AN ARTIFICIAL BEING
A corporation exists by fiction of law. Hence, it can act only through its directors, officers and employees.
Being only a juridical entity, the physical acts of the corporation, like the signing of documents, can be performed only by natural persons duly authorized for the purpose by corporate by-laws or by a special act of the Board of Directors (Shipside, Inc. v. Court of Appeals, 2001).
Notes:
(1) Moral Damages – cannot be awarded in favor of corporations because they do not have feelings and mental state. They may not even claim moral damages for besmirched reputation (NAPOCOR v. Philipp Brothers Oceanic, 2001).However, a corporation can recover moral damages under Art 2219 (7) if it was the victim of defamation (Pilipinas Broadcasting Network v. Ago Medical and Educational Center, 2005).
(2) Criminal Liability – Since a corporation as a person is a mere legal fiction, it cannot be proceeded against criminally because it cannot commit a crime in which personal violence or malicious intent is required.
Criminal action is limited to the corporate agents guilty of an act amounting to a crime and never against the corporation itself (West Coast Life Ins. Co. v. Hurd [1914], Time Inc. v. Reyes, 1971)
(2) Doctrine of Separate Personality: A corporation, upon coming into existence, is invested by law with a personality separate and distinct from those persons composing it as well as from any other legal entity to which it may be related. (Yutivo Sons Hardware v. CTA, 1961)
CREATED BY OPERATION OF LAW
Mere consent of the parties to form a corporation is not sufficient. The State must give its consent either through a special law (in case of government corporations) or a general law (i.e., Corporation Code in case of private corporations).
A corporation comes into existence upon the issuance of the certificate of incorporation. Then and only then will it acquire juridical personality to sue and be sued, enter into contracts, hold or convey property or perform any legal act in its own name (Ladia)
HAS THE RIGHT OF SUCCESSION
Its continued existence during its stated term cannot be affected by any change in the members or stockholders or by any transfer of shares by a stockholder to a 3rd person.
HAS THE POWERS, ATTRIBUTES AND PROPERTIES
EXPRESSLY AUTHORIZED BY LAW OR INCIDENT TO ITS EXISTENCE
A corporation has no power except those expressly conferred on it by the Corporation Code and by its articles of incorporation, those which may be incidental to such conferred powers, those that are implied from its existence, and those reasonably necessary to accomplish its purposes.
In turn, a corporation exercises said powers through its Board of Directors and/or its duly authorized officers and agents. (Monfort Hermanos Agricultural Dev. Corp. v.
Monfort III, 2004).