SC awards P2 M to heirs of ship sinking survivor

The Supreme Court (SC) has ordered the Sulpicio Lines Inc. (SLI) to pay the heirs of a survivor in the sinking of M/V Princess of the Orient off Fortune Island in Batangas in September 1998.

The high court affirmed a 2005 ruling of the Court of Appeals (CA) upholding an earlier decision of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court (QCRTCI), which ordered the SLI to pay damages to Napoleon Sesante.

The SC said the shipping firm must pay P1 million each in moral and exemplary damages, and P120,000 in temperate damages to the heirs of Sesante.

It said the amount should earn interest of six percent per annum from the finality of the decision until it is fully paid by the shipping firm.

The ruling, dated July 27, was penned by Associate Justice Lucas Bersamin.

Sesante had died and his heirs substituted him during the appeal of the case.

The high court rejected for lack of merit SLI’s claim that Sesante’s complaint for damages was personal and could not be transferred to his heirs upon his death.

Records showed of the 388 passengers, 150 were missing when M/V Princess of the Orient sank. Sesante, a lawyer and member of the Philippine National Police, survived and sued SLI for breach of contract and damages.

He alleged that SLI committed bad faith when it allowed the vessel to sail despite a storm signal.

The SLI insisted on the seaworthiness of the M/V Princess

of the Orient, saying its officers and crew were not negligent.

In October 2001, the QCRTC ruled in favor of Sesante and ordered the SLI to pay P400,000 and P1 million in temperate and moral damages, respectively, and the cost of the suit.

SLI appealed the ruling. The CA affirmed it, but reduced the temperate damages to P120,000.