TRANSPORTATION LAW

I. ARTICLE 1732 OF THE CIVIL CODE

Cases: 1. Pedro De Guzman vs CA and Ernesto Cendena

- Civil Code defines “common carriers” in the following terms:
Art 1732. Common Carriers are persons, corporations, firms or associations engaged in
the business of carrying or transporting passengers or goods or both, by land, water, or air
for compensation, offering their services to the public.

- The above article makes no distinction between one whose principal business activity is
the carrying of persons or goods or both and one who does such carrying only as an
ancillary activity (sideline). Article 1732 also carefully makes any distinction between a
person or enterprise offering transportation service on a regular or scheduled basis and
one offering such service on an occasional, episodic or unscheduled basis. Neither does
Article 1732 distinguish between carrier offering its services to the “general public”, i.e
the general community or population, and one who offers services or solicits business
only from a narrow segment of the general population.

- ….. it appears to the court that private respondent is properly characterized as a common
carrier even though he merely “back-hauled” goods for other merchants from Manila to
Pangasinan, although such back-hauling was done in a periodic or occasional rather than
regular or scheduled manner, and even though private respondent’s principal occupation
was not the carriage of goods for others. There is no dispute that private respondent
charged his customers a fee for hauling their goods; that fee frequently fell below freight
rates is not relevant here.

2. First Philippine Industrial Corporation vs Court of Appeals, Treasurer of City of Batangas

- a common carrier may be defined, broadly, as one who holds himself out to the public as
engaged in the business of transporting persons or property from place to place, for
compensation, offering his services to the public generally.

- the test for determining whether a party is a common carrier of goods is:
1. He must be engaged in the business of carrying goods for others as a public employment
and must hold himself out as ready to engage in the transportation of goods for person
generally as a business and not as a casual occupation
2. He must undertake to carry goods of the kind to which his business is confined
3. He must undertake to carry by the method by which his business is conducted and over his
established roads
4. transportation must be for hire

- based on the above definitions and reqts, there is no doubt that petitioner is a common
carrier. It is engaged in the business of transporting or carrying goods, i.e. petroleum
products, for hire as a public employment. It undertakes to carry for all persons
indifferently, that is, to all persons who choose to employ its services, and transports the
goods by land and for compensation. The fact that the petitioner has a limited clientele
does not exclude it from the definition of a common carrier.
- As correctly pointed out by petitioner, the definition of “common carriers” in the Civil
Code makes no distinction as to the means of transporting, as long as it is by land, water
or air. It does not provide that the transportation of the passengers or goods should be by
 motor vehicle. In fact, in the United States, oil pipe line operators are considered
common carriers.

3. Sps. Teodoro and Nanette Perena vs Zarate, PNR and CA

- a carrier is a person who undertakes to transport or convey goods or persons from one place
to another, gratuitously or for hire. The carrier is classified either as a private/special carrier
or as a common/public carrier. A private carrier is one who without making the activity a
vocation, or without holding himself or itself out to public as ready to act for all who may
desire his or its services, undertakes, by any special agreement in a particular instance only,
to transport goods or persons from one place to another either gratuitously or for hire. The
provisions on ordinary contracts of the Civil Code govern the contract of private carriage.
The diligence required of a private carrier is only ordinary, that is the diligence of a good
father of a family.

- In contrast a common carrier is a person, corporation, firm or association engaged in the

business of carrying or transporting passengers or goods or both by land, water, or air for
compensation offering such services to the public. Contracts of common carriage are
governed by provisions on common carriers of the Civil Code, Public Service Act and
other special laws relating to transportation. A common carrier is required to observe
extraordinary diligence and is presumed to be at fault or to have acted negligently in case
of the loss of the effects of passengers, or the death or injuries to passengers.