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Transportation Law Maria Zarah Villanueva - Castro TRANSPORTATION LAW PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS: A. Governing Laws 1. New Civil Code Primary law 2. Warsaw Convention for international transportation by air 3. Code of Commerce governs suppletorily; it governs maritime transaction 4. Carriage of Goods by Sea Act for transportation by sea; governs suppletorily 5. Salvage Law 6. Public Service Act 7. Article XII Sec 11 on operation of public convenience of the 1987 Philippine Constitution B. Concept of Public Utility & public service Sec. 13 (b) of the Public Service Act provides that: The term 'public service' includes every person that now or hereafter may own, operate, manage, or control in the Philippines, for hire or compensation, with general or limited clientele, whether permanent, occasional or accidental, and done for general business purposes, any common carrier, railroad, street railway, traction railway, subway motor vehicle, either for freight or passenger, or both with or without fixed route and whatever may be its classification, freight or carrier service of any class, express service, steamboat, or steamship line, pontines, ferries, and water craft, engaged in the transportation of passengers or freight or both, shipyard, marine railway, marine repair shop, wharf or dock, ice plant, ice-refrigeration plant, canal, irrigation system, gas electric light, heat and power, water supply and power, petroleum, sewerage system, wire or wireless communications system, wire or wireless broadcasting stations and other similar public services: Provided, however, That a person engaged in agriculture, not otherwise a public service, who owns a motor vehicle and uses it personally and/or enters into a special contract whereby said motor vehicle is offered for hire or compensation to a third party or third engaged in agriculture, not itself or themselves a public service, for operation by the latter for a limited time and for a specific purpose directly connected with the cultivation of his or their farm, the transportation, processing, and marketing of agricultural products of such third party or third parties shall not be considered as operating a public service for the purposes of this Act. Public utilities are privately owned and operated business whose services are essential to the general public. Case: National Development Company v CA C. Constitutional limitations on operation of public utilities Sec. 11 of Article XII of the 1987 Constitution states that: No franchise, certificate, or any other form of authorization for the operation of a public utility shall be granted except to citizens of the Philippines or to corporations or associations organized under the laws of the Philippines, at least sixty per centum of whose capital is owned by such citizens; nor shall such franchise, certificate, or authorization be exclusive in character or for a longer period than fifty years. Neither shall any such franchise or right be granted except under the condition that it shall be subject to amendment, alteration, or repeal by the Congress when the common good so requires. The State shall 1
3. Distinguished from towage, arrastre and stevedoring Distinctions: Towage Arrastre Stevedorin g The functions The One vessel is of an arrastre function of hired to operator has stevedores bring nothing to do involves another with the trade the loading vessel to and business and another of navigation, unloading place; refers nor to the use of to a service or operation coastwise rendered to of vessels. He vessels a vessel by is no different calling at towing for from that of a the port. the mere depositary or purpose of warehousema expediting n. her voyage without reference to any circumstanc es of danger. *The SC held that the following services are not considered a common carrier: 1) purely arrastre services; *comparable to that as warehouseman and depositor 2) purely stevedoring services; and 3) purely towage services. *In Crisostomo v CA, the SC held that the respondent being a travel agency is not a common carrier because
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D. Persons who take part in Maritime Commerce 1. Shipowners and shipagents Article 586 of the Code of Commerce provides that: The shipowner and the ship agent shall be civilly liable for the acts of the captain and for the obligations contracted by the latter to repair, equip, and provision the vessel, provided the creditor proves that the amount claimed was invested for the benefit of the same. By ship agent is understood the person entrusted with provisioning or representing the vessel in the port in which it may be found. Article 587 of the Code of Commerce provides that: The ship agent shall also be civilly liable for the indemnities in favor of third persons which may arise from the conduct of the captain in the care of the goods which he loaded on the vessel; but he may exempt himself thereform by abandoning the vessel with all her equipments and the freight it may have earned during the voyage. Article 588 of the Code of Commerce provides that: Neither the shipowner nor the ship agent shall be liable for the obligations contracted by the captain, if the latter exceeds the powers and privileges pertaining to him by reason of his position or conferred upon him by the former. Nevertheless, if the amounts claimed were invested for the benefit of the vessel, the responsibility therefor shall devolve upon its owner or agent. a. Rules in case of part-owners Article 589 of the Code of Commerce provides that: If two or more persons 28
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3. Parties to the loan Parties: 1. Ship owner or ship agent 2. Owner of the cargo 3. Lender 4. Formalities needed Article 720 of the Code of Commerce states that: Loans on bottomry or respondentia may be executed: 1. By means of a public instrument; 2. By means of a policy signed by the contracting parties and the broker taking part therein; 3. By means of a private instrument. Under whichever of these forms the contract is executed, it shall be entered in the certificate of the registry of the vessel and shall be recorded in the registry of vessels, without which requisites the credits of this kind shall not have, with regard to other credits, the preference which, according to their nature, they should have, although the obligation shall be valid between the contracting parties.
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