SC orders hearing of case resumed

The Aboitiz Shipping Corporation has successfully convinced the Supreme Court to order for the resumption of the hearing of its appeal filed before the Court of Appeals that was earlier rejected for its failure to pay the required legal fees on time.

The shipping company was unsatisfied with the ruling handed down by a Regional Trial Court in Cebu City directing its officials to pay Gillamac's Marketing Incorporated of more than P1 million in damages and the actual amount of the products that were not delivered on time.

Records showed that Gillamac's Marketing hired Aboitiz Shipping in 1995 to deliver within one week to its branch in Cavite assorted appliances worth P740,833.

But Aboitiz Shipping reportedly failed to comply with the agreement and it took nine months for it to deliver the appliances to the Cavite branch of Gillamac's Marketing. Gillamac also claimed the appliances were delivered in bad condition.

Gillamac's Marketing refused to accept the products and demanded for the payment of the shipment's value. When the parties failed to settle the matter amicably, the appliance dealer sued the shipping company in court.

After trial, the court ruled that the shipping company did not exercise extraordinary diligence that resulted to the damage of the consigned products.

But while the court granted the petitioner's demand for damages with respect to the unearned income due to the delayed delivery of the products, the court only awarded Gillamac's Marketing 15 percent out of the overall amount of the appliances based on what was declared in the bill of lading.

Not satisfied with the court's ruling, the shipping company elevated the case to the CA, but the appellate court dismissed the appeal because it failed to pay the docket fees on time.

The lawyer of the shipping company explained that he failed to comply with the requirement because he was busy taking care of his ailing father who eventually died of kidney disease and he only asked his staff to do the filing but his aides forgot to pay the fees.

Aboitiz's lawyer Jose Palma successfully convinced the CA justices to set aside their earlier decision dismissing his appeal. It prompted the Gillamac's Marketing counsel to elevate the issue to the Supreme Court.

In resolving the issue, the High Court ruled: "In some cases, we condoned oversights of parties in failing to pay these fees on time to avoid undue burden on their rights to appeal. We are well aware of the importance of appeals, thus we have advised the courts to exercise prudence in dismissing them."

"We have held that, in appealed cases, the failure to pay docket fees does not automatically result in the dismissal of the appeal," the Supreme Court said. - Rene U. Borromeo