SC revises ‘final’ ruling on vessel’s fire damages

MANILA, Philippines - The Supreme Court (SC) has reduced the amount of damages for the fire that gutted a WG&A SuperFerry in a shipyard in Cebu in 2000.

In a resolution released recently, the SC cut the damages required of Keppel Cebu Shipyard Inc. from P329 million to just P50 million and set aside its ruling in September 2009, which already became final and executory in November 2010.

In the original decision, the SC ordered Keppel Cebu Shipyard Inc. to pay Pioneer Insurance and Surety Corp. P360 million for the full value of the gutted ship, minus P30,252,648 from salvage proceeds realized by WG&A from the sale of the vessel’s wreck or a net amount of P329,747,351 with six percent interest per annum counted from Aug. 22, 2000 until finality, and 12 percent interest on the total value from date of finality until fully paid.

After denying appeals of Keppel twice, the SC declared its ruling final and executory and recorded it in the book of entries of judgment in November 2010.

But in its new ruling dated Sept. 18, 2012, the SC – now under Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno – revised the earlier decision and reduced Keppel’s liability to just P50 million plus six percent interest.

It also reversed its earlier finding and now held that WG&A and Keppel should be jointly liable for the damages supposedly as contained in their ship repair agreement.

Pioneer’s lawyer Arthur Lim, one of the private prosecutors in the impeachment case of former chief justice Renato Corona, questioned the SC move.

He cited the dissenting opinions of Associate Justices Arturo Brion and Bienvenido Reyes who both explained SC’s violation of its own technical rules.

“In acting as it did, the Court violated the most basic principle underlying the legal system – the immutability of final judgments – thereby acting without authority and outside of its jurisdiction. It grossly glossed over the violation of technical rules in its haste to override its own final and executory ruling,” Brion said.