CULION ICE, FISH & ELECTRIC CO., INC., PLAINTIFF AND APPELLEE, VS. PHILIPPINE MOTORS CORPORATION, DEFENDANT AND APPELLANT.

This action was instituted in the Court of First Instance of Manila by the
Culion Ice, Fish & Electric Co., Inc., for the purpose of recovering from
the Philippine Motors Corporation the sum of P11,350, with interest and costs.
Upon hearing the cause the trial court gave judgment in favor of the plaintiff
to recover of the defendant the sum of P9,850, with interest at 6 per centum per
annum from March 24, 1927, the date of the filing of the complaint, until
satisfaction of the judgment, with costs. From this judgment the defendant
appealed.

The plaintiff and defendant are domestic corporations; and at the time of the
incident with which we are here concerned, H, D. Cranston was the representative
of the plaintiff in the City of Manila. At the same time the plaintiff was the
registered owner of the motor schooner Gwendoline, which was used in the fishing
trade in the Philippine Islands. In January, 1925, Cranston decided, if
practicable, to have the engine on the Gwendoline changed from a gasoline
consumer to a crude oil burner, expecting thereby to effect economy in the cost
of running: the boat. He therefore made known his desire to McLeod & Co., a
firm dealing in tractors, and was told by McKellar, of said company, that he
might make enquiries of the Philippine Motors Corporation, which had its office
on Ongpin Street, in the City of Manila. Cranston accordingly repaired to the
office of the Philippine Motors Corporation and had a conference with C. E.
Quest, its manager, who agreed to do the job, with the understanding that
payment should be made upon completion of the work.

The Philippine Motors Corporation was at this time engaged in business as an
automobile agency, but, under its charter, it had authority to deal in all sorts
of machinery engines and motors, as well as to build, operate, buy and sell the
same and the equipment thereof. Quest, as general manager, had full charge of
the corporation in all its branches.

As a result of the aforesaid interview, Quest, in company with Cranston,
visited the Gwendoline while it lay at anchor in the Pasig River, and the work
of effecting the change in the engine was begun and conducted under the
supervision of Quest, chiefly by a mechanic whom Quest took with him to the
boat. In this work Quest had the assistance of the members of the crew of the
Gwendoline, who had been directed by Cranston to place themselves under Quest’s
directions.

Upon preliminary inspection of the engine, Quest came to the conclusion that
the principal thing necessary to accomplish the end in view was to install a new
carburetor, and a Zenith carburetor was chosen as the one most adapted to the
purpose. After this appliance had been installed, the engine was tried with
gasoline as a fuel, supplied from the tank already in use. The result of this
experiment was satisfactory. The next problem was to introduce into the
carburetor the baser fuel, consisting1 of a low grade of oil mixed with
distillate. For this purpose a temporary tank to contain the mixture was placed
on deck above and at a short distance from the compartment covering the engine.
This tank was connected with the carburetor by a piece of tubing, which was
apparently not well fitted at the point where it was connected with the tank.
Owing to this fact the fuel mixture leaked from the tank and dripped down into
the engine compartment. The new fuel line and that already in use between the
gasoline tank and the carburetor were so fixed that it was possible to change
from the gasoline fuel to the mixed fuel. The purpose of this arrangement was to
enable the operator to start the engine on gasoline and then, after the engine
had been operating for a few moments, to switch to the new fuel supply.

In the course of the preliminary work upon the carburetor and its
connections, it was observed that the carburetor was flooding, and that the
gasoline, or other fuel, was trickling freely from the lower part of the
carburetor to the floor. This fact was called to Quest’s attention, but he
appeared to think lightly of the matter and said that, when the engine had
gotten to running well, the flooding would disappear.

After preliminary experiments and adjustments had been made, the boat was
taken out into the bay for a trial run at about 5 p. m., or a little later, on
the evening of January 30, 1925. The first part of the course was covered
without any untoward development, other than the fact that the engine stopped a
few times, owing no doubt to the use of an improper mixture of fuel. In the
course of the trial Quest remained outside of the engine compartment and
occupied himself with making experiments in the matter of mixing the crude oil
with distillate, with a view to ascertaining what proportion of the two elements
would give best results in the engine.

As the boat was coming in from this run, at about 7.30 p. m., and when
passing near Cavite, the engine stopped, and connection again had to be made
with the gasoline line to get a new start. After this had been done the
mechanic, or engineer, switched to the tube connecting with the new mixture. A
moment later a back fire occurred in the cylinder chamber. This caused a flame
to shoot back into the carburetor, and instantly the carburetor and adjacent
parts were covered with a mass of flames, which the members of the crew were
unable to subdue. They were therefore compelled, as the lire spread, to take to
a boat, and their escape was safely effected, but the Gwendoline was reduced to
a mere hulk. The salvage from the wreck, when sold, brought only the sum of
P150. The value of the boat, before the accident occurred, as the court found,
was P10,000.

A study of the testimony leads us to the conclusion that the loss of this
boat was chargeable to the negligence and lack of skill of Quest. The temporary
tank in which the mixture was prepared was apparently at too great an elevation
from the carburetor, with the result that when the fuel line was opened, the
hydrostatic pressure in the carburetor was greater than the delicate parts of
the carburetor could sustain. This was no doubt the cause of the flooding of the
carburetor; and the result was that, when the back fire occurred, the external
parts of the carburetor, already saturated with gasoline, burst into flames,
whence the fire was quickly communicated to the highly inflammable material
near-by. Ordinarily a back fire from an engine would not be followed by any
disaster, but in this case the leak along the pipe line and the flooding of the
carburetor had created a dangerous situation, which a prudent mechanic, versed
in repairs of this nature, would have taken precautions to avoid. The back fire
may have been due either to the fact that the spark was too advanced or the fuel
improperly mixed.

In this connection it must be remembered that when a person holds himself out
as being competent to do things requiring professional skill, he will be held
liable for negligence if he fails to exhibit the care and skill of one
ordinarily skilled in the particular work which he-attempts to do. The proof
shows that Quest had had ample experience in fixing the engines of automobiles
and tractors, but it does not appear that he was experienced in the doing of
similar work on boats. For this reason, possibly, the dripping of the mixture
from the tank on deck and the flooding of the carburetor did not convey to his
mind an adequate impression of the danger of fire. But a person skilled in that
particular sort of work would, we think, have been sufficiently warned from
those circumstances to cause him to take greater and adequate precautions
against the danger. In other words Quest did not use the skill that would have
been exhibited by one ordinarily expert in repairing gasoline engines on boats.
There was here, in our opinion, on the part of Quest, a blameworthy antecedent
inadvertence to possible harm, and this constitutes negligence. The burning of
the Gwendoline may be said to have resulted from accident, but this accident was
in no sense an unavoidable accident. It would not have occurred but for Quest’s
carelessness or lack of skills The test of liability is not whether the injury
was accidental in a sense, but whether Quest was free from blame. We therefore
see no escape from the conclusion that this accident is chargeable to lack of
skill or negligence in effecting the changes which Quest undertook to
accomplish; and even supposing that our theory as to the exact manner in which
the accident occurred might appear to be in some respects incorrect, yet the
origin of the fire is not so inscrutable as to enable us to say that it was
eastis fortuitus.

The trial judge seems to have proceeded on the idea that, inasmuch as Quest
had control of the Gwendoline during the experimental run, the defendant
corporation was in the position of a bailee and that, as a consequence, the
burden of proof was on the defendant to exculpate itself from responsibility by
proving that the accident was not due to the fault of Quest. We are unable to
accede to this point of view. Certainly, Quest was not in charge of the
navigation of the boat on this trial run. His employment contemplated the
installation of new parts in the engine only, and it seems rather strained to
hold that the defendant corporation had thereby become bailee of the boat. As a
rule workmen who make repairs on a ship in its owner’s yard, or a mechanic who
repairs a coach without taking it to his shop, are not bailees, and their rights
and liabilities are determined by the general rules of law, under their
contract. The true bailee acquires possession and what is usually spoken of as
special property in the chattel bailed. As a consequence of such possession and
special property, the bailee is given a lien for his compensation. These ideas
seem to be incompatible with the situation now under consideration. But though
defendant cannot be held liable on the supposition that the burden of proof has
not been sustained by it in disproving the negligence of its manager, we are
nevertheless of the opinion that the proof shows by a clear preponderance that
the accident to the Gwendoline and the damages resulting therefrom are
chargeable to the negligence or lack of skill of Quest.

This action was instituted about two years after the accident in question had
occurred, and after Quest had ceased to be manager of the defendant corporation
and had gone back to the United States. Upon these facts, the defendant bases
the contention that the action should be considered stale. It is sufficient
reply to say that the action was brought within the period limited by the
statute of limitations and the situation is not one where the defense of laches
can be properly invoked.

It results that the judgment appealed from, awarding damages to the plaintiff
in the amount of P9,850, with interest, must be affirmed; and it is so ordered,
with costs against the appellant.

Avanceña, C. J., Malcolm, Villamor, Ostrand, Romualdez and
Villa-Real, JJ., concur.