Meralco told to pay P2.3-M damages in electrocution case

The Court of Appeals Eighth Division has found Manila Electric Co. liable for payment of P2.3 million in damages for the death of two siblings who were electrocuted in Malolos, Bulacan. In a seven-page decision written by Associate Justice Rosalinda Asuncion-Vicente, the CA affirmed the ruling of the Malolos regional trial court that found Meralco's negligence the cause of the death of Honorio Lopez Jr. and Eduardo Lopez. "The appeal is unmeritorious. This Court is convinced that it was Meralco's failure to promptly act on the complaint of Lopez, Sr., which brought about the tragic incident which caused the untimely death of his two sons on August 4, 1999," the CA ruled. Meralco was ordered by the CA to pay the Lopezes moral damages amounting to P2 million; actual damages of P69,000; exemplary damages of P200,000; attorney's fees of P50,000 and the cost of the suit. The CA ruling sustained the lower court's September 2003 decision that Meralco and private respondent Melinda Derpo, chief of the Meralco Malolos office has civil liabilities in the deaths for their failure to act on several complaints of the Lopez couple for the power firm to check the cause of their sudden excessive billing a month before their sons' passing. The next month, Honorio Lopez was electrocuted while hanging wet rugs and sacks on their clothesline. His brother Eduardo tried to help him and also met the same fate. Meralco has claimed that the accident was caused by the Lopezes negligence and lack of foresight because one end of the clothesline was tied to a protruding steel bar in the still unfinished concrete hollow block fence and the other end to the existing private pole on which the electric meter was installed. The CA noted that while Meralco was able to show evidence that a Meralco personnel was assigned to check on the meter of the Lopezes and found nothing wrong it, the power firm failed to informed the complainants or any member of their household of the presence of that Meralco personnel at their place on the date he supposedly appeared to investigate. It noted that a mere check on the meter reading was not sufficient because that would not explain the real cause of the drastic rise in the bill of the Lopezes. "The lame excuse of Meralco that it was not its duty to check on the electrical facilities of Lopez Sr. beyond the electric meter is quite unacceptable," the Court said. "The claim of Meralco that it is not responsible for any grounding problem beyond its electric meter is a complete abdication of its duties as a public utility. Electricity is an agency, subtle and deadly and it is the duty of electric light companies to exercise a high degree of diligence in dealing with it," the CA said. - GMANews.TV