G.R. No. L-8319 December 29, 1955
GO CHAN & CO., INC., plaintiff-appellee, vs. ABOITIZ & CO., INC., defendant-appellant.

FACTS

The plaintiff, Go Chan & Co., Inc., as owner of 200 boxes of canned milk, shipped the cargo from New Orleans, U.S.A. to Cebu City on board the S.S. Daniel R. Hill, with the defendant, Aboitiz & Co., Inc., as the vessel’s agent. The cargo arrived in Cebu in February 1947 with a shortage of 24 cases. The plaintiff filed a claim for the value of the shortage, P416.68. The defendant refused payment, arguing that the loss was due to a peril of the sea and that the action was barred by prescription, as more than one year had elapsed from February 1947 to May 1950 when the complaint was filed. The Court of First Instance of Cebu ruled in favor of the plaintiff, finding that the cargo was short-landed, a timely claim was presented, and the defendant requested deferment and amicable settlement. The trial court held that the prescriptive period was four years under Act No. 190 (the Code of Civil Procedure), not one year.

ISSUE

Whether the plaintiff’s action for loss of cargo is barred by prescription under the one-year period provided in the Carriage of Goods by Sea Act, adopted by Commonwealth Act No. 65 , or under the four-year period of Act No. 190 .

RULING

The Supreme Court reversed the trial court’s decision. It ruled that the one-year prescriptive period under the Carriage of Goods by Sea Act, a special law, applies and modifies the general provisions of Act No. 190 for goods transported in foreign trade. Since the suit was filed more than one year after the cargo was delivered or should have been delivered in February 1947, the defendant is discharged from all liability. The defendant was absolved from the complaint.