March 11, 2005

Food chain owner Triple-V Food Services, Inc. was recently found liable for the loss of a car entrusted to the valet parking service of one of its restaurants.

In a seven-page resolution, the Supreme Court’s Third Division denied due course to Triple-V’s petition and held it responsible for the loss of a Mitsubishi Galant car deposited by one Mary Jo-Anne De Asis with the valet parking service of Kamayan restaurant on West Avenue, Quezon City.

The Court said Triple-V cannot evade liability by claiming that availing of its free valet parking service did not give rise to a contract of deposit or insurance for the safety of the car. “When De Asis entrusted the car to the restaurant’s valet attendant, she expected the car’s safe return at the end of her meal. Thus, petitioner was constituted as a depositary of the same car,” the Court said.

The Court brushed aside Triple-V’s claim that under the terms of the valet parking claim stub, the restaurant was relieved from responsibility for any loss or damage to the vehicle and that by availing of the service, De Asis had waived her right to claim indemnity. The Court pointed out that the parking claim stub was a contract of adhesion prepared by the company with no participation from customers, who merely adhered to the stipulations. Triple-V could not be allowed to use this stipulation as a shield from liability, it said.

The Court added, “[w]hile contracts of adhesion are not void in themselves, yet this Court will not hesitate to rule out blind adherence thereto if they prove to be one-sided under the attendant facts and circumstances.”

The Court also said that the free valet service was part of the restaurant’s enticement for customers since it assured them that their vehicles would be safely kept within the restaurant’s vicinity, rather than parked elsewhere at their own risk. Having then entrusted the car to Triple-V’s valet attendant, De Asis, like all of the restaurant’s customers, fully expected the security of her car while in the designated parking area and its safe return at the end of her visit, the Court stressed.

The controversy stemmed from a case for damages filed with the Makati Regional Trial Court by the Filipino Merchants Insurance Company, Inc. against Triple-V. FMICI filed the suit after it paid the car insurance claims of Crispa Textile, Inc., owner of the vehicle and De Asis’ employer. The trial court ruled in FMICI’s favor, which ruling was affirmed by the Court of Appeals. (GR No. 160544, Triple-V Food Services, Inc. v. Filipino Merchants Insurance Company, Inc., February 21, 2005)


by Janice R. Erni
Source: www.supremecourt.gov.ph