4/4/2021 E-Library - Information At Your Fingertips: Printer Friendly claim to be entitled to the award for damages because, as found by the trial court, they were wrongfully and in bad faith, "bumped-off" from SAS Flight SK 893 on February 14, 1978, despite their timely arrival at the airport for check-in and confirmed bookings as first class passengers.[15] The petition has no merit. "To begin with, it must be emphasized that a contract to transport passengers is quite different in kind and degree from any other contractual relations, and this is because of the relation, which an air carrier sustains with the public. Its business is mainly with the travelling public. It invites people to avail [themselves] of the comforts and advantages it offers. The contract of air carriage, therefore, generates a relation attended with a public duty. Neglect or malfeasance of the carrier's employees naturally could give ground for an action for damages."[16] "In awarding moral damages for breach of contract of carriage, the breach must be wanton and deliberately injurious or the one responsible acted fraudulently or with malice or bad faith."[17] "Where in breaching the contract of carriage the defendant airline is not shown to have acted fraudulently or in bad faith, liability for damages is limited to the natural and probable consequences of the breach of obligation which the parties had foreseen or could have reasonably foreseen. In that case, such liability does not include moral and exemplary damages."[18] "Moral damages are generally not recoverable in culpa contractual except when bad faith had been proven. However, the same damages may be recovered when breach of contract of carriage results in the death of a passenger."[19] "The award of exemplary damages has likewise no factual basis. It is a requisite that the act must be accompanied by bad faith or done in wanton, fraudulent or malevolent manner--circumstances which are absent in this case. In addition, exemplary damages cannot be awarded as the requisite element of compensatory damages was not present."[20] In the instant case, assuming arguendo that breach of contract of carriage may be attributed to respondent, petitioners' travails were directly traceable to their failure to check-in on time, which led to respondent's refusal to accommodate them on the flight. "The rule is that moral damages are recoverable in a damage suit predicated upon a breach of contract of carriage only where (a) the mishap results in the death of a passenger and (b) it is proved that the carrier was guilty of fraud and bad faith even if death does not result."[21] For having arrived at the airport after the closure of the flight manifest, respondent's employee could not be faulted for not entertaining petitioners' tickets and travel documents for processing, as the checking in of passengers for SAS Flight SK 893 was finished. There was no fraud or bad faith as would justify the court's award of moral damages. https://elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/thebookshelf/showdocsfriendly/1/50293 5/7