Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
CFI BULACAN
Facts:
During the height of typhoon Kading, the respondent corporation acting through its
plant superintendent, Benjamin Chavez, opened simultaneously all the three
floodgates of the Angat Dam. As a direct and immediate result, several towns in
Bulacan where inundated and the hardest hit was Norzagaray. About a hundred of
its residents died and properties worth million of pesos were destroyed. The
petitioners, who were among the many unfortunate victims of the man-caused flood,
filed eleven complaints for damages against the National Power Corporation and the
plant superintendent of Angat Dam. The respondent corporation filed separate
answers to each of those eleven complaints and invoking in each answer a special
and affirmative defense that in the operation of the Angat Dam, it is performing a
purely governmental function, and it cannot be sued without the express consent of
the State. The petitioners opposed the prayer of the respondent for dismissal of the
case and contended that the respondent corporation is performing not
governmental but proprietary functions and that under its own organic act, it can
sue and be sued in court.
Issue:
Whether respondent National Power Corporation performs a governmental
function with respect to the management and operation of the Angat Dam; and
Whether the power of respondent National Power Corporation to sue and be sued
under its organic charter includes the power to be sued for tort.
Held:
The Government has organized a private corporation, put money in it and has
allowed it to sue and be sued in any court under its charter. The National Power
Corporation, a government owned and controlled corporation, has a personality of
its own, distinct and separate from that of the government. The charter provision
that the National Power Corporation can sue and be sued in any court is without
qualification on the cause of action and can include a tort claim. The petition is
granted.
Notes:
Government Owned and Controlled Corporations (GOCC) have a personality of their
own, separate and distinct from the government, their funds, therefore although
considered to be public in character, are not exempt from garnishment.