Torio vs Fonatilla

Facts:

The Municipal Council of Malasiqui, Pangasinan, passed Resolution No. 159 to manage the 1959
Malasiqui town fiesta celebration. The 1959 Malasiqui Town Fiesta Executive Committee was created,
which, in turn, organized a sub-committee on entertainment and stage. A zarzuela troupe, of which
Vicente Fontanilla was a member, arrived for their performance on January 22. During the zarzuela, the
stage collapsed and Fontanilla was pinned underneath. He was immediately hospitalized, but died the
following day.

Fontanilla’s heirs filed a complaint to recover damages against the Municipality of Malasiqui, its Municipal
Council and all the Council’s individual members. The municipality invoked inter alia the defense that as a
legally and duly organized public corporation it performs sovereign functions and the holding of a town
fiesta was an exercise of its governmental functions from which no liability can arise to answer for the
negligence of any of its agents. The councilors maintained that they merely acted as the municipality’s
agents in carrying out the municipal ordinance and as such they are likewise not liable for damages as
the undertaking was not one for profit; furthermore, they had exercised due care and diligence in
implementing the municipal ordinance.

After trial, the RTC dismisses the complaint, concluding that the Executive Committee had exercised due
diligence and care in selecting a competent man for the construction of the stage, and the collapse was
due to forces beyond the control of the committee. Consequently, the defendants were not liable for the
death of Vicente Fontanilla. Upon appeal, the Court of Appeals reversed the trial court’s decision and
ordered all the defendants-appellees to pay jointly and severally the heirs of Vicente Fontanilla the sums
of P12,000.00 by way of moral and actual damages: P1200.00 its attorney’s fees; and the costs.

Issue:

Whether or not the Municipality of Malasiqui may be held liable.

Held:

Under Philippine laws, municipalities are political bodies endowed with the faculties of municipal
corporations to be exercised by and through their respective municipal governments in conformity with
law, and in their proper corporate name, they may inter alia sue and be sued, and contract and be
contracted with. The powers of a municipality are two-fold in character: public, governmental or political
on the one hand; and corporate, private, or proprietary on the other. Governmental powers are those
exercised by the corporation in administering the powers of the state and promoting the public welfare.
These include the legislative, judicial public, and political. Municipal powers, on the other hand, are
exercised for the special benefit and advantage of the community. These include those which are
ministerial, private and corporate.

This distinction of powers is necessary in determining the liability of the municipality for the acts of its
agents which result in injury to third persons. If the injury is caused in the course of the performance of a
governmental function/duty, no recovery can be had from the municipality unless there is an existing
statute on the matter, nor from its officers, so long as they performed their duties honestly and in good
faith or that they did not act wantonly and maliciously. With respect to proprietary functions, the settled
rule is that a municipal corporation can be held liable to third person ex contract or ex delicto. They may
also be subject to suit upon contracts and its tort.