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Here are select February 2013 rulings of the Supreme Court of the Philippines on civil law:  Civil Code-Common Carrier; requisite before presumption of negligence arises; bill of lading; interpretation thereof; inherent nature of the subject shipment or its packaging as ground for exempting common carrier from liability; failure to prove negligence does not entitle claimant for damages. Though it is true that common carriers are presumed to have been at fault or to have acted negligently if the goods transported by them are lost, destroyed, or deteriorated, and that the common carrier must prove that it exercised extraordinary diligence in order to overcome the presumption, the plaintiff must still, before the burden is shifted to the defendant, prove that the subject shipment suffered actual shortage. This can only be done if the weight of the shipment at the port of origin and its subsequent weight at the port of arrival have been proven by a preponderance of evidence, and it can be seen that the former weight is considerably greater than the latter weight, taking into consideration the exceptions provided in Article 1734 of the Civil Code.

The Berth Term Grain Bill of Lading states that the subject shipment was carried with the qualification “Shipper’s weight, quantity and quality unknown,” meaning that it was transported with the carrier having been oblivious of the weight, quantity, and quality of the cargo. This interpretation of the quoted qualification is supported by Wallem Philippines Shipping, Inc. v. Prudential Guarantee & Assurance, Inc., a case involving an analogous stipulation in a bill of lading, wherein the Supreme Court held that:

Indeed, as the bill of lading indicated that the contract of carriage was under a “said to weigh” clause, the shipper is solely responsible for the loading while the carrier is oblivious of the contents of the shipment. (Emphasis supplied)

Hence...

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