NATIONAL POWER CORPORATION (NPC) vs.

COURT OF APPEALS
GR No. 47379; May 16, 1988
FACTS
Engineering Construction, Inc., (ESI) executed a contract with the National Waterworks and
Sewerage Authority (NAWASA).
ECI already had completed the Tunnel Excavation Work while some portions of the outworks
were still under construction. As soon as the plaintiff corporation had finished the tunnel
excavation work at the Bicti site, all the equipment no longer needed there were transferred to
the Ipo site where some projects were yet to be completed.
Typhoon “Welming” hit Central Luzon. Due to the heavy downpour, the water of the Angat
Dam was rising and to prevent an overflow of water NPC caused the opening of the spillway
gates. Extraordinary large volume of water rushed out of the gates, and hit the installations and
construction works of ECI, as a result of which the latter’s stockpile of materials supplies, camp
facilities and permanent structures and accessories whether washed away, lost or destroyed.

ISSUE
Whether or not the destruction and loss of ECI’s equipment and facilities were due to force
majeure which will exempt NPC from liability.

RULING
No. The NPC will not be exempted from liability. It is clear from the appellate court’s decision
that based on its findings of fact and that of the trial court’s, petitioner NPC was undoubtedly
negligent because it opened the spillway gates of the Angat Dam only at the height of typhoon
“Welming” when it knew very well that it was safer to have opened the same gradually and
earlier, as it was also undeniable that NPC knew of the coming typhoon at least four days before
it actually struck. And even though the typhoon was an act of God or what we may call force
majeure, NPC cannot escape liability because its negligence was the proximate cause of the loss
and damage.