Pelayo vs. Lauron (12 Phil. 453)

 

FACTS:

                Petitioner Pelayo, a physician, rendered a medical assistance during the child delivery of the daughter-in-law of the defendants. The just and equitable value of services rendered by him was P500.00 which the defendants refused to pay without alleging any good reason. With this, the plaintiff prayed that the judgment be entered in his favor as against the defendants for the sum of P500.00 and costs.

                The defendants denied all of the allegation of the plaintiff, contending that their daughter-in-law had died in consequence of the child-birth, and that when she was alive, she lived with her husband independently and in a separate house, that on the day she gave birth she was in the house of the defendants and her stay there was accidental and due to fortuitous circumstances.

ISSUE:

                Whether or not the defendants are obliged to pay the petitioner for the medical assistance rendered to their daughter-in-law.

HELD:

                According to Article 1089 of the Old Civil Code (now 1157), obligations are created by law, by contracts, by quasi-contracts, by illicit acts and omissions or by those which any kind of fault or negligence occurs. Obligations arising from law are not presumed. Those expressly determined in the Code or in special law, etc., are the only demandable ones.

 

                The rendering of medical assistance in case of illness is comprised among the mutual obligations to which the spouses are bound by way of mutual support as provided by the law or the Code. Consequently, the obligation to pay the plaintiff for the medical assistance rendered to the defendant’s daughter-in-law must be couched on the husband.

 

                In the case at bar, the obligation of the husband to furnish his wife in the indispensable services of a physician at such critical moments is especially established by the law and the compliance therewith is unavoidable.