Ong vs.

Metropolitan Water District (104 Phil 398) Facts: Plaintiff spouses seek to recover from defendant, damages, funeral expenses and attorneys fees for the death of their son, Dominador Ong. After trial, the lower court found that the action of plaintiffs is untenable and dismissed the complaint without pronouncement as to costs. Plaintiffs took the case on appeal directly to this Court because the amount involved exceeds the sum of P50,000. Dominador Ong, 14-year old son of plaintiffs, in company with two of his brothers went to swim at the defendants swimming pool. After paying the admission fee they went to one of the small pools where the water was shallow. Later Dominador told his brothers that he was going to the locker room in an adjoining building to drink a bottle of coke. Upon hearing this, his two brothers went to the bigger pool. Later another boy in the swimming pool informed a lifeguard employed by the defendant that somebody was swimming underwater for quite a long time. The lifeguard immediately jumped into the big swimming pool and retrieved te apparently lifeless body of Dominador Ong from the bottom. Artificial respiration and a resuscitator were applied by employees of the defendant upon Dominador for the purpose of reviving him. A doctor was summoned by employees of the defendant to revive the boy but all to no avail. This action was instituted by the parents of the boy to recover damages from the defendant for the death of their son. Issue: (1) Whether or not plaintiffs have clearly established the fault/negligence of the defendants so as to make it liable for the damages sought? (2) Whether or not the Doctrine of Last Clear Chance applies in the case at bench. Ruling: The record shows that when the body of minor Ong was retrieved from the bottom of the pool, the employees of appellee did everything possible to bring him back to life. Thus, after he was placed at the edge of the pool, lifeguard Abao immediately gave him manual artificial respiration. Soon thereafter, nurse Armando Rule arrived, followed by sanitary inspector Iluminado Vicente who brought with him an oxygen resuscitator. When they found that the pulse of the boy was abnormal, the inspector immediately injected him with camphorated oil. When the manual artificial respiration proved ineffective they applied the oxygen resuscitator until its contents were exhausted. And while all these efforts were being made, they sent for Dr. Ayuyao from the University of the Philippines who however came late because upon examining the body he found him to be already dead. All of the foregoing shows that appellee has done what is humanly possible under the circumstances to restore life to minor Ong and for that reason it is unfair to hold it liable for his death. With regard to the application of doctrine of last clear chance, since it is not known how minor Ong came into the big swimming pool and it being apparent that he went there without any companion in violation of one of the regulations of appellee as regards the use of the pools, and it appearing that lifeguard Abao responded to the call for help as soon as his attention was called to it and immediately after retrieving the body all efforts at the disposal of appellee had been put into play in order to bring him back to life, it is clear that there is no room for the application of the doctrine now invoked by appellants to impute liability to appellee..

The last clear chance doctrine can never apply where the party charged is required to act instantaneously, and if the injury cannot be avoided by the application of all means at hand after the peril is or should have been discovered; at least in cases in which any previous negligence of the party charged cannot be said to have contributed to the injury. O'Mally vs. Eagan, 77 ALR 582, 43 Wyo. 233, 350, 2, P2d 1063. (A.L.R. Digest, Vol. 8, pp. 955-956) Wherefore, the decision appealed from being in accordance with law and the evidence, is hereby affirmed, without pronouncement as to costs.