Facts: The citation of the case was a negligent act, homicide through reckless imprudence filed to driver Romeo Punzalan and defendants - appellees as subsidiary liable, which give rise to two separate liabilities, namely (1) the civil liability arising from crime or culpa criminal and (2) the liability arising from civil negligence or so called culpa aquiliana.
Issue:Whether or not that negligent act of Punzalan gives rise to the two separate and independent liabilities.
Held: It is by now settled beyond all cavil as to dispense with the citation of jurisprudence, that a negligent act such as that committed by Punzalan gives rise to at least two separate and independent kinds of liabilities, (1) the civil liability arising from crime or culpa criminal and (2) the liability arising from civil negligence or the so-called culpa aquiliana. These two concepts of fault are so distinct from each other that exoneration from one does not result in exoneration from the other. Adjectively and substantively, they can be prosecuted separately and independently of each other, although Article 2177 of the Civil Code precludes recovery of damages twice for the same negligent act or omission, which means that should there be varying amounts awarded in two separate cases, the plaintiff may recover, in effect, only the bigger amount. That is to say, if the plaintiff has already been ordered paid an amount in one case and in the other case the amount adjudged is bigger, he shall be entitled in the second case only to the excess over the one fixed in the first case, but if he has already been paid a bigger amount in the first case, he may not recover anymore in the second case. Thus, in the case at bar, inasmuch as Punzalan had already been sentenced to pay the herein petitioners the amounts above-stated, in the subsequent criminal case, he could not be adjudged to pay a higher amount.
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