Monday, September 11, 2023

Spouses Carbonell v. Metropolitan Bank and Trust Company, G.R. No. 178467, 26 April 2017

 

The General Banking Act of 2000 demands of banks the highest standards of integrity and performance. As such, the banks are under obligation to treat the accounts of their depositors with meticulous care. However, the banks' compliance with this degree of diligence is to be determined in accordance with the particular circumstances of each case.

Gross negligence connotes want of care in the performance of one's duties; it is a negligence characterized by the want of even slight care, acting, or omitting to act in a situation where there is duty to act, not inadvertently but willfully and intentionally, with a conscious indifference to consequences insofar as other persons may be affected. It evinces a thoughtless disregard of consequences without exerting any effort to avoid them.

In order for gross negligence to exist as to warrant holding the respondent liable therefor, the petitioners must establish that the latter did not exert any effort at all to avoid unpleasant consequences, or that it willfully and intentionally disregarded the proper protocols or procedure in the handling of US dollar notes and in selecting and supervising its employees.

In every situation of damnum absque injuria, therefore, the injured person alone bears the consequences because the law affords no remedy for damages resulting from an act that does not amount to a legal injury or wrong.

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