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.
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.
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