A Cebu City court found a local actor and his wife liable for negligence in relation to a fire that burned down eight houses in barangay Quiot, Cebu City in 2007.
Alejandro “Goliat” Nacorda and wife Liza were ordered to pay damages amounting to P100,000 and P50,000 in attorney’s fees to spouses Medardo and Jocelyn Delfino.
Regional Trial Court Judge Simeon Dumdum of Branch 7, however, found no sufficient basis to award moral damages to the Nacorda couple.
On June 24, 2007, a fire gutted eight houses which included the house owned by the Delfinos.
The Delfino family claimed that the fire started in the house of the Nacorda family due to an unplugged electric flat iron.
The Delfinos pegged the damage at P300,000. Jocelyn Delfino said the helper of the Nacorda family left an electric iron unattended.
She said she learned about it from the helper and newspaper accounts which quoted the Nacordas as admitting that the fire came from an electric flat iron.
Jocelyn said on two occasions a gas stove and a flat iron almost burned down the Nacordas’ house.
While Jocelyn admitted that she didn’t see the actual source of the fire last June 24, 2007, she said she saw the helper of the Nacordas ironing clothes.
The helper, a certain Jason, allegedly admitted that he had neglected to unplug the electric flat iron.
When interviewed by the media, Alejandro Nacorda speculated that the fire was caused by an unattended flat iron.
However, Alejandro’s wife Liza said the fire was purely an accident.
She said their helper, Jason, alerted her to a fire in the room of her son. Liza said they tried to put off the fire to no avail.
The family claimed that the flat iron was not inside their house when the fire took place since it was being repaired by a neighbor.
Jason denied that the cause of the fire was an unattended electric flat iron.
Although the evidence of the Delfino family were just “hearsay,” the court said the Nacordas are still liable for negligence. Reporter Ador Vincent Mayol