Case Digest (G.R. No. 196455)
Facts:
Centennial Transmarine Inc. v. Emerito E. Sales, G.R. No. 196455, July 08, 2019, Supreme Court First Division, Carandang, J., writing for the Court.Petitioner Centennial Transmarine, Inc. (CTI), a manning agency acting for and on behalf of Centennial Maritime Services and M/V Acushnet, filed a Petition for Review on Certiorari under Rule 45 assailing the Court of Appeals (CA) Decision of January 21, 2011 awarding disability benefits to respondent Emerito E. Sales. Sales was employed by CTI as a pumpman beginning February 2000 and aboard M/V Acushnet when, in April–May 2006, he began experiencing severe lower back pain that led to his medical repatriation.
While transferring a portable pump in April 2006, Sales slipped and struck the deck; he continued working despite pain and reported persistent lower-back pain on May 5, 2006. He was treated abroad and repatriated to the Philippines on May 10–12, 2006; an MRI showed degenerative changes and disc protrusions. The company-designated physician treated him conservatively, recommended surgery (which Sales refused), and after several months issued a disability grading of Grade 11. A second physician gave a disability grading of Grade 8 and certified Sales as “totally unfit to work as a seaman,” recommending continued rehabilitation and possible future surgery.
Sales filed a complaint before the Labor Arbiter on October 4, 2006 claiming entitlement to permanent and total disability benefits under the parties’ Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), among other damages. The Labor Arbiter ruled for Sales, awarding permanent and total disability benefits based on a finding of work-related injury. On CTI’s appeal, the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC) initially reversed the Labor Arbiter for lack of proof of an accident and the work-causation of Sales’s condition, but on reconsideration the NLRC awarded disability benefits consistent with the company doctor’s Grade 11 assessment. Sales then filed a petition for certiorari with the Court of Appeals, which on January 21, 2011 found the injury compensable and awarded Sales permanent and total disability benefits (US$78,750), moral and exemplary damages (P25,000 each), and attorney’s fees (10%).
CTI moved for reconsideration before the CA; the motion was denied on April 12, 2011. ...(Subscriber-Only)
Issues:
- Is Sales’s back injury compensable as a work-related injury under the parties’ CBA and the POEA-SEC?
- Did Sales qualify for permanent and total disability benefits (including application of the 120/240-day rule and Section 20.1.5 of the CBA)?
- Which medical assessment controls — the company-designated physician’s Grade 11 or Sales’s physician’s Grade 8 and certification of total unfitness — and was a third-physician assessment required?
- Are moral and exemplary dama...(Subscriber-Only)
Ruling:
- (Subscriber-Only)
Ratio:
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Doctrine:
- (Subscriber-Only)