This case has been cited 16 times or more.
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2015-12-07 |
DEL CASTILLO, J. |
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| Thus, although Section 32[39] of the POEA-SEC states that only those injuries or disabilities classified as Grade 1 are considered total and permanent, a partial and permanent disability could, by legal contemplation, become total and permanent.[40] The Court ruled in Kestrel Shipping Co., Inc. v. Munar,[41] viz.:Indeed, under Section 32 of the POEA-SEC, only those injuries or disabilities that are classified as Grade 1 may be considered as total and permanent. However, if those injuries or disabilities with a disability grading from 2 to 14, hence, partial and permanent, would incapacitate a seafarer from performing his usual sea duties for a period of more than 120 or 240 days, depending on the need for further medical treatment, then he is, under legal contemplation, totally and permanently disabled. In other words, an impediment should be characterized as partial and permanent not only under the Schedule of Disabilities found in Section 32 of the POEA-SEC but should be so under the relevant provisions of the Labor Code and the Amended Rules on Employee Compensation (AREC) implementing Title II, Book IV of the Labor Code. That while the seafarer is partially injured or disabled, he is not precluded from earning doing the same work he had before his injury or disability or that he is accustomed or trained to do. Otherwise, if his illness or injury prevents him from engaging in gainful employment for more than 120 or 240 days, as the case may be, he shall be deemed totally and permanently disabled. | |||||
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2015-11-23 |
MENDOZA, J. |
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| The apparent conflict between the 120-day period under Crystal Shipping and the 240-day period under Vergara was observed in the case of Kestrel Shipping Co., Inc. v. Munar (Kestrel).[26] In the said case, the Court recognized that Vergara presented a restraint against the indiscriminate reliance on Crystal Shipping. A seafarer's inability to work despite the lapse of 120 days would not automatically bring about a total and permanent disability, considering that the treatment of the company-designated physician may be extended up to a maximum of 240 days. In Kestrel, however, as the complaint was filed two years before the Court promulgated Vergara on October 6, 2008, then the seafarer therein was not stripped of his cause of action. | |||||
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2015-10-21 |
MENDOZA, J. |
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| In addition, it must be reiterated that the company-designated physicians' disability report should be set aside for being contradictory. Necessarily, it cannot be said that the company-designated physicians issued a valid and final medical assessment within the 120-day or 240-day period. The Court in Kestrel Shipping Co., Inc. v. Munar[28] held that the declaration by the company-designated physician is an obligation, the abdication of which transforms the temporary total disability to permanent total disability, regardless of the disability grade, viz:Indeed, under Section 32 of the POEA-SEC, only those injuries or disabilities that are classified as Grade 1 may be considered as total and permanent. However, if those injuries or disabilities with a disability grading from 2 to 14, hence, partial and permanent, would incapacitate a seafarer from performing his usual sea duties for a period of more than 120 or 240 days, depending on the need for further medical treatment, then he is, under legal contemplation, totally and permanently disabled. In other words, an impediment should be characterized as partial and permanent not only under the Schedule of Disabilities found in Section 32 of the POEA-SEC but should be so under the relevant provisions of the Labor Code and the Amended Rules on Employee Compensation (AREC) implementing Title II, Book IV of the Labor Code. That while the seafarer is partially injured or disabled, he is not precluded from earning doing the same work he had before his injury or disability or that he is accustomed or trained to do. Otherwise, if his illness or injury prevents him from engaging in gainful employment for more than 120 or 240 days, as the case may be, he shall be deemed totally and permanently disabled. | |||||
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2015-07-29 |
MENDOZA, J. |
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| In Krestel Shipping Co., Inc. v. Munar (Krestel),[34] the Court clarified that under Section 32 of the POEA-SEC, only those injuries or disabilities that were classified as Grade 1 might be considered as total and permanent. However, if those injuries or disabilities with a disability grading from 2 to 14, hence, partial and permanent, would incapacitate a seafarer from performing his usual sea duties for a period of more than 120 or 240 days, depending on the need for further medical treatment, then he was, under legal contemplation, totally and permanently disabled. | |||||
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2015-06-22 |
PERALTA, J. |
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| And in jurisprudence interpreting the aforequoted provision of the POEA-SEC, a temporary total disability only becomes permanent when so declared by the company-designated physician within the periods he is allowed to do so, or upon the expiration of the maximum 240-day medical treatment period without a declaration of either fitness to work or the existence of a permanent disability.[73] The 240-day period is meant to harmonize the provision of the POEA-SEC above with the provisions of the Rules and Regulations Implementing Book IV of the Labor Code, specifically Rule X, Section 2, on disability benefits.[74] Where before it was held that permanent disability is the inability of a seafarer to perform his work for more than 120 days, regardless of whether or not he loses the use of any part of his body,[75] now the rule is that if the injury or sickness still requires medical attendance beyond 120 days, the company-designated physician has, including the initial 120 days, up to a maximum of 240 days to declare either fitness to work or permanent disability, beyond which and with or without any declaration, the disability is considered total and permanent.[76] | |||||
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2015-06-22 |
PEREZ, J. |
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| As a matter of fact, in Kestrel Shipping,[16] the Court made the following pronouncement regarding the indiscriminate invocation of Crystal Shipping in permanent disability claims, thus:This Court’s pronouncements in Vergara presented a restraint against the indiscriminate reliance on Crystal Shipping such that a seafarer is immediately catapulted into filing a complaint for total and permanent disability benefits after the expiration of 120 days from the time he signed-off from the vessel to which he was assigned. Particularly, a seafarer’s inability to work and the failure of the company-designated physician to determine fitness or unfitness to work despite the lapse of 120 days will not automatically bring about a shift in the seafarer’s state from total and temporary to total and permanent, considering that the condition of total and temporary disability may be extended up to a maximum of 240 days. | |||||
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2015-04-15 |
CARPIO, J. |
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| Hence, a partial and permanent disability could, by legal contemplation, become total and permanent. The Court in Kestrel Shipping Co., Inc. v. Munar[40] held that the declaration by the company-designated physician is an obligation, the abdication of which transforms the temporary total disability to permanent total disability, regardless of the disability grade, viz: Indeed, under Section 32 of the POEA-SEC, only those injuries or disabilities that are classified as Grade 1 may be considered as total and permanent. However, if those injuries or disabilities with a disability grading from 2 to 14, hence, partial and permanent, would incapacitate a seafarer from performing his usual sea duties for a period of more than 120 or 240 days, depending on the need for further medical treatment, then he is, under legal contemplation, totally and permanently disabled. In other words, an impediment should be characterized as partial and permanent not only under the Schedule of Disabilities found in Section 32 of the POEA-SEC but should be so under the relevant provisions of the Labor Code and the Amended Rules on Employee Compensation (AREC) implementing Title II, Book IV of the Labor Code. That while the seafarer is partially injured or disabled, he is not precluded from earning doing the same work he had before his injury or disability or that he is accustomed or trained to do. Otherwise, if his illness or injury prevents him from engaging in gainful employment for more than 120 or 240 days, as the case may be, he shall be deemed totally and permanently disabled. | |||||
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2015-02-18 |
REYES, J. |
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| Under Section 32[12] of the POEA SEC, only those injuries or disabilities classified as Grade 1 are considered total and permanent. In Kestrel Shipping Co., Inc. v. Munar,[13] the Court read the POEA SEC in harmony with the Labor Code and the AREC, and explained that: (a) the 120 days provided under Section 20(B)(3) of the POEA SEC is the period given to the employer to determine fitness to work and when the seafarer is deemed to be in a state of total and temporary disability; (b) the 120 days of total and temporary disability may be extended up to a maximum of 240 days should the seafarer require further medical treatment; and (c) a total and temporary disability becomes permanent when so declared by the company-designated physician within 120 or 240 days, as the case may be, or upon the expiration of the said periods without a declaration of either fitness to work or permanent disability and the seafarer is still unable to resume his regular seafaring duties.[14] | |||||
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2015-02-11 |
REYES, J. |
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| As noted in Kestrel Shipping Co., Inc. v. Munar,[22] the POEA SEC provides merely the minimum acceptable terms in a seafarer's employment contract, and that in the assessment of whether a seafarer's injury is partial and permanent, the same must be so characterized not only under the Schedule of Disabilities found in Section 32 of the POEA SEC, but also under the relevant provisions of the Labor Code and the AREC implementing Title II, Book IV of the Labor Code.[23] Article 192(c) of the Labor Code provides that temporary total disability lasting continuously for more than 120 days, except as otherwise provided in the AREC, shall be deemed total and permanent; Section 2(b) of Rule VII of the AREC also provides that: [D]isability is total and permanent if as a result of the injury or sickness the employee is unable to perform any gainful occupation for a continuous period exceeding 120 days, except as otherwise provided under Rule X of these Rules. (Italics ours) | |||||
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2015-01-28 |
REYES, J. |
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| In Kestrel Shipping Co., Inc. v. Munar,[37] likewise involving a seafarer who had sustained a spinal injury and had lost two-thirds of his trunk's lifting power, the Court is emphatic that: Indeed, under Section 32 of the POEA-SEC, only those injuries or disabilities that are classified as Grade 1 may be considered as total and permanent. However, if those injuries or disabilities with a disability grading from 2 to 14, hence, partial and permanent, would incapacitate a seafarer from performing his usual sea duties for a period of more than 120 or 240 days, depending on the need for further medical treatment, then he is, under legal contemplation, totally and permanently disabled. x x x. | |||||
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2015-01-14 |
SERENO, C.J. |
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| The Court has already delineated the effectivity of the Crystal Shipping and Vergara rulings in the 2013 case Kestrel Shipping Co. Inc. v. Munar,[29] by explaining as follows:Nonetheless, Vergara was promulgated on October 6, 2008, or more than two (2) years from the time Munar filed his complaint and observance of the principle of prospectivity dictates that Vergara should not operate to strip Munar of his cause of action for total and permanent disability that had already accrued as a result of his continued inability to perform his customary work and the failure of the company-designated physician to issue a final assessment. | |||||
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2014-11-19 |
MENDOZA, J. |
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| In his Comment,[19] Michael counters that the 120-day period in Valenzona[20] applies to him. He asserts what determines a seafarer's permanent disability is his inability to resume his customary work for a period of 120 days, notwithstanding any fit-to-work declaration or impediment rating issued by the company-designated physician, as has been fortified in the recent cases of Wallem Maritime Services, Inc. v. Tanawan (Wallem Maritime Services),[21] and Kestrel Shipping Co., Inc. v. Munar (Kestrel Shipping).[22] Michael adds that petitioners' reliance on the Vergara and Pacbasin cases, among others, was misplaced. | |||||
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2014-09-17 |
REYES, J. |
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| Clearly, there was a breach by Dr. Lim of his obligation as the company-designated physician. Although Libang repeatedly argued that Dr. Lim failed to give an assessment of his illness, herein respondents and Dr. Lim failed to explain and justify such failure. In Kestrel Shipping Co., Inc. v. Munar,[43] the Court emphasized that the company-designated physician is expected to arrive at a definite assessment of the seafarer's fitness or permanent disability within the 120 or 240 days, as the case may be; otherwise, he shall be deemed totally and permanently disabled.[44] The Court shall, nonetheless, not make such a declaration in this case because by Libang's plea for a reinstatement of the labor tribunals' rulings, he was of the position that his disability was not total and permanent. | |||||
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2014-04-21 |
REYES, J. |
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| This Court, moreover, agrees with the CA regarding the applicability of the doctrine in the case of Crystal Shipping that a seafarer's continuous inability to work due to a work-related illness for a period of more than 120 days need not be qualified by a declaration of fitness to work by a company-designated physician for it to be considered as a permanent total disability which is compensable. It would, thus, be illogical to apply the ruling laid down in Vergara which was promulgated on October 6, 2008, or more than two years from the time the complaint was filed. The observance of the principle of prospectivity dictates that Vergara should not operate to strip the respondent of his cause of action for total and permanent disability that accrued since the time of his inability to perform his customary work.[40] | |||||
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2014-01-13 |
DEL CASTILLO, J. |
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| rights in the event of work-related injury, illness or death. It may likewise be true that under respondent's POEA Standard Employment Contract, only those injuries or disabilities that are classified as Grade 1 are considered total and permanent. However, the Court has made it clear, in Kestrel Shipping Co., Inc. v. Munar,[43] that x x x if those injuries or disabilities with a disability grading from 2 to 14, hence, partial and permanent, would incapacitate a seafarer from performing his usual sea duties for a period of more than 120 or 240 days, depending on the need for further medical | |||||