Wallem Maritime Services, Inc. vs. National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC), and Inductivo
318 SCRA 623, GR No. 130772, November 19, 1999
FACTS:
Petitioner employed private respondent’s husband, Faustino Inductivo, as utilityman for MT Rowan, for a period of ten months. Faustino underwent pre-employment medical examination and his employer's doctors found him physically fit for work, so he boarded the vessel on May 13, 1993, Barely two months before the expiration of his employment contract, or on January 1994, he was discharged from the vessel, under a "mutual consent, on completion of 8 months and 5 days." On January 19, 1994, Faustino was hospitalized after complaining of occasional coughing and chest pains. After a series of transfers from one hospital to another, Faustino was brought to the Makati Medical Center where the doctor found that his disease was already in its advanced stage. Faustino succumbed to his illness on April 23, 1994 and the autopsy report showed as cause of death disseminated intravascular coagulations, septecalmia, pulmonary congestion and multiple intestinal obstruction secondary to multiple adhesions.
Before Faustino death, or sometime in February 1994, respondent Elizabeth Inductivo went to petitioners to claim the balance of her husband’s leave wages. Petitioners said, however, that her husband was not entitled to sickness benefits because he was not sick at the time he was "offsigned" from the vessel; he was "offsigned" from the vessel on "mutual consent" and not on medical grounds; and since he failed to advise or notify petitioners in writing within seventy-two hours of his alleged sickness, his right to claim sickness benefits was deemed forfeited. Respondent Elizabeth filed a compliant against petitioners for the payment of sickness and insurance benefits, which was amended to include death benefits after Faustino died. The Labor Arbiter ordered petitioners to pay the complainant, for herself and in her capacity as guardian of her two minor children. On appeal, the NLRC sustained the Labor Arbiter, and the motion for reconsideration was likewise denied.
ISSUE:
Whether or not the respondent is entitled to death benefits
COURT RULING:
The Supreme Court dismissed the petition, giving credence to the finding of the NLRC that the illness was contracted during the Faustino's employment on board MT Rowan.
The POEA standard employment contract is designed primarily for the protection and benefit of Filipino seamen in the pursuit of their employment on board ocean-going vessels. Its provisions must, therefore, be construed and applied fairly, reasonably and liberally in favor or for the benefit of the seamen and their dependents.
Medical opinions of an employer’s doctor which are palpably self-serving and biased in favor of the employer cannot prevail over the entries in the Death Certificate and Autopsy Report.
It is not required that the employment be the sole factor in the growth, development or acceleration of the illness to entitle the claimant to the benefits provided therefore. It is enough that the employment had contributed, even in a small degree, to the development of the disease and in bringing about his death.
