GR L 43235; (December, 1979) (Digest)
G.R. No. L-43235 December 18, 1979
Paterno Villareal, petitioner, vs. The Workmen’s Compensation Commission and City of Caloocan (Health Department), respondents.
FACTS
Paterno Villareal, a laborer for the City of Caloocan Health Department, retired on July 5, 1970, due to illness. On August 2, 1971, he filed a Notice of Injury or Sickness and Claim for Compensation, alleging that his pulmonary tuberculosis supervened on January 18, 1969, during his employment and incapacitated him for labor. The respondent City of Caloocan failed to controvert the claim within the reglementary period. After a hearing, the Acting Referee dismissed the claim for insufficiency of evidence. This dismissal was affirmed by the Workmen’s Compensation Commission, which absolved the City from liability. The claimant died on August 12, 1974, with the cause of death listed as cardio-respiratory failure and pulmonary tuberculosis.
ISSUE
Whether the claim for compensation arising from Paterno Villareal’s pulmonary tuberculosis is compensable and was filed within the prescriptive period.
RULING
Yes, the claim is compensable and was timely filed. The Supreme Court reversed the Commission’s decision. On the issue of prescription, the Court ruled that the ten-year prescriptive period for filing a compensation claim under the Workmen’s Compensation Act, pursuant to Article 1144(2) of the Civil Code, commences from the time the employee becomes disabled from work due to the illness, not from the onset of the sickness itself. Since Villareal retired due to disability on July 5, 1970, and filed his claim on August 2, 1971, it was well within the ten-year period. The employer’s defense of prescription, raised belatedly and without a timely controversion, was deemed waived.
On compensability, the Court applied the disputable presumption under Section 44 of the Workmen’s Compensation Act that an illness which supervenes during employment is compensable. The employer’s failure to controvert the claim resulted in a waiver of all non-jurisdictional defenses, shifting the burden to the employer to prove non-compensability, which it failed to do. Medically, the Court noted that tuberculosis is an imperceptible disease and that Villareal’s work as a laborer, involving exposure to dust and dirt, was a predisposing cause that could weaken resistance to latent infection, establishing a causal connection. Consequently, the heirs of Paterno Villareal were awarded the maximum disability benefit of P6,000.00, attorney’s fees, and an administrative fee.