G.R. No. 245960 , July 14, 2021
United Philippines Lines, Inc. and/or Holland America Line Westours, Inc. and/or Jose Geronimo Consunji, Petitioners, vs. Juanito P. Alkuino, Jr., Respondent.

FACTS

Respondent Juanito P. Alkuino, Jr. was hired by petitioner United Philippines Lines, Inc. (UPLI) as an Assistant Stage Manager for its foreign principal, Holland America Line Westours, Inc., under a four-month contract covered by a Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). He was declared fit for sea duties after a pre-employment medical examination. On March 20, 2015, while on board, he felt back pains after moving boxes. His condition worsened, leading to lower back pains with right leg numbness. He was repatriated on April 13, 2015, for medical reasons. Upon arrival, UPLI referred him to a company-designated physician. An MRI revealed disc degeneration at L4-L5. After physical therapy, surgery was recommended, but respondent refused. On August 5, 2015, the company-designated physician issued a Final Medical Report declaring respondent “deemed maximally medically improved” due to his refusal of surgery and assessed him with a Grade 8 partial permanent disability. Respondent consulted his own doctor, Dr. Manuel Fidel M. Magtira, who assessed him as permanently and totally disabled. Respondent requested a third doctor referral, but UPLI ignored it. Respondent filed a complaint for total and permanent disability benefits with the National Conciliation Mediation Board-Panel of Voluntary Arbitrators (NCMB-PVA). The PVA ruled in favor of respondent, awarding US$72,000.00 in benefits and holding UPLI, Holland, and Jose Geronimo Consunji (UPLI’s president) jointly and severally liable. The Court of Appeals sustained the award of benefits but absolved Consunji from liability. Petitioners elevated the case to the Supreme Court.

ISSUE

1. Whether respondent’s disability is permanent and total or merely partial and permanent.
2. Whether Jose Geronimo Consunji, the owner and president of UPLI, is solidarily liable with UPLI.

RULING

1. On the nature of the disability: The Supreme Court ruled that respondent’s disability is partial and permanent, not total and permanent. The Court found that the company-designated physician issued a final medical assessment within the 120-day reglementary period. The physician’s Final Medical Report dated August 5, 2015, which was within 120 days from respondent’s repatriation on April 13, 2015, definitively assessed respondent with a Grade 8 disability (moderate rigidity or 2/3 loss of motion or lifting power of the trunk). This assessment was final and definitive. The Court emphasized that the mere inability to perform one’s former work does not constitute total and permanent disability under the POEA-SEC or the CBA. The CBA itself defined “Total Disability” as a disability that incapacitates a seafarer from “working for wages in the same kind of work, or work of similar nature that he was trained for or accustomed to perform, or any other kind of work which a person of his mentality and attainments could do.” The company-designated physician’s assessment did not state that respondent was incapable of any gainful employment. Therefore, respondent was only entitled to the disability benefits corresponding to a Grade 8 assessment under the CBA, which is US$16,795.00.
2. On the liability of Jose Geronimo Consunji: The Supreme Court absolved Jose Geronimo Consunji from solidary liability. The Court upheld the CA’s finding that there was no legal basis to hold Consunji, in his personal capacity as UPLI’s president and owner, solidarity liable. The corporate veil cannot be pierced merely because a person is a president and stockholder of a corporation. For personal liability to attach, the corporate veil must be pierced based on specific grounds, such as when the corporate entity is used to commit a fraud or perpetrate a wrong. No evidence of bad faith or any wrongful act by Consunji was presented. Thus, only the corporate entity, UPLI, is liable.
DISPOSITIVE:
The Petition was PARTIALLY GRANTED. The CA Decision was MODIFIED. Respondent Juanito P. Alkuino, Jr. was declared entitled only to partial permanent disability benefits in the amount of US$16,795.00, payable in Philippine currency at the time of payment. Petitioner United Philippines Lines, Inc. (UPLI) was solely liable for this amount.