[ G.R. No. 173631. September 08, 2010 ] 644 Phil. 588
SECOND DIVISION
[ G.R. No. 173631. September 08, 2010 ]
PASIG CYLINDER MFG., CORP., A.G. & E ALLIED SERVICES, MANUEL ESTEVANEZ, SR., AND VIRGILIO GERONIMO, SR., PETITIONERS, VS. DANILO ROLLO, REYNALDO ORANDE, RONIE JOHN ESPINAS, ROGELIO JUAREZ, FELICIANO BERMUDEZ, DAVID OCLARINO, RODRIGO ANDICO, DANTE CALA-OD, JOSE RONNIE SERENIO, CHARLIE AGNO, EDWIN BEDES, JOSEPH RIVERA, FERNANDO SAN PEDRO, JESUS CABRERA, ANASTICO ALINGAS, EDUARDO GUBAN, ROLANDO DEMANO, ROBERTO PINUELA, AND EMELITO LOBO, RESPONDENTS. D E C I S I O N
CARPIO, J.:
The Case
For review[1] are the rulings[2] of the Court of Appeals affirming the dismissal of a labor case for late filing and payment of the appeal bond.
The Facts
Petitioners Pasig Cylinder Manufacturing Corporation and A.G. & E Allied Services are cylinder gas tank manufacturers and repairers commonly operated by their officers, petitioners Manuel Estevanez, Sr. and Virgilio Geronimo, Sr. (Geronimo). Respondents, numbering 19, sued[3] petitioners before the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC) for constructive dismissal and payment of employment benefits and damages. Respondents alleged that they were employees of petitioners whom petitioners arbitrarily denied regular work since December 1999 and, in May 2000, were altogether refused entry to their workplace. Respondents also claimed underpayment of wages and non-payment of 13th month pay, service incentive leave pay, and holiday pay. Petitioners denied respondents’ claims, contending that the loss of a major client constrained them to reduce the volume of work and shorten respondents’ workweek to three days. Respondents reacted adversely to the downscaling and refused to follow shift assignments, disrupting what remains of petitioners’ business. As a compromise, petitioners offered respondents separation benefits equivalent to a portion of their total years of service but respondents rejected the offer.[4]
The Ruling of the Labor Arbiter
The labor arbiter[5] ruled for respondents,[6] found petitioners liable for constructive dismissal with the ancillary obligation to pay backwages and separation pay in lieu of reinstatement. Further, the arbiter held petitioners liable for wage differential, holiday pay, 13th month pay, and service incentive leave pay, save for respondents Danilo Rollo, Emelito Lobo, Ronnie John Espinas, Jose Ronnie Serenio, Roberto Pinuela, Reynaldo Orande, and David Oclarino whom the arbiter found to have received payment for these benefits. In sum, the arbiter found petitioners liable for P3,132,335.57. The arbiter refused to award damages for lack of basis.[7] On 24 September 2001, a copy of the arbiter’s ruling, sent through mail, was received by one Arnel Naronio (Naronio), the security guard manning the compound where several businesses, including petitioners’, operated. The document was given to petitioners the following day, 25 September 2001. Ten days later, on 5 October 2001, petitioners filed their appeal with the NLRC with a motion to reduce the amount of the appeal bond to P100,000, enclosing a bond in that amount. Petitioners attached to their appeal copies of payrolls, payment ledgers, leave applications, and other documents allegedly indicating payment to respondents of 13th month pay, service incentive leave pay, and holiday pay.
The Ruling of the NLRC
The NLRC found the appeal barred by prescription and dismissed it. The NLRC reckoned the 10-day appeal period under Article 223 of the Labor Code, as amended, from Naronio’s receipt of the arbiter’s ruling on 24 September 2001. Consequently, the NLRC deemed petitioners’ appeal bond similarly barred by prescription, not to mention that its amount was less than the monetary award adjudged in the appealed ruling.[8] After unsuccessfully seeking reconsideration,[9] petitioners appealed to the Court of Appeals in a petition for certiorari. On the issue of prescription, petitioners contended that instead of counting the appeal period from 24 September 2001, the NLRC should have done so from their receipt of the arbiter’s ruling on 25 September 2001, consistent with relevant jurisprudence. Thus reckoned, their appeal and appeal bond, filed on 5 October 2001, were filed within the 10-day appeal period. On the validity of their reduced appeal bond, petitioners cited precedents allowing such practice for valid reasons. Petitioners submitted that the large amount of the monetary award and their downscaled operations constrained them to seek a reduction of the appeal bond’s amount. On the merits, petitioners reiterated their non-liability, maintaining that respondents reacted adversely to the downscaled operations by going on unauthorized leaves and making known their intention to cease reporting for work. Petitioners also claimed that there is no basis to hold them liable for non-payment of employment benefits because they were not remiss in their obligations under the Labor Code as borne out by the company records they submitted to the NLRC.
The Ruling of the Court of Appeals
The Court of Appeals sustained the NLRC and dismissed the petition. The appellate court saw no reason to disturb the NLRC’s ruling, invoking the mandatory nature of appellate prescriptive periods, and, in labor cases, of the timely filing of the proper amount of appeal bond. Petitioners’ motion for reconsideration was similarly denied.[10] Hence, this petition. Aside from reiterating the contentions raised before the Court of Appeals, petitioners call the Court’s attention to an alleged clerical error in the dispositive portion of the arbiter’s ruling awarding 13th month pay to the seven respondents whom the arbiter had excluded from such benefit.
The Issues
The petition raises the following issues: (1) Whether petitioners’ appeal and appeal bond filed with the NLRC were barred by prescription; and (2) If in the negative, whether petitioners are liable (a) for constructive dismissal; and (b) non-payment of 13th month pay, service incentive leave pay, and holiday pay.[11]
The Ruling of the Court
We hold that (1) petitioners’ appeal with the NLRC was seasonably filed and their submission of a reduced appeal bond was justified; (2) petitioners are liable for illegal dismissal; and (3) the questions on respondents’ receipt of 13th month pay, service incentive leave pay, and holiday pay and the arbiter’s erroneous award of 13th month pay to seven of the respondents are factual issues properly resolved by the NLRC on remand.
On the Threshold Issues of Timeliness of Appeal and Filing of Appeal Bond
Petitioners’ Appeal Seasonably Filed The resolution of the question on the timeliness of petitioners’ appeal with the NLRC hinges on the reckoning of the 10-day appeal period under Article 223 of the Labor Code, as amended. Petitioners submit that the reckoning point is their receipt on 25 September 2001 of the mailed copy of the arbiter’s ruling; respondents counter that it is Naronio’s receipt of the ruling on 24 September 2001. The one day difference is pivotal because petitioners filed their appeal on the 10th day from their receipt of the arbiter’s ruling, and, accordingly, on the 11th from the receipt by Naronio. The NLRC and the Court of Appeals found merit in respondents’ submission. We find merit in petitioners’ and thus, reverse. Sections 5 and 6, Rule III of the NLRC’s new rules of procedure (NLRC rules), as amended in 1999,[12] on the service of notices and resolutions and proof of completeness of service, provide:
SECTION 5. SERVICE OF NOTICES AND RESOLUTIONS. - (a) x x x in cases of decision[s] and final awards, copies thereof shall be served on both parties and their counsel/representative by registered mail; x x x For purposes of computing the period of appeal, the same shall be counted from receipt of such decisions, awards, or orders by the counsel of record. SECTION 6. PROOF AND COMPLETENESS OF SERVICE. - The return is prima facie proof of the facts indicated therein. Service by registered mail is complete upon receipt by the addressee or his agent; but if the addressee fails to claim his mail from the post office within five (5) days from the date of first notice of the postmaster, service shall take effect after such time. (Emphasis supplied)
It appears that petitioners were not represented by counsel before the arbiter.[13] Thus, the arbiter’s ruling was mailed to Geronimo and two other individuals[14] with a common address at “#98 San Guillermo St., Buting, 1601 Pasig City."[15] Following the NLRC rules, service of the ruling is completed upon its receipt by Geronimo or his agent from which the 10-day period for appeal will be counted. It is not disputed that Geronimo received a copy of the arbiter’s ruling on 25 September 2001. The question then is whether the receipt the day before, 24 September 2001, of the same document by Naronio constitutes receipt by petitioners’ “agent” within the contemplation of Section 6, Rule III of the NLRC rules. We hold that it does not. Under the Rules of Court and Section 6 (formerly Section 5[16]), Rule III of the NLRC rules, the word “agent” for purposes of serving court processes on juridical persons refers to -
[a] representative so integrated with the corporation sued as to make it a priori supposable that he will realize his responsibilities and know what he should do with any legal papers served on him. x x x x x x x [I]t does not necessarily connote an officer of the corporation. However, though this may include employees other than officers of a corporation, this does not include employees whose duties are not so integrated to the business that their absence or presence will not toll the entire operation of the business.[17] (Emphasis supplied)
It cannot be determined from the records who hired Naronio; but it is also undisputed that petitioners are not his employers. Indeed, Naronio serviced all the businesses operating within the compound where the arbiter’s ruling was mailed. Thus, it is not even necessary to determine whether Naronio’s “duties are not so integrated to the business that [his] absence or presence will not toll the entire operation” of petitioners’ business. This test presupposes that the recipient of the legal document is employed by the addressee. For remedial law purposes, Naronio’s receipt of any processes intended for petitioners was receipt by a stranger, without legal significance to petitioners.[18] Hence, there is merit in petitioners’ submission that they seasonably filed their appeal on 5 October 2001, the 10th day from their receipt of the arbiter’s ruling on 25 September 2001, or within the appeal period in Article 223 of the Labor Code. For ruling to the contrary, thus denying due course to petitioners’ appeal, the appellate court committed reversible error of law.[19] Reduced Appeal Bond not Fatal to Petitioner’s Appeal Nor was petitioners’ filing of a reduced appeal bond fatal to their appeal. True, Article 223 of the Labor Code requires the filing of appeal bond “in the amount equivalent to the monetary award in the judgment appealed from.” However, both the Labor Code[20] and this Court’s jurisprudence[21] abhor rigid application of procedural rules at the expense of delivering just settlement of labor cases. Petitioners’ reasons for their filing of the reduced appeal bond - the downscaling of their operations coupled with the amount of the monetary award appealed - are not unreasonable. Thus, the recourse petitioners adopted constitutes substantial compliance with Article 223 consistent with our ruling in Rosewood Processing, Inc. v. NLRC,[22] where we allowed the appellant to file a reduced bond of P50,000 (accompanied by the corresponding motion) in its appeal of an arbiter’s ruling in an illegal termination case awarding P789,154.39 to the private respondents.
Petitioners’ Liability for Illegal Dismissal and Non-payment of Benefits
No Reversible Error in the Arbiter’s Finding of Illegal Dismissal We find no error in the labor arbiter’s ruling on the question of petitioners’ liability for constructive dismissal. It seems petitioners rested their case on the defense of respondents’ abandonment of work.[23] For this cause to prosper, petitioners should have proved (1) that the failure to report for work was without justifiable reason, and (2) respondents’ intention to sever the employer-employee relationship as shown by some overt acts.[24] Petitioners failed to discharge their burden of proof. On respondents’ non-reporting for work, petitioners failed to rebut respondents’ claim that they were denied entry to their work area and the records substantially support the arbiter’s finding that respondents were placed on shifts “not by weeks but almost by month."[25] Further, petitioners fail to bring to our attention any overt acts of respondents showing clear intention to sever their employment relationship with petitioners. On the contrary, respondents’ act of filing complaints before the NLRC for illegal dismissal shows intent to continue their employment and hold petitioners liable for their constructive dismissal and for non-compliance with labor laws on payment of benefits. We have consistently treated this fact as belying intent to abandon work.[26] Accordingly, petitioners are liable for constructive dismissal for placing respondents on shifts of a few days per month and in eventually denying them workplace access, rendering respondents’ employment impossible, unreasonable or unlikely, leaving them no choice but to quit. Resolution of the Issues of Payment of Benefits and Double Payment of 13th Month Pay to Seven Respondents Properly Pertains to the NLRC Petitioners further claim that the documents they submitted to the NLRC prove payment to respondents of the labor benefits the arbiter awarded to them. The task of resolving this issue, purely factual, properly pertains to the NLRC as the quasi-judicial appellate body to which these documents were presented to review the arbiter’s ruling. True, the labor arbiter was the ideal forum to receive and evaluate these pieces of evidence but the NLRC is not precluded from considering them in light of their apparent merit, consistent with equity and the basic notions of fairness.[27] In discharging this task, the NLRC is to take into account all the documents petitioners attached to their memorandum of appeal, particularly Annexes “GGGGGG” to “IIIIII,” “KKKKKK” and “LLLLLL”[28] which are payment ledgers indicating acknowledgment by some respondents of their receipt of 13th month pay for 1998 and 1999. The NLRC should also pass upon petitioners’ claim of erroneous award of 13th month pay to respondents Danilo Rollo, Emelito Lobo, Ronnie John Espinas, Jose Ronnie Serenio, Roberto Pinuela, Reynaldo Orande, and David Oclarino whom the arbiter found to have been paid such benefit.[29] WHEREFORE, we GRANT the petition in part. We REVERSE the Decision dated 20 March 2006 and Resolution dated 19 July 2006 of the Court of Appeals and REMAND the case to the National Labor Relations Commission for resolution of the question on the liability of petitioners Pasig Cylinder Manufacturing Corporation, A.G. & E Allied Services, Manuel Estevanez, Sr., and Virgilio Geronimo, Sr. to respondents for payment of 13th month pay, service incentive leave pay, and holiday pay. SO ORDERED. Velasco, Jr.,* Peralta, Abad, and Mendoza, JJ., concur.