SECOND DIVISION
[UDK-17012. February 23, 2022.]
CROSSWORLD MARINE SERVICE, INC.,*MEADWAY SHIPPING AND TRADING, INC., ARCANGEL CHRISTIA MARCOS, petitioners, vs.RENATO ABONALES SABERON, respondent.
NOTICE
Sirs/Mesdames :
Please take notice that the Court, Second Division, issued a Resolution dated23 February 2022which reads as follows:
"UDK-17012 (Crossworld Marine Service, Inc., Meadway Shipping and Trading, Inc., Arcangel Christia Marcos v. Renato Abonales Saberon). — After a judicious study of the case, the Court resolves to DENY the instant petition 1 and AFFIRM with MODIFICATION the Decision 2 dated November 28, 2019 of the Court of Appeals (CA) in CA-G.R. SP No. 158405 for failure of petitioners Crossworld Marine Service, Inc., Meadway Shipping and Trading, Inc., and Arcangel Christia Marcos to sufficiently show that the CA committed any reversible error in finding respondent Renato Abonales Saberon (respondent) to be entitled to total and permanent disability benefits and attorney's fees.
As correctly ruled by the CA, respondent's claim for total and permanent disability benefits is meritorious since the company-designated physician in this case failed to issue a final and definite medical assessment of his illness within the mandatory 120/240-day periods provided by law. Jurisprudence instructs that when a seafarer suffers a work-related illness in the course of his employment, the employer is obliged to refer him or her to a company-designated physician, who has the responsibility to arrive at a final and definite assessment of the seafarer's degree of disability within a period of 120 days from repatriation. This period may be extended up to a maximum of 240 days, if it is properly established that the seafarer requires further medical treatment. 3 Notably, to be deemed valid, said assessment must be final, definite, and unconditional; otherwise, the law steps in and deems the gravity of the illness to be total and permanent, 4 as in this case.
Moreover, in line with prevailing jurisprudence, interest at the legal rate of six percent (6%) per annum is hereby imposed on the judgment award from the finality of this Resolution until full payment.
SO ORDERED."
By authority of the Court:
(SGD.) TERESITA AQUINO TUAZONDivision Clerk of Court
Footnotes
* Also referred to as 'Crossworld Marine Services, Inc.' in some parts of the rollo.
1.Rollo, pp. 3-21.
2.Id. at 38-54. Penned by Associate Justice Marie Christine Azcarraga-Jacob with Associate Justices Jane Aurora C. Lantion and Geraldine C. Fiel-Macaraig, concurring.
3. See Ampo-on v. Reinier Pacific International Shipping, Inc., G.R. No. 240614, June 10, 2019.
4. See Salas v. Transmed Manila Corporation, G.R. No. 247221, June 15, 2020 and Ampo-on v. Reinier Pacific International Shipping, Inc., supra.