329 Phil. 280
MENDOZA, J.:
From the facts and evidence, indeed there was no consent obtained from the individual complainants on the settlement arrived at by complainants’ representative Ruben Resus and Narciso Terrado with the respondent Facilities Management Corporation. Ruben Resus and Narciso Terrado as well as respondent Facilities Management Corporation and its subsidiary the Automation Industries, Inc. failed either to inform individual complainants about the terms and conditions of the settlement, much less come up with any plausible explanation how much complainants should individually receive and how the award was distributed. It is no wonder why individual complainants have to complain considering the total award as earlier computed amounted to $2,483,945.83 (Report of Examiner dated April 6, 1982). The award covers about 506 workers.Resus and Terrado appealed to the NLRC, insisting that the case had already been closed and terminated and that the claims of petitioners had already been satisfied.
WHEREFORE, premises considered, judgment is hereby rendered:On private respondents’ motion, however, the NLRC modified its decision and absolved them from liability for the claims of petitioners. The dispositive portion of the NLRC’s resolution, dated September 25, 1992, reads:
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(3) Declaring the Order of August 12, 1987 of Labor Arbiter Alex Lopez as null and void.
Appellants, their counsel Attorney L. Tiu, or the Amante, Tiu, Nalus and Associates Law Office, and respondent corporation are hereby ordered to pay jointly and severally the individual complainants whose names are set forth in the Report of Examiner Nida A. Roldan dated April 6, 1982 (supra), the differences in their claims based on the computations arrived at in the above-stated Report.
SO ORDERED.
WHEREFORE, the decision of March 10, 1992 is hereby reconsidered but only insofar as the finding of movants’ liability is concerned. Accordingly, the decision is modified in that movants [herein private respondents] are absolved from any liability to pay the complainants the differences on their claims based on the computations arrived at as set forth in the Report of Examiner Nida A. Roldan dated April 6, 1982. In all other respects, the assailed decision is hereby AFFIRMED.Hence this petition for certiorari, alleging that the NLRC gravely abused its discretion in:
SO ORDERED.
The rule is that money claims due to laborers cannot be the object of settlement or compromise effected by the union, union officers or counsel without the specific individual consent of each laborer concerned. Their representative can only assist but not decide for them. (Marquez vs. Secretary of Labor, 171 SCRA 337) . . . Appellants, their counsel and respondent company are one in violating these mandates. The infraction of appellants concurring with their counsel and that of respondent company which failed to ascertain the extent of authority of counsel to compromise the award, rendered appellees-complainants in the original forum to sustain damages. Although it is true that in cases of collective obligations, the law presumes joint liability, it cannot hold true in this case as the circumstances speak of a situation where the nature of the obligation requires solidarity. (pp. 26-27, NLRC Decision)In reconsidering this part of its decision, the NLRC, still referring to private respondents’ liability for damages as a result of private respondents’ breach of trust (not to compromise labor claims without specific authority), said:
[T]he imposition of solidary liability was premised on the finding that there was, on the part of movants and respondent Facilities Management Corporation, a disregard of the rule that money claims due to laborers cannot be the object of settlement or compromise effected by their representatives or counsel without the specific individual consent of each laborer concerned. . . .Indeed, it is only now that petitioners say that private respondents are liable not only for damages for breach of trust but for the money claims to which they are entitled because "the difference of their money claims which they are entitled to under the law. . . were not given to them by the respondents who breach[ed] the trust reposed in them by the petitioners-complainants." (p. 12, Petition) Petitioners’ insinuation that the difference between the amount to which they are entitled and that actually paid to them under the compromise agreement was misappropriated by private respondents, including Atty. Arturo L. Tiu, is not borne out at least by the record of this case. Private respondents’ liability, as found by the NLRC, is for damages for breach of trust. Any action to enforce such liability, as well as to recover any amount allegedly misappropriated by private respondents, must be brought in the regular courts. Petitioners’ claim may have arisen in connection with the labor case brought by them but it is not so related or incidental to it as to justify the NLRC in assuming jurisdiction over petitioners’ claim. It is noteworthy that the employers did not point to private respondents as jointly and severally liable with them for the amounts which petitioners failed to receive on account of the compromise agreement.
While We are convinced that the findings of this Body are sufficiently supported by evidence on record, We cannot however disregard the merit of this Motion which calls Us to consider anew the finding of a solidary liability among respondent Facilities Management Corporation, complainants Terrado and Resus, and the Law Office of Amante, Tiu and Naluz. It is noted that while the subject award was not fully satisfied, a judgment for the payment of the balance thereof cannot however be enforced against movants Terrado, Resus and counsel, the nature of complainants’ claim as against the latter being in the nature of enforcement of a liability arising from a contract, express or implied, and/or a breach on account of negligence. This is clearly beyond the jurisdiction of the labor tribunal as set forth in Article 217 of the Labor Code of the Philippines, as amended. . . . (pp. 5-6, NLRC Resolution)