813 Phil. 818; 114 OG No. 9, 1432 (February 26, 2018)
TIJAM, J.:
1. REINSTATE to their former positions, without loss of seniority rights, the ILLEGALLY TERMINATED 17 "union officers", x x x, and PAY them BACKWAGES from the time of termination until their actual or payroll reinstatement, provided in the computation of backwages [those] among the seventeen (17) who had received their separation pay (sic) should deduct the payments made to them from the backwages due them.The respondents alleged that they were not absorbed by Philtranco despite the fact that the company was hiring new employees; thus, the respondents, together with other Philtranco employees, filed a labor complaint for illegal dismissal on October 16, 2007, and prayed for reinstatement, backwages and wage differentials. Docketed as NLRC NCR Case No. 00-10-11607-07 (first NLRC case), the complaint essentially assailed the employees' inclusion in the retrenchment program of Philtranco.[4]
2. MAINTAIN the status quo and continue in full force and effect the terms and conditions of the existing CBA - specifically, Article VI on Salaries and Wages (commissions) and Article XI, on Medical and Hospitalization - until a new agreement is reached by the parties; and
3. REMIT the withheld union dues to PWU-AGLO without unnecessary delay.
The PARTIES are enjoined to strictly and fully comply with the provisions of the existing CBA and the other dispositions of this Decision.
SO ORDERED.[3]
WHEREFORE, premises considered, respondents are hereby declared guilty of illegal dismissal and ordered to reinstate complainants immediately to their former positions and to pay them, jointly and severally, full backwages from date of dismissal until actual reinstatement plus their 13th month pay and attorney's [fees] equivalent to 10% of all the monetary award computed as follows:When Philtranco appealed LA Cueto's decision to the NLRC, the commission reversed and set aside LA Cueto's decision on September 15, 2011. Unlike LA Cueto, the commission gave weight to the audited financial statements for the years 2006 and 2007 submitted by Philtranco in the refiled case, but which was not presented in the prior case. The NLRC also disagreed with LA Cueto's application of the law of the case in the refiled complaint, stating that the principle applies only to Olivar.[9]
x x x
COMPLAINANTS, who had received their separation pay should be deducted (sic) from the amount of backwages due them.
SO ORDERED.[8]
The threshold issue for resolution is whether or not the CA correctly applied the principle of the law of the case in the second NLRC complaint.
- The Court of Appeals committed reversible error when it ruled that the retrenchment was invalid and the respondents were illegally dismissed[;]
- The Court of Appeals committed reversible error when it ruled that the "law of the case" applied to respondents' "refiled" labor claim in 2010[; and]
- The Court of Appeals committed reversible error when it ruled that individual petitioners Jose Pepito Alvarez, Arsenio Yap and Centurion Solano were jointly and severally liable for payment of backwages and other awards.[11]
Res judicata literally means "a matter adjudged; a thing judicially acted upon or decided; a thing or matter settled by judgment." It also refers to the rule that a final judgment or decree on the merits by a court of competent jurisdiction is conclusive of the rights of the parties or their privies in all later suits on points and matters determined in the former suit. It rests on the principle that parties should not to be permitted to litigate the same issue more than once; that, when a right or fact has been judicially tried and determined by a court of competent jurisdiction, or an opportunity for such trial has been given, the judgment of the court, so long as it remains unreversed, should be conclusive upon the parties and those in privity with them in law or estate.It is beyond dispute that the determination on the invalidity of the retrenchment in the first NLRC case has attained finality. Moreover, records show that the decision was adjudicated on the merits.
x x x x
The doctrine of res judicata is set forth in Section 47 of Rule 39 of the Rules of Court, which in its relevant part reads:
Sec. 47. Effect of judgments or final orders. The effect of a judgment or final order rendered by a court of the Philippines, having jurisdiction to pronounce the judgment or final order, may be as follows:This provision comprehends two distinct concepts of res judicata: (1) bar by former judgment and (2) conclusiveness of judgment.x x x x
(b) In other cases, the judgment or final order is, with respect to the matter directly adjudged or as to any other matter that could have been raised in relation thereto, conclusive between the parties and their successors in interest by title subsequent to the commencement of the action or special proceeding, litigating for the same thing and under the same title and in the same capacity; and
(c) In any other litigation between the same parties or their successors in interest, that only is deemed to have been adjudged in a former judgment or final order which appears upon its face to have been so adjudged, or which was actually and necessarily included therein or necessary thereto.
The first aspect is the effect of a judgment as a bar to the prosecution of a second action upon the same claim, demand or cause of action. In traditional terminology, this aspect is known as merger or bar; in modem terminology, it is called claim preclusion.
The second aspect precludes the relitigation of a particular fact of issue in another action between the same parties on a different claim or cause of action. This is traditionally known as collateral estoppel; in modern terminology, it is called issue preclusion.
Conclusiveness of judgment finds application when a fact or question has been squarely put in issue, judicially passed upon, and adjudged in a former suit by a court of competent jurisdiction. The fact or question settled by final judgment or order binds the parties to that action (and persons in privity with them or their successors-in-interest), and continues to bind them while the judgment or order remains standing and unreversed by proper authority on a timely motion or petition; the conclusively settled fact or question furthermore cannot again be litigated in any future or other action between the same parties or their privies and successors-in-interest, in the same or in any other court of concurrent jurisdiction, either for the same or for a different cause of action. Thus, only the identities of parties and issues are required for the operation of the principle of conclusiveness of judgment.
While conclusiveness of judgment does not have the same barring effect as that of a bar by former judgment that proscribes subsequent actions, the former nonetheless estops the parties from raising in a later case the issues or points that were raised and controverted, and were determinative of the ruling in the earlier case. In other words, the dictum laid down in the earlier final judgment or order becomes conclusive and continues to be binding between the same parties, their privies and successors-in-interest, as long as the facts on which that judgment was predicated continue to be the facts of the case or incident before the court in a later case; the binding effect and enforceability of that earlier dictum can no longer be re-litigated in a later case since the issue has already been resolved and finally laid to rest in the earlier case.[14]
There is identity of parties where the parties in both actions are the same, or there is privity between them, or they are successors-in-interest by title subsequent to the commencement of the action, litigating for the same thing and under the same title and in the same capacity. Absolute identity of parties is not required, shared identity of interest is sufficient to invoke the coverage of this principle. Thus, it is enough that there is a community of interest between a party in the first case and a party in the second case even if the latter was not impleaded in the first case.In both the first and second NLRC cases, the issue of whether or not complainants were illegally dismissed is hinged on the validity of Philtranco's retrenchment program in 2006 and 2007. Without a doubt, the interests of all the complainants are inextricably intertwined on that factual question.
x x x x
x x x One test to determine substantial identity of interest would be to see whether the success or failure of one party materially affects the other.[15]
x x x Supervening events refer to facts which transpire after judgment has become final and executory or to new circumstances which developed after the judgment has acquired finality, including matters which the parties were not aware of prior to or during the trial as they were not yet in existence at that time. In this case, the Audited Financial Statements could not be considered as a supervening event because the existence thereof should have been established as early as February 2007, the time when the retrenchment of petitioners was effected. Unfortunately, respondents failed to present the same.[16]Contrary to Philtranco's stance that there was no belated filing of the audited financial statements since this is a newer and different case, the factual milieu prevailing at the time the retrenchment was effected is still the same one under consideration. The CA cannot, thus, be faulted for concluding that at the time the retrenchment program was effected in February 2007, Philtranco had no basis and was in fact unaware of the true state of its finances. This, coupled with the records annexed to the case showing that Philtranco hired new employees for the years 2006 to 2010, were taken to belie Philtranco's claim that it exercised the retrenchment of respondents in good faith.[17]
| Very truly yours, |
(SGD) | |
WILFREDO V. LAPITAN | |
Division Clerk of Court |