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    Abosta Shipmanagement Corp. vs. Segui

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    Crim Villalva
    The document discusses a case involving a seafarer, Dante Segui, claiming permanent and total disability benefits from his employers. The Supreme Court affirmed lower court rulings that Segui was entitled to such benefits. Key points: 1. Segui suffered a back injury while working excessive hours on a ship and was diagnosed with lumbar disc problems. 2. The company's physician failed to assess Segui's disability level within 120 days as required, instead issuing an assessment on day 219. 3. Per established doctrine, the physician's failure to assess within 120 days without justification means the disability is deemed permanent and total. 4. As Segui's inability to work exceeded 120 days,

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    Abosta Shipmanagement Corp. vs. Segui

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    Crim Villalva
    107 views3 pages
    The document discusses a case involving a seafarer, Dante Segui, claiming permanent and total disability benefits from his employers. The Supreme Court affirmed lower court rulings that Segui was entitled to such benefits. Key points: 1. Segui suffered a back injury while working excessive hours on a ship and was diagnosed with lumbar disc problems. 2. The company's physician failed to assess Segui's disability level within 120 days as required, instead issuing an assessment on day 219. 3. Per established doctrine, the physician's failure to assess within 120 days without justification means the disability is deemed permanent and total. 4. As Segui's inability to work exceeded 120 days,

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    The document discusses a case involving a seafarer, Dante Segui, claiming permanent and total disability benefits from his employers. The Supreme Court affirmed lower court rulings that Segui was entitled to such benefits. Key points: 1. Segui suffered a back injury while working excessive hours on a ship and was diagnosed with lumbar disc problems. 2. The company's physician failed to assess Segui's disability level within 120 days as required, instead issuing an assessment on day 219. 3. Per established doctrine, the physician's failure to assess within 120 days without justification means the disability is deemed permanent and total. 4. As Segui's inability to work exceeded 120 days,

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    107 views3 pages

    Abosta Shipmanagement Corp. vs. Segui

    Uploaded by

    Crim Villalva
    The document discusses a case involving a seafarer, Dante Segui, claiming permanent and total disability benefits from his employers. The Supreme Court affirmed lower court rulings that Segui was entitled to such benefits. Key points: 1. Segui suffered a back injury while working excessive hours on a ship and was diagnosed with lumbar disc problems. 2. The company's physician failed to assess Segui's disability level within 120 days as required, instead issuing an assessment on day 219. 3. Per established doctrine, the physician's failure to assess within 120 days without justification means the disability is deemed permanent and total. 4. As Segui's inability to work exceeded 120 days,

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    of 3

    TOPIC PART IX – Total and Permanent Disability Benefits

    CASE NO. G.R. No. 214906


    CASE NAME Abosta Shipmanagement Corporation, et. al vs. Segui
    DATE January 16, 2019
    PETITIONER Abosta Shipmanagement Corp., Cido Shipping Company LTD., and Alex S.
    Estabillo
    RESPONDENT Dante C. Segui
    TYPE OF CASE Petition for review on certiorari

    DOCTRINE
    In the case of Elburg Shipmanagement Phils., Inc. v. Quiogue, the Court expounded that if there
    is a claim for total and permanent benefit disability benefits by a seafarer, the following rules
    shall govern:
    1. The company-designated physician must issue a final medical assessment on the
    seafarer's disability grading within a period of 120 days from the time the seafarer
    reported to him;
    2. If the company-designated physician fails to give his assessment within the period of 120
    days, without any justifiable reason, then the seafarer's disability becomes permanent and
    total;
    3. If the company-designated physician fails to give his assessment within the period of 120
    days with a sufficient justification (e.g.,seafarer required further medical treatment or
    seafarer was uncooperative),then the period of diagnosis and treatment shall be extended
    to 240 days. The employer has the burden to prove that the company-designated
    physician has sufficient justification to extend the period; and
    4. If the company-designated physician still fails to give his assessment within the extended
    period of 240 days, then the seafarer's disability becomes permanent and total, regardless
    of any justification.

    FACTS
     Dante C. Segui (Segui) alleged that he was hired by Abosta Shipmanagement
    Corporation (Abosta), Cido Shipping Company, Ltd. (Cido), and Alex Estabillo
    (Estabillo) as an able seaman; that prior to his deployment, he underwent the required
    pre-employment medical examination of which he was declared fit to work.
     During his employment, he would be on duty for more than 12 hours a day resulting in
    extreme fatigue and exhaustion.
    o While on duty, he felt cramps followed by a severe back pain; that the next day,
    he was unable to stand and remained in his cabin for the rest of the voyage.
    o He was diagnosed with a lumbar disc problem and was recommended
    repatriation.
     When he arrived in Manila and was referred to Manila Doctors Hospital where a CT Scan
    showed that he was suffering from Lumbar Spondylosis.
     Segui sought the opinion of Dr. Nicanor Escutin and that after a thorough examinations
    and test, concluded that the nature and extent of Segui’s injury rendered him permanently
    and totally unfit to work as a seafarer, thus, Segui asked Abosta, Cido, and Estabillo to
    pay his total and permanent disability, however, they refused. Hence, this complaint.
     Abosta, Cido, and Estabillo do not dispute the circumstances of Segui’s engagement and
    subsequent deployment to his assigned vessel, as well as his repatriation on medical
    claims, but deny liability of the claims.
    o They aver that Segui is only entitled to the compensation corresponding to the
    assessment made by the company-designated physician; that there is no basis to
    claim permanent total disability compensation; that Segui failed to prove his
    entitlement to full disability compensation; and that the findings of the company-
    designated physician are binding on Segui.

    ISSUE/S and HELD


    W/N Segui is entitled to maximum benefit of permanent and total disability benefits? YES

    RATIO
    In the present case, the records reveal that from Segui's repatriation and immediate referral to the
    company-designated physician on December 2, 2010 until the 120-day period on March 31,
    2011, the latter did not issue a medical assessment on Segui's disability grading. It was only on
    the 219th day or on July 8, 2011, when Segui reached the maximum medical cure, that the
    company-designated physician issued a disability rating of "Grade 8 disability — moderate
    rigidity or 2/3 loss of motion or lifting power of the trunk." Notably, the company-designated
    physician did not determine Segui's fitness to work. Clearly, there was non-compliance with
    Items 1 and 2 of the rules on claim for total and permanent disability benefits cited in the
    Elburg case. The company-designated physician failed to issue a medical assessment within
    the 120-day period from the time Segui reported to him, and there was no justifiable reason
    for such failure. Likewise, there was no sufficient justification to extend the 120-day period
    to 240 days. Thus, following the above rules, Segui's disability becomes permanent and total,
    and entitles him to permanent and total disability benefits under his contract and the collective
    bargaining agreement.

    Here, the records of the case are replete with support that Segui’s injury is permanent and total,
    and that he is entitled to permanent and total disability benefits as unanimously declared by the
    LA, the NLRC, and the CA.

    DISPOSTIVE PORTION
    WHEREFORE, premises considered, the Court of Appeals Decision dated July 31, 2014 and the
    Resolution dated October 14, 2014 in CA-G.R. SP No. 130277 are AFFIRMED with
    MODIFICATION in that legal interest at the rate of 6% per annum hereby imposed on the
    monetary award for permanent and total disability benefits due Dante C. Segui, be reckoned
    from the finality of this Decision until full satisfaction thereof.

    Other notes:
     Disability is considered total if there is disablement of an employee to earn wages in the
    same kind of work of similar nature that he was trained for, or accustomed to perform, or
    any kind of work, which a person of his mentality and attainments could do. It does not
    mean absolute helplessness. The disability is considered permanent if there is inability
    of a worker to perform his job for more than 120 days, regardless of whether he loses the
    use of any part of his body.
     What determines entitlement to permanent disability benefits is the inability to
    work for more than 120 days.

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