4/29/2020 E-Library - Information At Your Fingertips: Printer Friendly In contrast, in Leonis Navigation, after the NLRC resolution awarding disability benefits became final and executory, the employer paid the monetary award to the employee. The CA dismissed the employer's petition for certiorari, ruling that the final and executory decisions or resolutions of the NLRC rendered appeals to superior courts moot and academic. This Court disagreed with the CA and held that final and executed decisions of the NLRC did not prevent the CA from reviewing the same under Rule 65 of the Rules of Court. It was further ruled that the employee was estopped from claiming that the case was closed and terminated, considering that the employee's Acknowledgment Receipt stated that such was without prejudice to the final outcome of the petition for certiorari pending before the CA. In the present case, the Receipt of the Judgment Award with Undertaking was fair to both the employer and the employee. As in Leonis Navigation, the said agreement stipulated that respondent should return the amount to petitioner if the petition for certiorari would be granted but without prejudice to respondent's right to appeal. The agreement, thus, provided available remedies to both parties. It is clear that petitioner paid respondent subject to the terms and conditions stated in the Receipt of the Judgment Award with Undertaking.[17] Both parties signed the agreement. Respondent neither refuted the agreement nor claimed that he was forced to sign it against his will. Therefore, the petition for certiorari was not rendered moot despite petitioner's satisfaction of the judgment award, as the respondent had obliged himself to return the payment if the petition would be granted. Return of Excess Payment As the agreement was voluntarily entered into and represented a reasonable settlement, it is binding on the parties and may not later be disowned simply because of a change of mind.[18] Respondent agreed to the stipulation that he would return the amount paid to him in the event that the petition for certiorari would be granted. Since the petition was indeed granted by the CA, albeit partially, respondent must comply with the condition to return the excess amount. The Court finds that the Receipt of the Judgment Award with Undertaking was a fair and binding agreement. It was executed by the parties subject to outcome of the petition. To allow now respondent to retain the excess money judgment would amount to his unjust enrichment to the prejudice of petitioner. Unjust enrichment is a term used to depict result or effect of failure to make remuneration of or for property or benefits received under circumstances that give rise to legal or equitable obligation to account for them. To be entitled to remuneration, one must confer benefit by mistake, fraud, coercion, or request. Unjust enrichment is not itself a theory of reconveyance. Rather, it is a prerequisite for the enforcement of the elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/thebookshelf/showdocsfriendly/1/55882 6/10