6/7/2020 E-Library - Information At Your Fingertips: Printer Friendly Time and again, the Court has consistently ruled that disability should not be understood more on its medical significance but on the loss of earning capacity. Permanent total disability means disablement of an employee to earn wages in the same kind of work, or work of similar nature that she was trained for or accustomed to perform, or any kind of work which a person of her mentality and attainment could do. It does not mean absolute helplessness. In disability compensation, it is not the injury which is compensated, but rather it is the incapacity to work resulting in the impairment of one's earning capacity. Lastly, it is right that petitioner be awarded moral and exemplary damages and attorney's fees. Article 2220 of the Civil Code provides: Willful injury to property may be a legal ground for awarding moral damages if the court should find that, under the circumstances, such damages are justly due. The same rule applies to breaches of contract where the defendant acted fraudulently or in bad faith. Here, petitioner's illness and disability were the direct results of the demands of his shipboard employment contract and the harsh and inhumane treatment of the officers on board the vessel Olandia. For no justifiable reason, respondents refused to pay their contractual obligations in bad faith. Further, it cannot be gainsaid that petitioner's disability is not only physical but mental as well because of the severe depression, mental torture, anguish, embarrassment, anger, sleepless nights and anxiety that befell him. To protect his rights and interest, petitioner was constrained to institute his complaint below and hire the services of an attorney. (Emphasis supplied) Permanent and Total Disability, Benefits and Medical Expenses The Court finds as well that Godinez suffered permanent total disability, as there has been no definite medical assessment by the company-designated physician regarding his condition - even up to now. "The company-designated doctor is expected to arrive at a definite assessment of the seafarer's fitness to work or. to determine [the degree of] his disability within a period of 120 or 240 days from repatriation, [as the case may be. If after the lapse of the 120/240-day period the seafarer remains incapacitated and the company-designated physician has not yet declared him fit to work or determined his degree of disability,] the seafarer is deemed totally and permanently disabled."[55] The defense that Godinez was cured and became fit for work is founded on an unsigned March 12, 2004 Medical Progress Report (Annex "M" of Career and Columbian's Position Paper[56]) stating that Godinez was "asymptomatic and doing well with no recurrence of depressive episodes;"[57] that Godinez "verbalized a feeling of wellness;"[58] that his "[v]ital signs were stable;"[59] that he was in a "euthymic mood, and is able to sleep and eat well;"[60] and that he was "found to be functionally stable elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/thebookshelf/showdocsfriendly/1/63469 25/31