SECOND DIVISION
[G.R. No. 116629. January 16, 1998]
NFD INTERNATIONAL MANNING AGENTS and BARBER INTERNATIONAL A/S,
petitioners, vs. THE NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS COMMISSION and NELIA
MISADA, for herself and in behalf of her minor children CAESAR and ALPHA JOY, all
surnamed MISADA and HIMAYA ENVIDIADO, for herself and in behalf of her minor
children HENREA, HAZEL, and HENDRICK, all surnamed ENVIDIADO, respondents.
DECISION
PUNO, J.:
This special civil action for certiorari seeks to annul and set aside the decision dated
April 25, 1994 of the National Labor Relations Commission which ordered petitioners to
pay a total of U.S.$26,641.42 as death benefits to private respondents.
Petitioner NFD International Manning Agents, Inc., a domestic manning corporation,
engaged the services of Eduardo P. Misada and Enrico A. Envidiado to work for
petitioner Barber International A/S (Barber), a Norwegian shipping company. Misada
and Envidiado were hired as second and third officers, respectively, on board the vessel
M/V Pan Victoria. They were to travel from Sweden to South Korea for a period of ten
months from January 1991 to November 1991.
On July 5, 1991, private respondent Nelia Misada received notice that her husband,
Eduardo Misada, died on June 28, 1991 while on board the M/V Pan Victoria. On July
12, 1991, private respondent Himaya Envidiado likewise received notice that her
husband, Enrico Envidiado, died on board the vessel.
As heirs of the deceased seamen, private respondents, in their behalf and in behalf of
their minor children, filed for death compensation benefits under the Philippine
Overseas Employment Agency (POEA) Standard Contract of Employment and the
Norwegian National Insurance Scheme (NIS) for Filipino Officers. Their claims were
denied by petitioners.
Private respondents filed separate complaints before the POEA Adjudication Office.
They prayed for U.S.$13,000.00 each as death compensation under the POEA
Standard Contract of Employment and U.S.$30,000.00 for each wife and U.S.$8,000.00
for each child under eighteen years under the Norwegian NIS.i[1]
In their Answer, petitioners claimed that private respondents are not entitled to death
benefits on the ground that the seamen's deaths were due to their own willful act. They
alleged that the deceased were among three (3) Filipino seamen who implanted
fragments of reindeer horn in their respective sexual organs on or about June 18, 1991;
that due to the lack of sanitary conditions at the time and place of implantation, all three