This case has been cited 2 times or more.
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2016-01-20 |
DEL CASTILLO, J. |
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| Clearly, the Complaint was premature. Respondent has no cause of action yet at the time of its filing as the company-designated doctor has no opportunity to definitely assess his condition because he was still undergoing treatment; and the 240-day period had not lapsed.[43] Moreover, he has no basis for claiming permanent and total disability benefits because he has not yet consulted his doctor-of-choice. | |||||
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2015-10-07 |
DEL CASTILLO, J. |
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| Unfortunately for Saso, none of the above instances justifies his claim for total and permanent disability benefits. As may be recalled, he filed his Complaint on August 3, 2010 or after a mere 105 days from his repatriation on April 20, 2010. Clearly, the 120-day period had not yet lapsed at that time. Moreover, the company-designated physician had not yet issued any declaration as to his fitness or disability. This is considering that at the time of such filing, Saso was still under the care of Dr. Recto as shown by the fact that he was subsequently seen by the said doctor on September 3, 2010. While Saso was able to secure a medical report from Dr. Magtira who assessed him to be suffering from permanent disability of grade 10 and declared him unfit to resume work in his previous occupation, the same is useless and did not provide him the cause of action for total and permanent disability benefits.[42] "Indeed, a seafarer has the right to seek the opinion of other doctors under Sec. 20-B(3) of the POEA-SEC but this is on the presumption that the company-designated physician had already issued a certification as to his fitness or disability and he finds this disagreeable. Under the same provision, it is the company-designated physician who is entrusted with the task of assessing a seafarer's disability and there is a procedure to contest his findings."[43] Without a doubt, Saso has not yet acquired a cause of action for total and permanent disability benefits when he filed his Complaint. At that time, he was, in legal contemplation, considered to be temporarily disabled and thus not entitled to total and permanent disability benefits.[44] | |||||