Case Digest: SM Agri and General Machineries, January 9 1989, G.R. No. L-74806, January 9, 1989.

Labor Law | Appeal

  • Vivencio Abo was employed as as Officer-in-Charge (OIC) by SM Industries in 1976, later SM Agricultural and General Machineries until termination in 1982.
  • Abo filed a complaint for unlawful dismissal and damages.
  • Petitioner's defense was Abo's willful disobedience in reporting responsibilities justifying termination.
  • Labor Arbiter: Ordered petitioner to reinstate Abo with backwages, unpaid salary, emergency allowances, 13th-month pay, service incentive leave, moral damages, exemplary damages, and attorney's fees.
  • NLRC: Dismissed the appeal, citing late filing within the 10-day period.
  • Petitioner's Motion for Reconsideration:
    • Argued that the appeal was filed within the 10-day period.
    • The petitioner claimed it was physically impossible to file the appeal on 20 April 1984 due to Good Friday, a legal holiday. The appeal was submitted on 23 April 1984, the first business day after the legal holiday.
    • Despite acknowledging that the appeal was filed on the 13th day, the petitioner argued that strict application of the 10-day period should not be enforced in this case.
  • NLRC: Denied the motion.

WoN  the NLRC committed grave abuse of discretion in dismissing petitioner’s appeal on the ground of tardiness or late filing. YES

We sustain petitioner’s argument that when the last day for filing an appeal falls on a legal Holiday, the same can be filed on the next business day following said Legal Holiday. In fact, the Revised Administrative Code, specifically, Sec. 31, Art. VIII thereof, clearly provides that:

"Sec. 31. Pretermission of Holiday — Where the day, or the last day, for doing any act required or permitted by law falls on a holiday, the act may be done on the next succeeding business day."

In the instant case, the records show that petitioner actually received the Labor Arbiter’s decision on 10 April 1984. Following the 10-day period requirement of the Labor Code, the last day to appeal therefore was 20 April 1984, or the 10th calendar day from 10 April 1984. But since 20 April 1984 was a legal Holiday, it being Good Friday, and the next day, Saturday, was also declared a non-working public holiday by presidential proclamation No. 2353, the appeal could be filed (as it was actually filed) on the next business day which was 23 April 1984, a Monday, in accordance with the above-quoted administrative code provision.

Public respondent NLRC cites the case of Vir-Jen Shipping and Marine Services v. NLRC in its 29 November 1985 resolution. This Court reiterates the doctrine enunciated in said case that the 10-day period provided in Art. 223 of the Labor Code refers to 10 calendar days and not 10 working days. This means that Saturdays, Sundays and Legal Holidays are not to be excluded, but included, in counting the 10-day period. This is in line with the objective of the law for speedy disposition of labor cases with the end in view of protecting the interests of the working man.

The ruling in the Vir-Jen Shipping case does not however apply to the case at bar. This is not a case of a Legal Holiday falling within the period, between the day when the decision appealed from was received and the last day to appeal or the 10th day. Instead, we have here a case where the Legal Holiday is coincidentally the 10th or the last day to appeal. NLRC’s contention that petitioner’s appeal was filed out of time because 20 April was the last day to file the appeal, and a Legal Holiday is deemed included in the computation of the 10-day reglementary period, is untenable. Sec. 31, Art. VIII of the Revised Administrative Code, and not the case of Vir-Jen Shipping, applies to the peculiar facts of this case.

Therefore, while upholding the interpretation made in the Vir-Jen Shipping case that the 10-day period fixed by Art. 223 of the Labor Code contemplates calendar days and not working days, the court recognizes an exception to this general rule, i.e., where the 10th day is a Sunday or a Legal Holiday, in which event, the appeal can be filed on the next business day. Consequently, in such a case, the supposedly last day to appeal will not be deemed the last day because it happens to be a Sunday or Legal Holiday. Instead, the act can be done on the next business day following that Sunday or Legal Holiday. Stated differently, the ruling in Vir-Jen Shipping case contemplates a situation where one is burdened with the task of computing a 10-day period which includes a Saturday, Sunday or Legal Holiday and not when the 10th day falls on a Sunday or Legal Holiday. To be noted is the fact that Saturday (unless legally declared a holiday) is considered a business day and therefore if the last day to appeal falls on a Saturday, the act is still due on that day and not on the next succeeding business day.

Without going into the merits of petitioner’s appeal, we hold that the NLRC erred in dismissing the appeal on the ground that it was filed out of time.

ACCORDINGLY, the petition is GRANTED. The 29 November 1985 and 7 April 1986 resolutions of the NLRC are hereby ANNULLED and SET ASIDE. The NLRC is ordered to give due course to petitioner’s motion for reconsideration and/or appeal for resolution on the merits thereof.

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