Ocean Builders Construction Corp., and/or Dennis Hao v.

Spouses Antonia and Anicia Cubacub

GR No. 150898
April 13, 2011

CARPIO-MORALES, J.:

FACTS:
Bladimir Cubacub (Bladimir) was afflicted with chicken pox, he was advised by Dennis Hao
(Hao), the company’s general manager, to rest. Later on Bladimir intended to go home and rest
there. Hao upon learning such fact from Bladimir’s co-worker, gave Bladimir P1000 and ordered him
to go to the Caybiga Community Hospital (CCH). Only primary care was given, Bladimir was confined.
Upon learning such fact, his parents along with Dr. Hermes Frias (Dr. Frias) transferred Bladimir to
a better hospital in Quezon City General Hospital (QCGH). Bladimir was placed in the ICU but died.
2 death certificates were issued, one of QCGH and one from Dr. Frias, both confirming that
it was due to cardio-respiratory problems but different causes. One was Pneumonnia (QCGH) while
the other was chicken pox (Dr. Frias).
The parents of Bladimir, filed a case against Hao before the RTC, for failing to provide
adequate assistance to his employees. The RTC dismissed the complaint, declaring that Hao was not
negligent. The CA however revered the RTC’s decision stating that Hao violated Art. 161 of the labor
code.

ISSUE:
1) Whether Hao was negligent by failing to provide the proper care required by law for his
employees.
2) Whether Hao was the proximate cause of Bladimir’s death due to failing to provide him
with the adequate care needed.

RULING:
NO, Hao was not negligent. Art. 161 states that employers have to provide all the necessary
medical assistance to ensure the adequate medical assistance would be available for an injured and
sick employee if there is an emergency. The implementing rules state that “adequate and immediate”
in relation to an “emergency” shall be determined by the employer, except when a nurse is present.
A nurse will only be present in accordance to Art. 157 when the employer has 50-100 employees.
In the case at hand, it was not proven by the parents of Bladimir that there were such an
amount of employees, and that Hao stated only that there were 7 regular employees and 20
contractual one. Nowhere in the case was it also stated that the company premises were hazardous.
Furthermore, Hao had no medical knowledge and thus thought that 3 days was enough for the
chicken pox to heal based on another worker’s situation. He even sent Bladimir to a hospital.

NO, at all the events, the alleged negligence of Hao cannot be considered as the proximate
cause of the death of Bladimir. Proximate cause is that which, in natural and continuous sequence,
unbroken by an efficient intervening cause, produces injury, and without which, the result would
not have occurred.
An injury or damage is proximately caused by an act or failure to act, whenever it appears
from the evidence in the case that the act or omission played a substantial part in bringing about or
actually causing the injury or damage, and that the injury or damage was either a direct result or a
reasonably probable consequence of the act or omission. Verily, the issue in this case is essentially
factual in nature.
The dissent, apart from adopting the appellate court’s findings, finds that Bladimir
contracted chicken pox from a co-worker and Hao was negligent in not bringing that co-worker to
the nearest physician, or isolating him as well. This finding is not, however, borne by the records.
Nowhere in the appellate court’s or even the trial court’s decision is there any such definite finding
that Bladimir contracted chicken pox from a co-worker. At best, the only allusion to another
employee being afflicted with chicken pox was when Hao testified that he knew it to heal within
three days as was the case of another worker, without reference, however, as to when it
happened.