St. Martin Funeral Home vs.

NLRC
ST. MARTIN FUNERAL HOME, petitioner, vs. NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS COMMISSION and BIENVENIDO ARICAYOS, respondents.

G.R. No. 130866

September 16, 1998

REGALADO, J.:

FACTS:

Private respondent alleges that he started working as Operations Manager of petitioner St. Martin Funeral Home on February 6,
1995. However, there was no contract of employment executed between him and petitioner nor was his name included in the
semi-monthly payroll. On January 22, 1996, he was dismissed from his employment for allegedly misappropriating P38,000.00.
Petitioner on the other hand claims that private respondent was not its employee but only the uncle of Amelita Malabed, the
owner of petitioner St.Martin’s Funeral Home and in January 1996, the mother of Amelita passed away, so the latter took over
the management of the business.

Amelita made some changes in the business operation and private respondent and his wife were no longer allowed to participate
in the management thereof. As a consequence, the latter filed a complaint charging that petitioner had illegally terminated his
employment. The labor arbiter rendered a decision in favor of petitioner declaring that no employer-employee relationship
existed between the parties and therefore his office had no jurisdiction over the case.

ISSUE: WON the decision of the NLRC are appealable to the Court of Appeals.

RULING:

The Court is of the considered opinion that ever since appeals from the NLRC to the SC were eliminated, the legislative
intendment was that the special civil action for certiorari was and still is the proper vehicle for judicial review of decisions of the
NLRC. The use of the word appeal in relation thereto and in the instances we have noted could have been a lapsus plumae
because appeals by certiorari and the original action for certiorari are both modes of judicial review addressed to the appellate
courts. The important distinction between them, however, and with which the Court is particularly concerned here is that the
special civil action for certiorari is within the concurrent original jurisdiction of this Court and the Court of Appeals; whereas to
indulge in the assumption that appeals by certiorari to the SC are allowed would not subserve, but would subvert, the intention
of the Congress as expressed in the sponsorship speech on Senate Bill No. 1495.

Therefore, all references in the amended Section 9 of B.P No. 129 to supposed appeals from the NLRC to the Supreme Court are
interpreted and hereby declared to mean and refer to petitions for certiorari under Rule65. Consequently, all such petitions
should henceforth be initially filed in the Court of Appeals in strict observance of the doctrine on the hierarchy of courts as the
appropriate forum for the relief desired.