Halagueña, et al.

vs PAL 
GR No. 172013, October 2, 2009

FACTS:

Petitioners were employed as flight attendants of respondent on different dates prior to November 1996.
They are members of FASAP union exclusive bargaining organization of the flight attendants, flight stewards and
pursers. On July 2001, respondent and FASAP entered into a CBA incorporating the terms and conditions of their
agreement for the years 2000 to 2005 (compulsory retirement of 55 for female and 60 for males).

In July 2003, petitioner and several female cabin crews, in a letter, manifested that the provision in CBA on
compulsory retirement is discriminatory. On July 2004, petitioners filed a Special Civil Action for Declaratory
Relief with issuance of TRO with the RTC Makati for the invalidity of the assailed provision of the CBA . The RTC
issued a TRO. Aggrieved, PAL, filed a Petition for Certiorari and Prohibition with Prayer for a Temporary
Restraining Order and Writ of Preliminary Injunction with the Court of Appeals praying that the order of the RTC
which denied its objection to its jurisdiction, be annulled and set aside for having been issued without and/or with grave abuse of discretion
amounting to lack of jurisdiction. CA granted respondent’s petition and ordered lower court to dismiss the case. Hence,
this petition.

Issue:

Whether or not the regular courts has jurisdiction over the case.

Ruling:

Yes. The subject of litigation is incapable of pecuniary estimation, exclusively cognizable by the RTC.
Being an ordinary civil action, the same is beyond the jurisdiction of labor tribunals.

Not every controversy or money claim by an employee against the employer or vice-versa is within the
exclusive jurisdiction of the labor arbiter. Actions between employees and employer where the employer-employee
relationship is merely incidental and the cause of action precedes from a different source of obligation is within the
exclusive jurisdiction of the regular court. Here, the employer- employee relationship between the parties is
merely incidental and the cause of action ultimately arose from different sources of obligation, i.e., the Constitution and
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).