SC decided case on claims for death benefit

Seafarer Eduardo was repatriated to the Philippines for getting ill barely a month after coming on board the vessel. Around two years after repatriation, Eduardo died of Pneumonia as the immediate cause and AIDS as underlying cause. Eduardo’s family sued for payment of death benefits.

The Supreme Court ruled that Eduardo’s heirs are not entitled to death benefits. For death of a seafarer to be compensable, death must occur during the term of his contract of employment. POEA-SEC rules provide that a seafarer’s employment is terminated when he “signs-off and is disembarked for medical reasons.” Here, Eduardo was repatriated for medical reasons (advanced mycobacterium tuberculosis and advanced HIV disease). Thus, when Eduardo died around two (2) years after his repatriation, his employment had long been terminated.

Eduardo’s death could not also be considered compensable for being work-related, work-triggered or work-worsened because AIDS is not listed as an occupational disease and records have shown that it was a pre-existing illness which Eduardo did not disclose during his pre-employment medical examination. (Escarcha et al. vs. Leonis Navigation, G.R. No. 182740, Jul 5, 2010)