G.R. No.

157633 September 10, 2014

NORTHWEST AIRLINES, INC., Petitioner,

DECISION

BERSAMIN, J.:

Under review is the decision promulgated on June 21, 2002,1 whereby the Court of Appeals (CA)
dismissed the petition for certiorari filed by Northwest Airlines, Inc. to assail on the ground of grave
abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction the adverse decision of the National
Labor Relations Commission (NLRC).

Antecedents

Petitioner Northwest Airlines, Inc. employed respondent Ma. Concepcion M. Del Rosario on
December 10, 1994 as one of its Manila based flight attendants. On May 18, 1998, Del Rosario was
assigned at the Business Class Section of Northwest Flight NW 26 bound for Japan. During the
boarding preparations, Kathleen Gamboa, another flight attendant assigned at the First Class
Section of Flight NW 26, needed to borrow a wine bottle opener from her fellow attendants
because her wine bottle opener was dull. Vivien Francisco, Gamboa’s runner, went to the Business
Class Section to borrow a wine bottle opener from Del Rosario, but the latter remarked that any
flight attendant who could not bring a wine bottle opener had no business working in the First
Class Section. Upon hearing this, Aliza Ann Escaño, another flight attendant, offered her wine
bottle opener to Francisco. Apparently, Gamboa overheard Del Rosario’s remarks, and later on
verbally confronted her. Their confrontation escalated into a heated argument. Escaño
intervened but the two ignored her, prompting her to rush outside the aircraft to get Maria Rosario
D. Morales, the Assistant Base Manager, to pacify them.

The parties differed on what happened thereafter. Del Rosario claimed that only an animated
discussion had transpired between her and Gamboa, but Morales insisted that it was more than
an animated discussion, recalling that Del Rosario had even challenged Gamboa to a brawl
(sabunutan). Morales asserted that she had tried topacify Del Rosario and Gamboa, but the two
did not stop; that because the two were still arguing although the Business Class passengers were
already boarding, she ordered them out of the plane and transfer to another nearby Northwest
aircraft; that she inquired from them about what had happened, and even asked if they were
willing to fly on the condition that they would have to stay away from each other during the entire
flight; that because Del Rosario was not willing to commit herself to do so, she decided not to
allow both of them on Flight NW 26, and furnished them a Notice of Removal from Service
(effectively informing Del Rosario of her dismissal from the service pending an investigation of the
fighting incident between her and Gamboa).

On May 19, 1998, Morales sent a letter to Del Rosario telling her that Northwest would conduct an
investigation of the incident involving her and Gamboa. The investigation was held on May 28,
1998 before Atty. Ceazar Veneracion III, Northwest’s Legal Counsel and Head of its Human
Resources Department. All the parties attended the investigation

On June 19, 1998, Del Rosario was informed of her termination from the service. Northwest stated
that based on the results of the investigation, Del Rosario and Gamboa had engaged in a fight
on board the aircraft, even if there had been no actual physical contact between them; and
that because fighting was strictly prohibited by Northwest to the point that fighting could entail
dismissal from the service even if committed for the first time, Northwest considered her dismissal
from the service justified and in accordance with the Rules of Conduct for Employees, as follows:

Section 1, General

x x x. Rule infractions will be dealt with according to the seriousness of the offense and violators
will be subjected to appropriate disciplinary action up to and including discharge. Some acts of
misconduct, even if committed for the first time, are so serious that, standing alone, they justify
immediate discharge. Some examples of these offenses are violations of rules regarding
theft,alcohol and drugs, insubordination, dishonesty, fighting, falsification of records, sleeping on
the job, failure to cooperate or lying in a Company investigation, intentional destruction or abuse
of property, threatening, intimidating or interfering with other employees, abuse of nonrevenue
and reduced rate travel privileges and unauthorized use of Company communications systems.
xxxx

Section 24 (c), Disturbing Others, which states that:

Harassing, threatening, intimidating, assaulting, fighting or provoking a fight or similar interference

Del Rosario subsequently filed her complaint for illegal dismissal against Northwest.2

Decision of the Labor Arbiter

In her decision dated January 18, 1999,3 Labor Arbiter Teresita D. Castillon-Lora ruled in favor of
Northwest, holding that the dismissal of Del Rosario had been justified and valid upon taking into
account that Northwest had been engaged in the airline business in which a good public image
had been demanded, and in which flightattendants had been expected to maintain an image
of sweetness and amiability; that fighting among its employees even in the form of heated
arguments or discussions were very contradictory to that expected image;4 and that it could
validly dismiss its employees like the respondent because it had been entitled to protect its
business interests by putting up an impeccable imageto the public.

Ruling of the NLRC

Upon appeal, the NLRC reversed the decision of the Labor Arbiter, and ruled in favor of Del
Rosario, declaring that the incident between her and Gamboa could not be considered as
synonymous with fighting as the activity prohibited by Northwest’s Rules of Conduct; that based
on Black’s Law Dictionary, fightreferred to a hostile encounter, affray, or altercation; a physical or
verbal struggle for victory, pugilistic combat; that according to Bouvier’s Law Dictionary, fighting
did not necessarily imply that both parties should exchange blows, for it was sufficient that they
voluntarily put their bodies in position with that intent;5 and that the incident between Del Rosario
and Gamboa could notbe held similar to the fightthat Northwest penalized under its Rules of
Conduct.

The NLRC further ratiocinated as follows:

Evident in the definition of fighting is the existence of an underlying hostility between the parties
which is sointense that there is an imminent danger of a physical conflict (if there is none yet). In
other words, when we say two people are fighting, at the very least, they should project a general
appearance of wanting to physically strike each other. Was this the image that appellant and FA
Gamboaprojected when they were facing each other during the incident of May 18, 1998[?] We
do not think so.

x x x Almost unanimously, the witnesses of NWA refer to the incident as "arguing" or a "serious or
animated discussion." An argument is an effort to establish belief bya course of reasoning
(Bouvier's Law Dictionary). In ordinary parlance, arguing is merely talking or debating about a
certain issue. There are nounderpinnings of animosity in the discussion nor (sic) between the
parties. These witnesses never saw any hostility between the appellant and FA Gamboa. Neither
did they see these two ladies wanting to strike each other. What they saw were two FAs engaged
in an animated verbal exchange, arguing but not fighting.6

The NLRC ordered the reinstatement of Del Rosario to her former position without loss of seniority
rights and with payment of backwages, per diems, other lost income and benefitsfrom June 19,
1998; as well as the payment of attorney’s fees equivalent to 10% of the monetary award.

Decision of the CA

Aggrieved, Northwest elevated the adverse decision of the NLRC to the CA on certiorari, averring
that the NLRC thereby committed grave abuse of discretion in reversing the decision of the Labor
Arbiter, and submitting that Del Rosario’s dismissal from the service had been for a just cause, with
the evidence presented against her being more than sufficient to substantiate its position that
there had really been a fight between her and Gamboa; and that the NLRC likewise gravely
abused its discretion in ordering the reinstatement of Del Rosario and the payment of her
backwages and attorney’s fees.

As stated, the CA sustained the NLRC through its decision promulgated on June 21, 2002,
observing that Northwest did not discharge its burden to prove not merely reversible error but
grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction on the part of the NLRC; and
that, indeed, the NLRC had correctly held that Del Rosario’s conduct did not constitute serious
misconduct, because the NLRC, in determining the usual, ordinary and commonly understood
meaning of the word fighting, had resorted to authoritative lexicons that supported its conclusion
that the exchange of words between Del Rosario and Gamboadid not come within the definition
of the word fighting.7

The CA disposed thusly:

WHEREFORE, for lack of merit, the instant petition is DISMISSED. Accordingly, the decision ofthe
NLRC dated January 11, 2000, is hereby AFFIRMEDwith the MODIFICATIONthat in lieu of
reinstatement, petitioner is ordered to pay private respondent separation pay equivalent to one
month's salary for every year of service plus full backwages without deduction or qualification,
counted from the date of dismissal until finality of this decision including other benefits to which
she is entitled under the law. Petitioner is likewise ordered to pay respondent Del Rosario attorney’s
feesconsisting of five(5%) per cent of the adjudged relief.

SO ORDERED.8

Issues
The issues are the following, namely: (1) Was Del Rosario’s dismissal from the service valid?; and
(2) Were the monetary awards appropriate?

Ruling

The Court AFFIRMS the decision of the CA.

As provided in Article 282 of the Labor Code, an employer may terminate an employee for a just
cause, to wit:

Art. 282. TERMINATION BY EMPLOYER

An employer may terminate an employee for any of the following causes:

(a) Serious misconduct or willful disobedience by the employee of the lawful orders of his
employer or representative in connection with his work;

(b) Gross and habitual neglect by the employee of his duties;

(c) Fraud or willful breach by the employee of the trust reposed in him by his employer or
duly authorized representative;

(d) Commission of a crime or offense by the employee against the person of his employer
or any immediate member of his family or his duly authorized representative; and

(e) Other causes analogous to the foregoing.

Northwest argues that Del Rosario was dismissed on the grounds of serious misconduct and willful
disobedience. Misconduct refers to the improper or wrong conduct that transgresses some
established and definite rule of action, a forbidden act, a dereliction of duty, willful in character,
and implies wrongful intent and not mere error in judgment. But misconduct or improper behavior,
to be a just cause for termination of employment, must: (a) be serious; (b) relate to the
performance ofthe employee’s duties; and (c) show that the employee has become unfit to
continue working for the employer.9

There is no doubt that the last two elements of misconduct were present in the case of Del Rosario.
The cause of her dismissal related to the performance of her duties as a flight attendant, and she
became unfit to continue working for Northwest. Remaining to be determined is, therefore,
whether the misconduct was serious as to merit Del Rosario’s dismissal. In that respect, the fight
between her and Gamboa should be so serious that it entailed the termination of her employment
even if it was her first offense. Northwest insists that what transpired on May 18, 1998 between her
and Gamboa was obviously a form of fight that it strictly prohibited, but Del Rosario disputes this
by contending that it was only an animated discussion between her and Gamboa. She argues
that as settled in American jurisprudence fight pertained to combat or battle, like the hostile
encounter or engagement between opposing forces, suggesting primarily the notion of a brawl
or unpremeditated encounter, or of a pugilistic combat; while argument was a connected
discourse based upon reason, or a course of reasoning tending and intended to establish a
position and to induce belief.11

In several rulings where the meaning of fight was decisive, the Court has observed that the term
fight was considered to be different from the term argument. In People v. Asto,12 for instance, the
Court characterized fight as not just a merely verbal tussle but a physical combat between two
opposing parties, to wit:

Well into their second bottle of gin, at about eleven o'clock that morning, Fernando Aquino and
Peregrino had a verbal tussle.1âwphi1 Fernando Aquino declared that he was going to run for
councilor of Alcala, Pangasinan. Peregrino countered by saying: "If you will run for that post,
cousin, I will fight you." After a brief exchange of words, Fernando Aquino, laughing, went to sit
beside Abagat. As Aquino continued with his mirth, Abagat stared at Peregrino with contempt.

xxx. A few minutes later, he heard a commotion in the plantation some two hundred meters
away.1âwphi1 He claims to have seen several people fightingeach other with pieces of wood
butdid not go to the field to check what was happening.13 (Italics supplied.)

Similarly, in Pilares, Sr. v. People,14 fightwas held to be more than just an exchange of words that
usually succeeded the provocation by either party, thus:

When the petitioner was about to hand over the bottles of beer to the private complainant, the
latter called him "coward" and dared him to get out for a fight. Insulted, the petitioner went out
of his store and chased the private complainant. (Italics supplied.)

Based on the foregoing, the incident involving Del Rosario and Gamboa could not be justly
considered as akin to the fight contemplated by Northwest. In the eyes of the NLRC, Del Rosario
and Gamboa were arguing but not fighting. The understanding of fight as one that required
physical combat was absent during the incident of May 18, 1998. Moreover, the claim of Morales
that Del Rosario challenged Gamboa to a brawl (sabunutan) could not be given credence by
virtue of its being self-serving in favor of Northwest, and of its being an apparent afterthought on
the part of Morales during the investigation of the incident, without Del Rosario having the
opportunity to contest Morales' statement. In that context, the investigation then served only as
Northwest's means to establish that the grounds of a valid dismissal based on serious misconduct
really existed.

Moreover, even assuming arguendo that the incident was the kind of fight prohibited by
Northwest's Rules of Conduct, the same could not be considered as of such seriousness as to
warrant Del Rosario's dismissal from the service. The gravity of the fight, which was not more than
a verbal argument between them, was not enough to tarnish or diminish Northwest's public image.

Under the circumstances, therefore, the CA properly ruled that the NLRC did not gravely abuse
its discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction by declaring Del Rosario's dismissal
unjustified. Northwest as the petitioner for certiorari must demonstrate grave abuse of discretion
amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction on the part of the NLRC. Grave abuse of discretion,
according to De las Santos v. Metropolitan Bank and Trust Company, 15"must be grave, which
means either that the judicial or quasi-judicial power was exercised in an arbitrary or despotic
manner by reason of passion or personal hostility, or that the respondent judge, tribunal or board
evaded a positive duty, or virtually refused to perform the duty enjoined or to act in contemplation
of law, such as when such judge, tribunal or board exercising judicial or quasi-judicial powers
acted in a capricious or whimsical manner as to be equivalent to lack of jurisdiction." Alas,
Northwest did not show how the NLRC could have abused its discretion, let alone gravely, in ruling
adversely against it.

WHEREFORE, the Court AFFIRMS the decision of the Court of Appeals promulgated on June 21,
2002; and ORDERS the petitioner to pay the costs of suit.
SO ORDERED.