D'Armoured v. Orpia

FACTS
- D'Armoured hired respondents as security guards and assigned them to Fortune

Tobacco.
- Respondents filed a labor complaint against petitioner and Fortune.
- Respondents won. LA awards 1,077,124,29 to respondents for underpayment, OT,
legal holiday pay, SIL, 13th month, illegal deduction and refund of firearms bond.
- Fortune appealed to the NLRC, petitioner did not.
- NLRC affirms but with modification - Complaint against Fortune is dismissed.
- Decision becomes final and executory, sole liability of petitioner.
- Remanded to LA for execution.
- Writ of Execution is issued. In pursuance thereof, sherriff served a writ of
garnishment upon the Cheif Accountant of Foremost Farms (company whom the
petitioner has a service agreement with). (i.e. Monthly receivables from Foremost
became garnished).
- Petitioner appeals the garnishment to the NLRC; Denied.
- Petitioner applies to CA for Certiorari, Prohibition, and Writ of Preliminary
Injunction. Denied.
ISSUE: W/N Receivables from Foremost are not exempt from execution.
HELD: Petition DENIED.

- Final and executory judgment is not appealable, otherwise there would be no end
to litigation.
- Even assuming the appeal is proper, it must still be denied as it runs against
the NLRC Manual on Execution of Judgment, the Rules of Court, and the Civil Code as
these exemptions only apply to natural persons.
- Section 1, Rule IV of the NLRC Manual on Execution of Judgment provides :
SECTION 1. Properties exempt from execution. Only the properties of the losing
party shall be the subject of execution, except:
(a) The losing partys family home constituted in accordance with the Civil Code or
Family Code or as may be provided for by law or in the absence thereof, the
homestead in which he resides, and land necessarily used in connection therewith,
subject to the limits fixed by law;
(b) His necessary clothing, and that of his family;
(c) Household furniture and utensils necessary for housekeeping, and used for that
purpose by the losing party such as he may select, of a value not exceeding the
amount fixed by law;
(d) Provisions for individual or family use sufficient for three (3) months;
(e) The professional libraries of attorneys, judges, physicians, pharmacists,

dentists, engineers, surveyors, clergymen, teachers, and other professionals, not
exceeding the amount fixed by law;
(f) So much of the earnings of the losing party for his personal services within
the month preceding the levy as are necessary for the support of his family;
(g) All monies, benefits, privileges, or annuities accruing or in any manner

growing out of any life insurance;
(h) Tools and instruments necessarily used by him in his trade or employment of a
value not exceeding three thousand (P3,000.00) pesos;
(i) Other properties especially exempted by law.

- Further, Section 13 of Rule 39 of the Rules of Court is plain and clear on what
properties are exempt from execution. Section 13 (i) of the Rules pertinently
reads:
SECTION 13. Property exempt from execution. Except as otherwise expressly provided
by law, the following property, and no other, shall be exempt from execution:
x x x x x x x x x
(i) So much of the salaries, wages or earnings of the judgment obligor for his
personal services within the four months preceding the levy as are necessary for
the support of his family.
- The exemption under this procedural rule should be read in conjunction with the
Civil Code, the substantive law which proscribes the execution of employees wages,
thus:
ART. 1708. The laborers wage shall not be subject to execution or attachment,
except for debts incurred for food, shelter, clothing and medical attendance.
Obviously, the exemption under Rule 39 of the Rules of Court and Article 1708 of
the New Civil Code is meant to favor only laboring men or women whose works are
manual. Persons belonging to this class usually look to the reward of a days labor
for immediate or present support, and such persons are more in need of the
exemption than any other
In this context, exemptions under this rule are confined only to natural persons
and not to juridical entities such as petitioner. Thus, the rule speaks of
salaries, wages and earning from the personal services rendered by the judgment
obligor. The rule further requires that such earnings be intended for the support
of the judgment debtors family.
Necessarily, petitioner which is a corporate entity, does not fall under the
exemption. If at all, the exemption refers to petitioners individual employees and
not to petitioner as a corporation.
x x x. Parenthetically, in a parallel case where a security agency claimed that the

guns it gives to its guards are tools and implements exempt from execution, the
Supreme Court had the occasion to rule that the exemption pertains only to natural
and not to juridical persons, thus:
However, it would appear that the exemption contemplated by the provision involved
is personal, available only to a natural person, such as a dentists dental chair
and electric fan (Belen v. de Leon, G.R. No. L-15612, 30 Nov. 1962). As pointed out
by the Solicitor General, if properties used in business are exempt from execution,
there can hardly be an instance when a judgment claim can be enforced against the
business entity [Pentagon Security and Investigation Agency vs. Jimenez, 192 SCRA
492 (1990)].
It stands to reason that only natural persons whose salaries, wages and earnings
are indispensable for his own and that of his familys support are exempted under
Section 13 (i) of Rule 39 of the Rules of Court. Undeniably, a corporate entity
such as petitioner security agency is not covered by the exemption.

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FACTS

- D'Armoured hired respondents as security guards and assigned them to Fortune

HELD: Petition DENIED.

- Section 1, Rule IV of the NLRC Manual on Execution of Judgment provides :

(b) His necessary clothing, and that of his family;

(e) The professional libraries of attorneys, judges, physicians, pharmacists,

(g) All monies, benefits, privileges, or annuities accruing or in any manner

(i) Other properties especially exempted by law.

x x x. Parenthetically, in a parallel case where a security agency claimed that the

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