Corporate Officers - Personal Liability

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DOLE vs. Kentex
GR233781, July 8, 2019
  
Concept of Double Indemnity under R.A. 8188

"Double Indemnity" refers to the payment to a concerned employee of the prescribed increases or adjustments in the wage rates, which was not paid by an employer in amount equivalent to twice the unpaid benefits owing to such employee.

 

The CA took the view that, as a company officer, he could not be personally held liable for the debts of Kentex without a showing of bad faith or wrongdoing on his part for the corporation's unlawful act.

  
Rulings
x x x A definitive final judgment, however erroneous, is no longer subject to change or revision.
 

A decision that has acquired finality becomes immutable and unalterable. This quality of immutability precludes the modification of a final judgment, even if the modification is meant to correct erroneous conclusions of fact and law. And this postulate holds true whether the modification is made by the court that rendered it or by the highest court in the land. The orderly administration of justice requires that, at the risk of occasional errors, the judgments/resolutions of a court must reach a point of finality set by the law. The noble purpose is to write finis to dispute once and for all. This is a fundamental principle in our justice system, without which there would be no end to litigations. Utmost respect and adherence to this principle must always be maintained by those who exercise the power of adjudication. Any act, which violates such principle, must immediately be struck down. Indeed, the principle of conclusiveness of prior adjudications is not confined in its operation to the judgments of what are ordinarily known as courts,  but extends to all bodies upon which judicial powers had been conferred.

 
The only exceptions to the rule on the immutability of final judgments are (1) the correction of clerical errors, (2) the so-called nunc pro tunc entries which cause no prejudice to any party, and (3) void judgments. XX x