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304 SUPREME COURT REPORTS ANNOTATED

Gaa vs. Court of Appeals
*
No. L44169. December 3, 1985.

ROSARIO A. GAA, petitioner, vs. THE HONORABLE

COURT OF APPEALS, EUROPHIL INDUSTRIES
CORPORATION, and CESAR R. ROXAS, Deputy Sheriff of
Manila, respondents.

Labor Law; Words and Phrases; Damages; Execution;

Attachment; Art 1708 of the Civil Code which exempts "laborer's
wage" from attachment or execution does not apply to a responsibly
placed employee, supervisory or managerial employee, but only to
the rankand file.ln its broadest sense, the word "laborer"
includes everyone who performs any kind of mental or physical
labor, but as commonly and customarily used and understood, it
only applies to one engaged in some form of manual or physical
labor. That is the sense in which the courts generally apply the
term as applied in exemption acts, since persons of that class
usually look to the reward of a day's labor for immediate or
present support and so are more in need of the exemption than
are other. (22 Am. Jur. 22 citing Briscoe vs. Montgomery, 93 Ga
602, 20 SE 40; Miller vs. Dugas, 77 Ga 4 Am St Rep 192; State ex
rel. I.X.L. Grocery vs. Land, 108 La 512, 32 So 433;

_______________

* FIRST DIVISION.

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Gaa vs. Court of Appeals

Wildner vs. Ferguson, 42 Minn 112, 43 NW 793; 6 LRA 338; Anno

102 Am St Rep 84.

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Same; Same; Same; Same; Same; Same.We do not think

that the legislature intended the exemption in Article 1708 of the
New Civil Code to operate in favor of any but those who are
laboring men or women in the sense that their work is manual.
Persons belonging to this class usually look to the reward of a
day's labor for immediate or present support, and such person are
more in need of the exemption than any others. Petitioner Rosario
A. Gaa is definitely not within that class.
Same; Same; Same; Same; Same; Same.We find, therefore,
and so hold that the Trial Court did not err in denying in its order
of November 7, 1975 the motion of petitioner to lift the notice of
garnishment against her salaries, commission and other
remuneration from El Grande Hotel since said salaries,
commission and other remuneration due her from the El Grande
Hotel do not constitute wages due a laborer which, under Article
1708 of the Civil Code, are not subject to execution or attachment.
Same; Same; "Wages" distinguished from "Salary."Article
1708 used the word "wages" and not "salary" in relation to
"laborer" when it declared what are to be exempted from
attachment and execution. The term "wages" as distinguished
from "salary", applies to the compensation for manual labor,
skilled or unskilled, paid at stated times, and measured by the
day, week, month, or season, while "salary" denotes a higher
degree of employment, or a superior grade of services, and implies
a position of office: by contrast, the term "wages" indicates
considerable pay for a lower and less responsible character of
employment, while "salary" is suggestive of a larger and more
important service (35 Am. Jur. 496).
Same; Same; Same.The distinction between wages and
salary was adverted to in Bell vs. Indian Livestock Co. (Tex, Sup.),
11 S.W. 344, wherein it was said: " 'Wages' are the compensation
given to a hired person for service, and the same is true of 'salary'.
The words seem to be synonymous, convertible terms, though we
believe that use and general acceptation have given to the word
'salary' a significance somewhat different from the word 'wages' in
this: that the former is understood to relate to position of office, to
be the compensation given for official or other service, as
distinguished from 'wages', the compensation for labor."
Annotation 102 Am. St. Rep. 81, 95.

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PETITION for certiorari to review the decision of the Court

of Appeals.

The facts are stated in the opinion of the Court.

Federico C. Alikpala and Federico Y. Alikpala, Jr. for
petitioner.
Borbe and Palma for private respondent.

PATAJO, J.:

This is a petition for review on certiorari of the decision of

the Court of Appeals promulgated on March 30, 1976,
affirming the decision of the Court of First Instance of
Manila.
It appears that respondent Europhil Industries
Corporation was formerly one of the tenants in Trinity
Building at T.M. Kalaw Street, Manila, while petitioner
Rosario A. Gaa was then the building administrator. On
December 12, 1973, Europhil Industries commenced an
action (Civil Case No. 92744) in the Court of First Instance
of Manila for damages against petitioner "for having
perpetrated certain acts that Europhil Industries
considered a trespass upon its rights, namely, cutting of its
electricity, and removing its name from the building
directory and gate passes of its officials and employees" (p.
87, Rollo). On June 28, 1974, said court rendered judgment
in favor of respondent Europhil Industries, ordering
petitioner to pay the former the sum of P10,000.00 as
actual damages, P5,000.00 as moral damages, P5,000.00 as
exemplary damages and to pay the costs.
The said decision having become final and executory, a
writ of garnishment was issued pursuant to which Deputy
Sheriff Cesar A. Roxas on August 1, 1975 served a Notice of
Garnishment upon El Grande Hotel, where petitioner was
then employed, garnishing her "salary, commission and/or
remuneration." Petitioner then filed with the Court of First
Instance of Manila a motion to lift said garnishment on the
ground that her "salaries, commission and/or
remuneration" are exempted from execution under Article
1708 of the New Civil Code. Said motion was denied by the
lower Court in an order dated November 7, 1975. A motion
for reconsideration of

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said order was likewise denied, and on January 26, 1976

petitioner filed with the Court of Appeals a petition for
certiorari against said order of November 7, 1975.
On March 30, 1976, the Court of Appeals dismissed the
petition for certiorari. In dismissing the petition, the Court
of Appeals held that petitioner is not a mere laborer as
contemplated under Article 1708 as the term laborer does
not apply to one who holds a managerial or supervisory
position like that of petitioner, but only to those "laborers
occupying the lower strata." It also held that the term
"wages" means the pay given "as hire or reward to artisans,
mechanics, domestics or menial servants, and laborers
employed in manufactories, agriculture, mines, and other
manual occupation and usually employed to distinguish the
sums paid to persons hired to perform manual labor,
skilled or unskilled, paid at stated times, and measured by
the day, week, month, or season," citing 67 C.J. 285, which
is the ordinary acceptation of the said term, and that
"wage" in Spanish is "journal" and one who receives a wage
is a "jornalero."
In the present petition for review on certiorari of the
aforesaid decision of the Court of Appeals, petitioner
questions the correctness of the interpretation of the then
Court of Appeals of Article 1708 of the New Civil Code
which reads as follows:

'' ART. 1708. The laborer' s wage shall not be subj ect to execution
or attachment, except for debts incurred for food, shelter, clothing
and medical attendance."

It is beyond dispute that petitioner is not an ordinary or

rank and file laborer but "a responsibly place employee," of
El Grande Hotel, "responsible for planning, directing,
controlling, and coordinating the activities of all
housekeeping personnel" (p. 95, Rollo) so as to ensure the
cleanliness, maintenance and orderliness of all guest
rooms, function rooms, public areas, and the surroundings
of the hotel. Considering the importance of petitioner's
function in El Grande Hotel, it is undeniable that
petitioner is occupying a position equivalent to that of a
managerial or supervisory position.

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In its broadest sense, the word "laborer" includes everyone

who performs any kind of mental or physical labor, but as
commonly and customarily used and understood, it only
applies to one engaged in some form of manual or physical
labor. That is the sense in which the courts generally apply
the term as applied in exemption acts, since persons of that
class usually look to the reward of a day's labor for
immediate or present support and so are more in need of
the exemption than are other. (22 Am. Jur. 22 citing
Briscoe vs. Montgomery, 93 Ga 602, 20 SE 40; Miller vs.
Dugas, 77 Ga 4 Am St Rep 192; State ex rel I.X.L. Grocery
vs. Land, 108 La 512, 32 So 433; Wildner vs. Ferguson, 42
Minn 112, 43 NW 793; 6 LRA 338; Anno 102 Am St Rep.
84.
In Oliver vs. Macon Hardware Co., 98 Ga 249, 25 SE
403, it was held that in determining whether a particular
laborer or employee is really a "laborer," the character of
the word he does must be taken into consideration. He
must be classified not according to the arbitrary
designation given to his calling, but with reference to the
character of the service required of him by his employer.
In Wildner vs. Ferguson, 42 Minn 112, 43 NW 793, the
Court also held that all men who earn compensation by
labor or work of any kind, whether of the head or hands,
including judges, lawyers, bankers, merchants, officers of
corporations, and the like, are in some sense "laboring
men." But they are not "laboring men" in the popular sense
of the term, when used to refer to a man's employment, and
that is the sense in which the court must presume, the
legislature used the term. The Court further held in said
case:

'There are many cases holding that contractors, consulting or

assistant engineers, agents, superintendents, secretaries of
corporations and livery stable keepers, do not come within the
meaning of the term. (Powell v. Eldred, 39 Mich. 554; Atkin v.
Wasson, 25 N.Y. 482; Short v. Medberry, 29 Hun. 39; Dean v. De
Wolf, 16 Hun. 186; Krausen v. Buckel, 17 Hun. 463; Ericson v.
Brown, 39 Barb. 390; Coffin v. Reynolds, 37 N.Y. 640; Brusie v.
Griffith, 34 Cal. 306; Dave v. Nunan, 62 Cal. 400)."

Thus, in Jones vs. Avery, 50 Mich, 326, 15 N.W. Rep. 494, it

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was held that a traveling salesman, selling by sample, did

not come within the meaning of a constitutional provision
making stockholders of a corporation liable for "labor
debts" of the corporation.
In Kline vs. Russel, 113 Ga. 1085, 39 SE 477, citing
Oliver vs. Macon Hardware Co., supra, it was held that a
laborer, within the statute exempting from garnishment
the wages of a "laborer," is one whose work depends on
mere physical power to perform ordinary manual labor,
and not one engaged in services consisting mainly of work
requiring mental skill or business capacity, and involving
the exercise of intellectual faculties.
So, also in Wakefield vs. Fargo, 90 N.Y. 213, the Court,
in construing an act making stockholders in a corporation
liable for debts due "laborers, servants and apprentices" for
services performed for the corporation, held that a "laborer"
is one who performs menial or manual services and usually
looks to the reward of a day's labor or services for
immediate or present support. And in Weymouth vs.
Sanborn, 43 N.H. 173, 80 Am. Dec. 144, it was held that
"laborer" is a term ordinarily employed to denote one who
subsists by physical toil in contradistinction to those who
subsists by professional skill. And in Consolidated Tank
Line Co. vs. Hunt, 83 Iowa, 6, 32 Am. St. Rep. 285, 43 N.W.
1057, 12 L.R.A. 476, it was stated that "laborers" are those
persons who earn a livelihood by their own manual labor.
Article 1708 used the word "wages" and not "salary" in
relation to "laborer" when it declared what are to be
exempted from attachment and execution. The term
"wages" as distinguished from "salary", applies to the
compensation for manual labor, skilled or unskilled, paid at
stated times, and measured by the day, week, month, or
season, while "salary" denotes a higher degree of
employment, or a superior grade of services, and implies a
position of office: by contrast, the term "wages" indicates
considerable pay for a lower and less responsible character
of employment, while "salary" is suggestive of a larger and
more important service (35 Am. Jur. 496).
The distinction between wages and salary was adverted
to

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Gaa vs. Court of Appeals

in Bell vs. Indian Livestock Co. (Tex. Sup.), 11 S.W. 344,

wherein it was said: " 'Wages' are the compensation given
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to a hired person for service, and the same is true of

'salary'. The words seem to be synonymous, convertible
terms, though we believe that use and general acceptation
have given to the word 'salary' a significance somewhat
different from the word 'wages' in this: that the former is
understood to relate to position of office, to be the
compensation given for official or other service, as
distinguished from 'wages', the compensation for labor."
Annotation 102 Am. St. Rep. 81, 95.
We do not think that the legislature intended the
exemption in Article 1708 of the New Civil Code to operate
in favor of any but those who are laboring men or women in
the sense that their work is manual. Persons belonging to
this class usually look to the reward of a day's labor for
immediate or present support, and such persons are more
in need of the exemption than any others. Petitioner
Rosario A. Gaa is definitely not within that class.
We find, therefore, and so hold that the Trial Court did
not err in denying in its order of November 7, 1975 the
motion of petitioner to lift the notice of garnishment
against her salaries, commission and other remuneration
from El Grande Hotel since said salaries, commission and
other remuneration due her from the El Grande Hotel do
not constitute wages due a laborer which, under Article
1708 of the Civil Code, are not subject to execution or
attachment.
IN VIEW OF THE FOREGOING, We find the present
petition to be without merit and hereby AFFIRM the
decision of the Court of Appeals, with costs against
petitioner,
SO ORDERED.

Teehankee (Chairman), Plana, Gutierrez, Jr, and De

la Fuente, JJ., concur.
MelencioHerrera and Relova, JJ., on leave.

Decision affirmed.

Note.An employer is prohibited from withholding the

wages earned by employees and laborers, so necessary to

311

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Cultura vs. Tapucar

enable them to live and support their families. The

withholding of such wages will be productive of greater
hardships to laborers and their families. The laborers'
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wages are not subject to execution or attachment (Article

1708, Civil Code). The deduction of a debt due from such
wage is authorized by the rules on compensation (Arts.
12781279, ibid), and is just to employers who have already
advanced a part of such wages bef ore they were even
earned by the laborers and employees.

o0o

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