10% appeal bond from LA to NLRC

In the recent case of Mcburnie v. Ganzon,[1] Supreme Court has set a provisional percentage of 10% of the monetary award, exclusive of damages and attorney's fees, as a reasonable amount of bond that an appellant should post pending resolution by the NLRC of a motion to reduce bond. It is only after the posting of this bond that an appellant's period to perfect an appeal is suspended.

In the case of Beduya v. Ace Promotion (G.R. No. 195513, June 22, 2015), after deducting from the total monetary award the amount of attorney's fees and the amounts awarded to those complainants who did not verify their position papers and those who had withdrawn their complaints, the total monetary award amounts to only more than P3 million. Hence, the appeal bond of P437,210.00 posted by respondents is in fact even more than 10% of the said total monetary award. Thus, applying the same parameter set in Mcburnie, the High Court found the amount of bond posted by respondents in the present case to be reasonable, despite the contention that it was not. The main issue in the Beduya case was actually whether or not the monetary award to eight (out of eighteen [18]) employees who did not verify their complaint. The Court said that this means the monetary award for these eight employees should not be factored in when computing the appeal bond.

In any event, the Court noted that in Mcburnie, it was held that the required 10% of the monetary award as appeal bond is merely provisional given that the NLRC still retains the authority to exercise its full discretion to resolve a motion for the reduction of bond and determine the final amount of bond that should be posted by an appellant in accordance with the standards of meritorious grounds and reasonable amount.[2]

[1] G.R. Nos. 178034 & 178117, 186984-85, October 17, 2013, 707 SCRA 646, 677.

[2] McBurnie v. Guanzon, supra note 36 at 672.