July 2026

In this case, a laborer-carpenter was repeatedly and successively rehired by a construction corporation a total of 38 times for various projects spanning nearly 31 years. Upon the completion of his last project, the company terminated his services, claiming he was merely a project employee whose employment automatically ceased. The Supreme Court ruled that he had attained regular employment status, holding that continuous and successive rehiring for tasks that are vital, necessary, and indispensable to the employer’s usual business transforms a project employee into a regular employee, regardless of the execution of project contracts.

In this case, a man repeatedly sent threatening, degrading, and humiliating text messages to his former partner after learning that she was involved with another man. He threatened to expose intimate photos, embarrass her before creditors and neighbors, accuse her of wrongdoing, and even implied harm against her and her family. The victim later suffered mental anguish, sleepless nights, emotional distress, and damage to her reputation. The Supreme Court ruled that the series of harassing text messages constituted psychological violence under Section 5(h)(5) of the Anti-Violence Against Women and Their Children Act, emphasizing that harassment causing substantial emotional or psychological distress is punishable under the law.

In this case, the children from a deceased wife’s first marriage discovered that their father and his second family executed an extrajudicial settlement transferring the entirety of conjugal properties to themselves while falsely claiming they were the only heirs. The Supreme Court ruled that while the extrajudicial settlement excluding compulsory heirs is void and inexistent, the conveyances may still be recognized to the extent of the surviving spouse’s undivided share in the co-owned property. Applying the doctrine “Quando res non valet ut ago, valeat quantum valere potest,” the Court held that a contract must be recognized as far as it is legally possible to do so.