- Statute
- Civil Code
- Article
- Art. 2216
- Topic
- No proof of pecuniary loss needed for moral, nominal, temperate, or exemplary damages
- Year
- 1949
The provision
ARTICLE 2216. No proof of pecuniary loss is necessary in order that moral, nominal, temperate, liquidated or exemplary damages, may be adjudicated. The assessment of such damages, except liquidated ones, is left to the discretion of the court, according to the circumstances of each case. SECTION 1 Moral Damages
Key points
Article 2216 provides that no proof of pecuniary loss is necessary for the award of moral, nominal, temperate, liquidated, or exemplary damages. The assessment of these damages — except liquidated ones — is left to the sound discretion of the court, according to the circumstances of each case.
The provision distinguishes these categories from actual or compensatory damages, which must be pleaded and proved. It introduces the Civil Code's section on moral damages and is read with Articles 2217 and 2219 (moral), 2221 (nominal), and 2229–2234 (exemplary).
In practice, this discretion lets the court fix the amount of moral, nominal, temperate, and exemplary damages from the gravity of the wrong, the parties' circumstances, and the surrounding facts, while liquidated damages follow the parties' own stipulation. Because no pecuniary loss need be proved, claims for these categories turn on the legal basis for the award rather than on receipts or documentary proof of amount — a key contrast with actual or compensatory damages, which require competent proof of the loss actually sustained.