- Statute
- Civil Code
- Article
- Art. 2233
- Topic
- Exemplary damages not recoverable as a matter of right
- Status
- In force
- Book
- BOOK IV Obligations and Contracts
- Title
- TITLE XVIII DAMAGES
- Chapter
- CHAPTER 3 Other Kinds of Damages
- Year
- 1949
- Cited by
- Multiple Supreme Court decisions
The provision
ARTICLE 2233. Exemplary damages cannot be recovered as a matter of right; the court will decide whether or not they should be adjudicated.
Key points
Article 2233 provides that exemplary damages cannot be recovered as a matter of right; the court decides whether or not they should be adjudicated.
The article makes the award discretionary even when a ground exists — a plaintiff cannot demand exemplary damages automatically. It is read with Article 2229 (their nature and purpose) and Article 2234, which requires the plaintiff to first show entitlement to moral, temperate, or compensatory damages before the court considers exemplary damages.
The discretionary character of the award holds even where a ground appears to exist — an aggravating circumstance in a criminal offense under Article 2230, or gross negligence in a quasi-delict under Article 2231. The court still weighs whether an award serves the example-and-correction purpose stated in Article 2229. A plaintiff therefore cannot treat exemplary damages as automatic, and an appellate court may review whether the trial court soundly exercised, withheld, or abused that discretion. The rule also explains why an appellate court may delete an exemplary award even on facts that could have supported it, and why parties frame their arguments around the public-good rationale of Article 2229 and the entitlement requirement of Article 2234 rather than treating the award as a matter of course.
Cases applying this article
- Spouses Belen Gregorio v. Hon. Zosimo Angeles G.R. No. 85847
- Ching v. Bantolo G.R. No. 177086