In the Philippines, damages may be claimed in real actions such as ejectment, recovery of ownership and possession, or accion publiciana
“Damages are given as a compensation, recompense, or satisfaction to the plaintiff, for an injury actually received by him from the defendant. They should be precisely commensurate with the injury, neither more or less; and this whether it be to his person or estate” (A treatise on the Law of Evidence, Wigmore, Greenleaf, and Harriman).
In common law, “[d]amages are never given in real actions; but only in personal and mixed actions” (A treatise on the Law of Evidence, Wigmore, Greenleaf, and Harriman).
However, in the Philippines, damages may be claimed in real actions such as ejectment, recovery of ownership and possession, or accion publiciana, among others.
“All damages must be the result of the injury complained of; whether it consists in the withholding of a legal right, or the breach of a duty legally due to the plaintiff” (A treatise on the Law of Evidence, Wigmore, Greenleaf, and Harriman).
The breach or violation of a right of another is known as a cause of action (Section 2, Rule 2, Amended Rules of Civil Procedure).
Damages may be claimed by an aggrieved party under Article 2197 of the New Civil Code.
Damages may be (a) actual or compensatory; (b) moral; (c) nominal; (d) temperate or moderate; (e) liquidated; or (f) exemplary or corrective.
“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” (Article 2216, New Civil Code).
Actual damages are adequate compensation for proven pecuniary loss suffered by another.
The “[i]ndemnification for damages shall comprehend not only the value of the loss suffered, but also of the profits which the obligee failed to obtain” (Articles 2199 and 2200, New Civil Code).
“[W]here the injury consisted in firing guns so near the plaintiff’s decoy-pond as to frighten away the wild fowls, or prevent them from coming there, or, in maliciously firing cannon at the natives on the coast of Africa, whereby they were prevented from coming to trade with the plaintiff; these consequences were held to be well inferred from the wrongful act” (A treatise on the Law of Evidence, Wigmore, Greenleaf, and Harriman).
“The damage to be recovered must always be the natural and proximate consequence of the act complained of.”
“Thus, where the defendant had libeled a performer at a place of public entertainment, in consequence of which she refused to sing, and the plaintiff alleged that by reason thereof the receipts of his house were diminished, this consequence was held too remote to furnish ground for a claim of damages” (A treatise on the Law of Evidence, Wigmore, Greenleaf, and Harriman).
Moral damages are awarded for “physical suffering, mental anguish, fright, serious anxiety, besmirched reputation, wounded feelings, moral shock, social humiliation, and similar injury.
“Though incapable of pecuniary computation, moral damages may be recovered if they are the proximate result of the defendant’s wrongful act or omission” (Article 2217, New Civil Code).
In the determination of moral damages by the court, the sentimental value of property, real or personal, may be considered (Article 2218, New Civil Code).
“Willful injury to property may be a legal ground for awarding moral damages if the court should find that, under the circumstances, such damages are justly due” (Article 2220, New Civil Code)
Moral damages may be recovered in (a) a criminal offense resulting in physical injuries; (b) quasi-delicts causing physical injuries; (c) seduction, abduction, rape, or other lascivious acts; (d) adultery or concubinage; (e) illegal or arbitrary detention or arrest; (f) illegal search; (g) libel, slander or any other form of defamation; and (h) malicious prosecution, among others (Article 2219, New Civil Code).
“Exemplary or corrective damages are imposed, by way of example or correction for the public good…” (Article 2229, New Civil Code).
“While the amount of the exemplary damages need not be proved, the plaintiff must show that he is entitled to moral, temperate or compensatory damages” (Article 2234, New Civil Code).
“In quasi-delicts, exemplary damages may be granted if the defendant acted with gross negligence” (Article 2231, New Civil Code).
“In contracts and quasi-contracts, the court may award exemplary damages if the defendant acted in a wanton, fraudulent, reckless, oppressive, or malevolent manner” (Article 2232, New Civil Code).
“Liquidated damages are those agreed upon by the parties to a contract, to be paid in case of breach thereof” (Article 2226, New Civil Code).
“When the breach of the contract committed by the defendant is not the one contemplated by the parties in agreeing upon the liquidated damages, the law shall determine the measure of damages, and not the stipulation” (Article 2228, New Civil Code).
“[I]f the parties themselves have liquidated the damages; the jury (judge) are bound to find the amount thus agreed.
“But whether the sum stipulated to be paid upon breach of the agreement is to be taken as liquidated damages, or only as a penalty, will depend upon the intent of the parties, to be ascertained by a just determination of the contract” (A treatise on the Law of Evidence, Wigmore, Greenleaf, and Harriman).
“[I]n the proof of damages [for contracts], both parties must be confined to the principal transactions complained of, and to its attendant circumstances and the natural results; for these alone are in issue.” “The natural results of a wrongful act are understood to include all the damage to the plaintiff of which such act was the efficient cause, though in point of time the damage did not occur until sometime after the act [is] done” (A treatise on the Law of Evidence, Wigmore, Greenleaf, and Harriman).
“Temperate or moderate damages… are more than nominal but less than compensatory damages, [these] may be recovered when the court finds that some pecuniary loss has been suffered but its amount cannot, from the nature of the case, be provided with certainty” (Article 2224, New Civil Code).
On the other hand, nominal damages are awarded to vindicate a plaintiff whose right has been violated, and not to indemnify him or her for any loss suffered (see Article 2221, New Civil Code).
“Injuries to the person, or to the reputation, consist in the pain inflicted, whether bodily or mental, and in the expenses and the loss of property which they occasion.
“[T]herefore, in the estimation of damages, [they are expected] to consider not only the direct expenses incurred by the plaintiff, but the loss of his time, his bodily sufferings, and, if the injury was willful, his mental agony also, the injury to his reputation… and the consequent public disgrace to the plaintiff…” (A treatise on the Law of Evidence, Wigmore, Greenleaf, and Harriman).
“The character of the parties is immaterial; except in actions for slander, seduction, or the like, where it is necessarily involved in the nature of the action.
“It is no matter how bad a man the defendant is, if the plaintiff’s injury is not on that account the greater; nor how good he is, if that circumstance enhanced the wrong” (A treatise on the Law of Evidence, Wigmore, Greenleaf, and Harriman).
“[Neither] are damages to be assessed merely according to the defendant’s ability to pay, for whether the payment of the amount due to the plaintiff, as compesation for the injury, will or will not be convenient to the defendant, does not at all affect the question as to the extent of the injury done….” (A treatise on the Law of Evidence, Wigmore, Greenleaf, and Harriman).
“But so far as the defendant’s rank and influence in society, and therefore the extent of the injury, are increased by his wealth, evidence of the fact is pertinent to the issues” (A treatise on the Law of Evidence, Wigmore, Greenleaf, and Harriman).
“Whether evidence of intention is admissible, to affect the amount of damages, will in like manner, depend on the materiality to the issue.”
In actions “for a malicious prosecution, or for false representations of another person’s credit in order to induce one to trust him, or the slander, the intention of the defendant is… the gist of the action… to entitle the plaintiff to recover any damages…” (A treatise on the Law of Evidence, Wigmore, Greenleaf, and Harriman).
“It is frequently said, that, in actions ex delicto (involving a crime), evidence is admissible in aggravation, or in mitigation of damages.
“But this, it is conceived, means nothing more than that evidence is admissible of facts and circumstances which go in aggravation or in mitigation of the injury itself” (A treatise on the Law of Evidence, Wigmore, Greenleaf, and Harriman).
“The circumstances, thus proved, ought to be those only which belong to the act complained of.
“The plaintiff is not justly entitled to receive compensation beyond the extent of his injury, nor ought the defendant to pay to the plaintiff more than the plaintiff is entitled to receive” (A treatise on the Law of Evidence, Wigmore, Greenleaf, and Harriman).