Short answer. Yes. Article 2224 lets a court award temperate damages specifically for the portion of loss that cannot be proved with certainty, while ordinary actual damages under Article 2199 cover whatever you did document, such as receipted medical expenses. The two categories are not mutually exclusive within one case — they answer to different parts of the same loss.
What the law says
Temperate or moderate damages, which are more than nominal but less than compensatory damages, may be recovered when the court finds that some pecuniary loss has been suffered but its amount can not, from the nature of the case, be provided with certainty.
Civil Code, Article 2224 — Temperate Damages Defined. Read the full provision →
Two Different Jobs Within the Same Claim
Actual damages compensate what you proved, peso for peso, through receipts, invoices, and similar evidence. Temperate damages exist for the separate, narrower job of covering pecuniary loss that a court is satisfied really happened but that, by its nature, could not be pinned down with the same certainty. Nothing in Article 2224 says a claimant must choose one category or the other for an entire case; a court can apply each to the piece of the loss it fits.
What 'Cannot Be Proved With Certainty' Actually Covers
Lost income for someone without payslips, the future cost of ongoing medical care, or the diminished value of a damaged but irreplaceable item are the kinds of loss the law expects will often resist receipt-level proof. That is different from a loss you simply failed to document even though records existed — courts look at whether certainty was structurally out of reach, not just unavailable to you personally.
Why This Is Not Double Recovery
Temperate damages are only meant to fill the specific gap that actual damages did not reach. A court awarding both in one case is not compensating the same peso of loss twice under two labels — it is compensating the receipted medical bills as actual damages and the un-receipted lost income, separately, as temperate damages, because each component called for a different kind of proof.
What Still Helps Your Temperate-Damages Claim
Even without exact records, some evidentiary basis strengthens a temperate damages request — your usual monthly earnings before the injury, testimony about your work, or industry-typical figures for the kind of income you lost. A court moderating an award still wants something to anchor the figure to, even if it stops short of requiring the certainty demanded of actual damages.
Cases citing this provision
These Supreme Court decisions cite the provision above. We list them so you can read them yourself; the summaries of what each decided are not ours to give.
- Voltaire Hans N. Bongcaya, doing business under the name and style of VHB Biopro, G.R. No. 225438, January 20, 2021 — read the decision on LawPhil →
- Excellent Essentials International Corporation vs. Extra Excel International Philippines, Inc, G.R. No. 192797, April 18, 2018 — read the decision on LawPhil →
- Lorenzo Shipping Corporation vs. National Power Corporation, G.R. No. 181683, October 7, 2015 — read the decision on LawPhil →
- People of the Philippines vs. Efren Laurio y Rosales, G.R. No. 182523, September 13, 2012 — read the decision on LawPhil →
Related provisions
- Civil Code, Article 2224 — Temperate Damages Defined
- Civil Code, Article 2199 — Actual Damages Must Be Proved
- Civil Code, Article 2225 — Temperate Damages Must Be Reasonable