Short answer. A contract for a piece of work. Article 1467 turns on whether the maker produces the article for the general market or manufactures it specially for you upon your special order. Furniture built to your own design falls on the piece-of-work side, and different rules follow from that.
What the law says
if the goods are to be manufactured specially for the customer and upon his special order, and not for the general market, it is a contract for a piece of work.
Civil Code, Article 1467 — Sale vs. Piece of Work. Read the full provision →
The test is the market, not the price tag
Article 1467 does not ask how much you paid or whether the maker called himself a supplier. It asks what he would have done with the article if you had never walked in. Where the maker in the ordinary course of his business manufactures or procures the item for the general market, the transaction is a sale even if nothing was on hand when you ordered. But if the goods are to be manufactured specially for the customer and upon his special order, and not for the general market, it is a contract for a piece of work. Your own design, drawn for you and made for nobody else, is the clearest case on that side of the line.
Why the classification changes your remedies
Under a piece of work the maker is a contractor, and Article 1713 describes him as binding himself to execute a piece of work for the employer in consideration of a certain price, employing his own labour or skill and possibly furnishing the material as well. Article 1715 then requires that the work have the qualities agreed upon and no defects that destroy or lessen its value or fitness. If it does not, you may require him to remove the defect or execute another work, and if he refuses, have it done at his cost. That is a stronger and more practical remedy than arguing about the quality of goods after delivery.
The awkward middle: catalogue items with options
Most disputes sit between the two poles. A cabinet from a standard range, resized and finished in a colour the maker already offers, is still an article he manufactures for the general market; you chose from his options rather than gave him yours. A unit drawn to your measurements, to fit a wall that exists in one house only, is not. The useful question is whether the finished article could be sold to the next customer who walked in without being remade. If it could, you are probably a buyer; if it could not, you are an employer of work.
What settles it on paper
Keep whatever recorded the specification: the drawings you supplied, the measurements written on the order form, the approval you gave to a shop drawing, any sample submitted for your sign-off. Keep the maker's own material too, because a catalogue or a website advertising the same item to the public points the other way. If the article was made to your design, say so in the order document rather than accepting a blank sales invoice, and set out the qualities agreed upon in enough detail that a defect can later be identified against something written.
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.
- M.Y. Intercontinental Trading Corporation, Tedwin T. Uy, and Allianz Marketing and Publishing Corporation vs. St. Mary'S Publishing Corporation, G.R. No. 249715, April 12, 2023 — read the decision on LawPhil →
- Del Monte Philippines., Inc, vs. Napoleon N. Aragones, G.R. No. 153033, June 23, 2005 — read the decision on LawPhil →
Related provisions
- Civil Code, Article 1467 — Sale vs. Piece of Work
- Civil Code, Article 1713 — Contract for a Piece of Work Defined
- Civil Code, Article 1715 — Quality of the Work; Remedies for Defects