Short answer. Proof, in documents. Actual damages are never presumed — the Civil Code gives compensation only for pecuniary loss the claimant has duly proved, so the receipts, invoices, contracts and records you can actually produce set the ceiling on an award, not the loss you believe you suffered.
What the law says
one is entitled to an adequate compensation only for such pecuniary loss suffered by him as he has duly proved
Civil Code, Article 2199 — Actual Damages Must Be Proved. Read the full provision →
What the law says
Such compensation is referred to as actual or compensatory damages.
Civil Code, Article 2199 — Actual Damages Must Be Proved. Read the full provision →
Compensation is measured by proof, not by injury
Article 2199 says that one is entitled to an adequate compensation only for such pecuniary loss suffered by him as he has duly proved. Two words in that sentence do most of the work. Adequate means the award restores what was lost and no more; it is not a penalty on the wrongdoer and it does not scale with how badly he behaved. Duly proved means the loss has to be established in court like any other fact. A claimant who genuinely lost far more than he can document recovers only the documented part, and the gap between the two is the single most common disappointment in a damages case.
Pecuniary loss is the category, and it is narrower than it sounds
The article speaks of pecuniary loss, and the compensation it authorises is what the second sentence calls actual or compensatory damages. That covers money you paid out and money you demonstrably failed to earn because of the wrong — repairs, replacement cost, medical bills, hire of a substitute vehicle, income a closed shop did not take in. It does not cover hurt feelings, embarrassment, anxiety or the sense that someone should be punished. Those belong to other kinds of damages under separate provisions with separate requirements, and a claim that mixes them together tends to fail on all fronts rather than succeed on one.
The opening clause matters if you have a contract
The article begins with an exception: except as provided by law or by stipulation. If the parties agreed in advance on a fixed sum payable on breach, that stipulation governs and the claimant is not put to the ordinary burden of proving each peso of loss. The same is true where a particular statute fixes what is recoverable. So the first question in any actual-damages claim is not what receipts exist but whether a contract clause or a special law has already answered the question — because if one has, the entire proof exercise changes shape.
What to gather before anyone files anything
Assemble the paper the way a court will read it: dated receipts and official invoices rather than estimates, the original contract or order that fixes what a thing was worth, photographs taken close to the event, and records showing what the business or the wage earner was actually taking in before the loss. Where the amount depends on an opinion — repair cost, diminution in value — a written appraisal from someone qualified to give one is worth more than a claimed figure. Bring that file to a lawyer before committing to a number in a demand letter, because the figure you assert early is the figure you will be measured against later.
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.
- Industrial Personnel And Management Services, Inc. vs. Country Bankers Insurance Corporation, G.R. No. 194126, October 17, 2018 — read the decision on LawPhil →
- Filipinas Synthetic Fiber Corporation vs. Wilfredo De Los Santos, et al, G.R. No. 152033, March 16, 2011 — read the decision on LawPhil →
- G.Q. Garments, Inc. vs. Angel Miranda, et al, G.R. No. 161722, July 20, 2006 — read the decision on LawPhil →
- Marikina Auto Line Transport Corporation, et al. vs. People of The Philippines, et al, G.R. No. 152040, March 31, 2006 — read the decision on LawPhil →