Short answer. Generally no liability for the loss, but you get your money back. Article 1174 excuses events that could not be foreseen or were inevitable. The catch is that this only saves a supplier who owed a specific identified thing — a generic order of goods must still be filled.

What the law says

Except in cases expressly specified by the law, or when it is otherwise declared by stipulation, or when the nature of the obligation requires the assumption of risk, no person shall be responsible for those events which could not be foreseen, or which, though foreseen, were inevitable.

Civil Code, Article 1174 — Fortuitous Events. Read the full provision →

What the law says

In an obligation to deliver a generic thing, the loss or destruction of anything of the same kind does not extinguish the obligation.

Civil Code, Article 1263 — Loss of a Generic Thing (Genus Nunquam Perit). Read the full provision →

The excuse, with its exceptions built in

Article 1174 states the rule this way: Except in cases expressly specified by the law, or when it is otherwise declared by stipulation, or when the nature of the obligation requires the assumption of risk, no person shall be responsible for those events which could not be foreseen, or which, though foreseen, were inevitable. A typhoon is the standard example. But the exceptions are not decoration: a contract term allocating the risk of loss to the supplier, or a law imposing liability, displaces the excuse entirely. Read the supply contract before conceding anything.

Specific thing or generic goods?

This is the question that decides most of these disputes. Article 1262 extinguishes an obligation to deliver a determinate thing if it is lost or destroyed without the debtor's fault and before he has incurred in delay. Article 1263 says the opposite for generic obligations: In an obligation to deliver a generic thing, the loss or destruction of anything of the same kind does not extinguish the obligation. So if you ordered a particular identified machine that was set aside for you and it was washed away, the obligation dies with it. If you ordered fifty sacks of cement, the supplier's flooded stock is his problem — cement still exists.

Delay destroys the excuse

Timing matters as much as the storm. Article 1262 protects the debtor only where the loss happened before he incurred in delay, and Article 1165 makes an obligor who delays, or who promised the same thing to two or more persons, responsible for any fortuitous event until delivery is effected. A supplier already overdue when the typhoon arrived therefore cannot shelter behind it. So the first thing to establish is the agreed delivery date and whether a demand had been made — the same dated correspondence that would matter in any other breach.

Your money, and who bore the risk

Being excused from delivering is not the same as keeping the price. Where the obligation is extinguished, the supplier has no cause to retain what you paid for goods you will never receive, and a refund is the ordinary consequence. On risk, Article 1504 provides that unless otherwise agreed the goods remain at the seller's risk until ownership in them is transferred to the buyer. So ask three questions: had ownership passed, was the order specific or generic, and was delivery already overdue? The answers, plus the contract's own force majeure clause, settle whether this loss is yours or the supplier's.

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.

Related provisions

Note. Statute text quoted on this page is reproduced from the official enactment and is linked to the full provision. The explanation around it is general legal information from Vivas & Nobles Law Office, not legal advice. Whether it applies to your situation depends on facts only a lawyer reviewing them can assess.