Text of the provision
Art. 2213. Interest cannot be recovered upon unliquidated claims or damages, except when the demand can be established with reasonable certainty.
Civil Code of the Philippines, Republic Act No. 386, approved June 18, 1949, effective August 30, 1950. Reproduced in full. The three sources consulted do not read identically here; the text above is the reading carried by two of the three, including the Official Gazette.
What this article means
Interest cannot be recovered on unliquidated claims or damages — you cannot charge interest on an amount nobody has yet fixed. The exception carries the practical weight: interest runs where the demand can be established with reasonable certainty.
The distinction the article draws is between a liquidated claim, whose amount is fixed or readily computable, and an unliquidated one, whose amount is still contested or undetermined. A promissory note for a specific sum is liquidated; a claim for losses that have not yet been quantified is not, and stays that way until proved. The exception matters because a demand does not need to be reduced to a precise, undisputed figure to qualify — it only needs to be capable of computation with reasonable certainty from the facts presented.
Questions about this provision
Related provisions
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Cases interpreting this article
- Authorities on this article will be added here as each is verified against primary sources.