I'm Giancarlo Enrico S. Pozon, a Wushu instructor, investor and Barrister... That's right, Barrister; I graduated from law school and took the Bar Exams, now I'm waiting for the results. I created this blog to make Philippine Law easy to understand for the average person. It's all about free legal advice. There are many law blogs. But the problem is that many of them are written for lawyers and law students. They use words that can't be understood by ordinary people.
Many lawyers, judges and law students consider themselves as superior to most human beings because of their knowledge of the law. It bothers me since the law is supposed to serve society. Since the law is meant to serve society as a whole, it is important that is must be understood by everybody.
This does not mean that we should all become lawyers. It means that although law is a highly specialized profession, the first duty of everybody in this profession is to make the law understandable to all; that's why all these articles are free legal advice.
Like I said, this blog is about law -but it's for the ordinary people, not the lawyers. It's for the ordinary folk so they will know what is good and bad for them, and that making them aware of the law will help us all improve society as a whole. This is free legal advice for everybody!
Art. 2195 to 2235 are the articles of the Civil Code that cover damages.
Damages are the pecuniary (i.e. monetary) compensation for injury the victim suffered. They are paid by the tortfeasor. They are:
1. Actual/compensatory
2. Moral
3. Nominal
4. Temperate
5. Liquidated
6. Exemplary/corrective.
A few general concepts you need to know:
1. If you don't pay the filing fees when you file a suit for damages, the court won't entertain you.
2. Compulsory counterclaims for damages and attorney's fees aren't subject to filing fees.
3. Damages can be demanded from those who actually perform their obligations if you can prove that there was fraud, negligence, delay, or even those whose actions are contrary to the tenor of their obligations.
4. For delay to be a ground for damages, negligence or malice must be proved.
5. Generally, the Civil Code has the final say on damages in case of a conflict between it and special laws. However, death, injury or illness of workers and other employees are covered by special laws, such as the Labor Code.
6. A Labor Arbiter or the National Labor Relations Commission have original and exclusive jurisdiction over damage claims from an employer-employee relationship. Labor authorities can award reliefs from the labor laws as well as Civil Code damages. There's a case (Banez vs. Valdevilla, 331 SCRA 584.)
7. Damages are not debts.
8. Force majeure (events beyond a person's control,) such as natural disasters, wars, etc. generally can't be a ground to ask for damages.
9. A person exercising his right doesn't cause injury (Damnum Absque Injuria.) We will take this up in another article.
10. Government officials can be liable for a tort if they act without authority. However, they can't be liable for damages if they were performing their duties in good faith.
1 comments:
Sorry for the late reply, Gie. We have our finals now. Your actual damages includes your unpaid salary. The rest of the damages are determined by the Labor Arbiter
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