Punitive damage in Mexico: A dimension of the fair compensation of moral damage.

August 15, 2024

Punitive damages allow a higher compensation in favor of the plaintiff, derived from the seriousness of the wrongful act committed, with the purpose of discouraging the harmful conduct. This type of damages is not expressly stablished in Mexican law. However, their implementation has been built based on the criteria of our Courts.

One of these criteria was recently issued by our Federal Courts, which excludes the award of punitive damages in claims for strictly economic damages. In other words, the precedent, although not mandatory, establishes that the award of punitive damages depends closely on the analysis of the moral damages suffered.

This decision takes up precedents of the Supreme Court of Justice, which has been emphatic in determining that punitive damages do not constitute an independent and different action from the analysis of moral damages, considering that punitive damages are the legal means for the victim to have its right to fair compensation for the non-economic damages suffered satisfied.

This implies that both the Supreme Court and the Courts have established that there is a link between the award of punitive and moral damages, so that in a case where only economic affectations are claimed, there is no basis for obtaining punitive damages.

At OLIVARES, our team specialized in civil and commercial litigation is interested in being continuously updated on the latest criteria issued by the different Mexican jurisdictional bodies, to propose current and valuable legal strategies for the best defense of the rights of our clients.