Article 164: Amendment Must Not Prejudice the Defence

Décisions de la Cour suprême interprétant cette section

1. Arrêt de la Cour suprême n° 4081/2564 (2021)

   An amendment or addition to the charge under Section 164 presupposes that the original charge is already complete. Where only a criminal charge was filed, the plaintiff cannot later add a motion imposing civil liability, because a civil claim connected to the offence must be brought together with the criminal charge from the outset.

   After filing only a criminal charge and after the charge was accepted and the defendant had pleaded, the plaintiff sought to amend the charge to add civil liability. The Court held that amendment under Section 164 requires a complete original charge and cannot be used to raise a new civil claim, so the amendment allowing it was improper.

2. Arrêt de la Cour suprême n° 11066/2558 (2015)

   A civil claim connected to a criminal case must be brought together with the criminal charge from the outset. Where the trial court holds a preliminary examination and orders the criminal charge accepted, that acceptance covers the connected civil claim too and no separate order accepting the civil claim is needed. It follows that a plaintiff who filed only a criminal charge cannot, once the charge has been accepted and the defendant has pleaded, use section 164, applied in district courts through section 4 of the Act establishing District Courts B.E. 2499, to amend the charge so as to add civil liability. Amendment presupposes an original charge that is already complete, so asserting the defendant's civil liability for the first time in such a motion is a new claim and not an amendment.

   The plaintiff company prosecuted the defendant under Penal Code sections 352 and 353. After the trial court had accepted the charge following preliminary examination and the defendant had pleaded not guilty, the plaintiff applied to amend the charge so as to make the defendant repay 190,642.19 baht with interest, being sums the plaintiff said it had had to pay to a company, a limited partnership and an individual. The Supreme Court held that a civil claim connected to a criminal case must be filed with the criminal charge from the start, that acceptance of the criminal charge is also acceptance of the connected civil claim without any separate order, and that amendment under section 164 requires an original charge that is already complete. The motion asserted the defendant's civil liability for the first time and was therefore a new claim that could not be introduced by amendment. The trial court had acted improperly in allowing it, so the civil judgments of both courts below were set aside and the court fees for all three instances refunded.

Curated decisions with case numbers verified against the Supreme Court database. English renderings are the firm's editorial translation for study.