Section 432: Joint and several tort liability
Statutory text (Thai original)
ถ้าบุคคลหลายคนก่อให้เกิดเสียหายแก่บุคคลอื่นโดยร่วมกันทำละเมิด ท่านว่าบุคคลเหล่านั้นจะต้องร่วมกันรับผิดใช้ค่าสินไหมทดแทนเพื่อความเสียหายนั้น ความข้อนี้ท่านให้ใช้ตลอดถึงกรณีที่ไม่สามารถสืบรู้ตัวได้แน่ว่าในจำพวกที่ทำละเมิดร่วมกันนั้น คนไหนเป็นผู้ก่อให้เกิดเสียหายนั้นด้วยอนึ่ง บุคคลผู้ยุยงส่งเสริมหรือช่วยเหลือในการทำละเมิด ท่านก็ให้ถือว่าเป็นผู้กระทำละเมิดร่วมกันด้วยในระหว่างบุคคลทั้งหลายซึ่งต้องรับผิดร่วมกันใช้ค่าสินไหมทดแทนนั้น ท่านว่าต่างต้องรับผิดเป็นส่วนเท่า ๆ กัน เว้นแต่โดยพฤติการณ์ ศาลจะวินิจฉัยเป็นประการอื่น
Verbatim from the Royal Gazette / Office of the Council of State
English translation
If several persons by a joint wrongful act cause damage to another person, they are jointly bound to make compensation for the damage. The same applies if, among several joint doers of an act, the one who caused the damage cannot be ascertained. Persons who instigate or assist in a wrongful act are deemed to be joint actors. As between themselves the persons jointly bound to make compensation are liable in equal shares unless, under the circumstances, the Court otherwise decides.
This English translation is provided for reference only and has not yet been firm-verified. Always rely on the Thai original.
Firm annotation
Section 432 lets the plaintiff sue any one defendant for the whole loss, leaving contribution disputes to be sorted out among the defendants. Common Thai scenarios: a multi-car traffic accident; a building collapse with both designer and contractor fault; school administrators acting together to expel a student unlawfully. SC decisions 6234/2564 (a school and its administrators, over compulsory-education rights) and 15067/2557 (a hospital and its personnel, where a misreported test result allowed a cancer to spread) both apply §432 to hold an institution and the individuals within it jointly liable.
Supreme Court decisions interpreting this section
- 15067/2557 (2014) ★ Medical Misdiagnosis: Joint Liability of Doctors
- 6234/2564 (2021) School Officials: Joint Tort Liability for Unlawful Expulsion
Showing decisions in our database that cite this section. The list updates automatically when new decisions are added.
Cited in 24 Supreme Court decisions (1963 to 2023)
Selected citing decisions
- Decision 6234/2564 (2021) School Officials: Joint Tort Liability for Unlawful Expulsion
- Decision 6700/2553 (2010)
- Decision 748/2552 (2009)
- Decision 8793/2551 (2008)
- Decision 551/2540 (1997)
- Decision 104/2534 (1991)
- Decision 2786/2529 (1986)
- Decision 1067/2524 (1981)
This list is selected automatically, weighted towards judgments that turn on this section rather than ones that merely recite it when passing sentence. It has not yet been reviewed by the firm.
Most often cited alongside
Sections that appear in the same judgments as this one most often. The figure is the number of decisions.
Counted across the firm's corpus of 83,652 Supreme Court decisions, 1921 to 2026. The count is complete; the stated year range trims rare outliers so it describes where the citations actually sit. These figures are computed by us and are not official court statistics. How we count these, and what we measured
Related guides on ThaiLawOnline
Cite this section
-
Plain citation
Civil and Commercial Code, s. 432 (Thailand) -
Academic citation
Civil and Commercial Code (Thailand), s. 432. ThaiLawOnline, https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-civil-code/section-432/ (accessed 28 August 2026). -
Thai citation
ป.พ.พ. มาตรา 432 -
Permalink
https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-civil-code/section-432/ -
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<blockquote cite="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-civil-code/section-432/"><p>If several persons by a joint wrongful act cause damage to another person, they are jointly bound to make compensation for the damage. The same applies if, among several joint doers of an act, the one who caused the damage cannot be ascertained. Persons who…</p><footer>Civil and Commercial Code, s. 432 (Thailand): <a href="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-civil-code/section-432/">ThaiLawOnline</a></footer></blockquote>
The Thai text is authoritative. The English is an unofficial translation by ThaiLawOnline, free to reuse with attribution.