Section 222/45 — Appeal and dika free of capital-sum limit
Statutory text (Thai original)
ให้คู่ความมีสิทธิอุทธรณ์และฎีกาคำพิพากษาหรือคำสั่งของศาล โดยไม่นำข้อจำกัดสิทธิเรื่องทุนทรัพย์ของการอุทธรณ์และฎีกาในข้อเท็จจริงมาใช้บังคับ
English translation
The parties shall have the right to appeal and to bring a dika (further appeal to the Supreme Court) against a judgment or order of the court, without applying the restriction on the right of appeal and dika on questions of fact based on the amount in dispute.
This English translation is provided for reference only and has not yet been firm-verified — always rely on the Thai original.
Firm annotation
This provision opens Part 5 on appeal and dika in class actions and deliberately disapplies the capital-sum restrictions that ordinarily bar factual appeals under Section 224 (appeal) and the corresponding dika limits. The rationale is that a class action aggregates many individuals' claims and often raises questions of broad public importance, so it should not be shut out of higher review merely because any single member's amount, or even the aggregate, falls below a monetary threshold. The right conferred here belongs to the parties, that is the plaintiff and defendant, and should be read together with Section 222/46, which restricts group members' own appeal rights to the narrow situation under Section 222/42.
Why this matters in practice
For litigants, this is a meaningful advantage of the class action route: you keep full appeal and dika rights on the facts even where an ordinary claim of the same size would be locked at first instance. That said, appellate rights belong to the parties, not to individual group members, whose rights are far narrower. If you are weighing a class action against individual suits, the preserved right of factual appeal can be decisive; discuss it in a consultation with a Thai lawyer.
Frequently asked questions
Can class action parties appeal on the facts even in a small-value case?
Yes. Section 222/45 disapplies the capital-sum restriction, so the parties may appeal and bring a dika on questions of fact against a class action judgment or order regardless of the amount in dispute.
Does this appeal right belong to individual group members?
No. Section 222/45 confers the right on the parties, meaning the plaintiff and defendant. Group members' own appeal rights are limited by Section 222/46 to the situation under Section 222/42.