Ex gratia

Ex gratia (sometimes ex-gratia) is Latin (lit. by favour) and is most often used in a legal context. When something has been done ex gratia, it has been done voluntarily, out of kindness or grace. In law, an ex gratia payment is a payment made without the giver recognising any liability or legal obligation.

The phrase is pronounced: /ˈɛksˌɡrɑ.ʃiə/

Examples of ex gratia payments

Compensation payments are often made ex gratia when a government or organisation is prepared to compensate victims of an event such as an accident or similar, but not to admit liability to pay compensation, or for causing the event.

• When the USS Vincennes fired upon Iran Air passenger Flight 655 in 1988, killing some 290 individuals, the President of the United States decided that the United States would offer compensation, on an ex gratia basis, to the families of the victims.
• In a more routine context, the document Suffolk County Council Education: Ex-Gratia Payments for Loss of or Damage to Personal Property shows how an education authority compensates victims for damage, but without accepting a liability to do so.
• Following the 1994 Black Hawk shootdown incident, on August 26, 1994 the U.S. Department of Defense announced that it would pay U.S.$100,000 in compensation to the families of each of the non-U.S. personnel killed in the friendly-fire incident.
• Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh announced ex-gratia payments of Rs 100,000 (approx. US$2,000) to the next of kin of those who died in the Mumbai train bombings (11 July 2006). The injured would be given Rs 50,000 (approx. US$1,000) each.
• Prime Minister of Malaysia, Datuk Seri Abdullah Haji Ahmad Badawi announced undisclosed ex-gratia payments to the judges that have been affected during the 1988 Malaysian Constitutional Crisis in June 2008.
• A company conducting layoffs may make an ex gratia payment to the affected employees that is greater than the statutory payment required by the law, perhaps if those employees had a long and well performing service with the company.