Law on Obligation

• Obligation


  A juridical necessity to give, to do or not to do
• Civil Obligations and Natural Obligations

  • Essential Requisites of an Obligation:
  • A passive subject called the debtor or obligor
  • An Active subject called creditor or obligee
  • Object or prestation which is the subject matter of the obligation
  • A juridical or legal tie also called the efficient cause that which binds the parties to the obligation
• Form of Obligations


  • Oral or in writing
  • Partly oral and partly in writing
• Kinds of obligations according to the subject matter

  • Real Obligations
  • Personal Obligations
  • Positive Personal Obligations
  • Negative Personal Obligations
• Real Obligation


  Obligation in which the subject matter is a thing
• Personal Obligation


  Obligation in which the subject matter is an act to be done or not to be done
• Illustrative Example


  • Right of Way
• Obligations arise from


  • Law
  • Contracts
  • Quasi-contracts
  • Acts or omissions punishable by law
  • Quasi-delicts
• Obligations derived from law are not presumed. Only those expressly determined in this Code or in special laws are demandable and shall be regulated by the precepts of the law which establishes them; and as to what has not been foreseen, by the provisions of this Book.
• Contract


  A meeting of minds between two (2) persons whereby one binds himself, with respect to the others to give something or to render some service
• Contractual Obligations


  • Binding Force
  • Valid Contract (Essential Elements)
  • Requirement of a valid contract
  • Breach of Contract
  • Compliance In Good Faith
• Quasi-contracts


  • Negotiorum gestio – is the voluntary management of the property or affairs of another without the knowledge or consent of the latter
  • Solutio indebiti – is the juridical relation which is created when something is received when there is no right to demand it and it was unduly delivered through mistake
• Civil obligations arising from criminal offenses

  Governed by the penal laws, subject to the provisions of Article 2177, and of the pertinent provisions of Chapter 2, Preliminary Title, on Human Relations, and of Title XVIII of this Book, regulating damages
• Quasi-delicts


  An act or omission by a person (tortfeasor) which causes damage to another in his person, property or rights giving rise to an obligation to pay for the damage done, there being fault or negligence but there is no pre-existing contractual relation between the parties
• Crime distinguish from quasi-delict
• Fruits


  • Different kinds of fruits
  • Right of creditor to the fruits
  • When obligation to deliver fruits arises
• Personal right and real right distinguished


  Ownership acquired by delivery
• Remedies of creditor in real obligation

  • In a specific real obligation (obligation to deliver a determinate thing):
  • Demand specific performance or fulfillment
  • Demand recission or cancellation
  • Demand payment of damages only, where it is the only possible remedy
  • A generic real obligation (obligation to deliver a generic thing)
  • Where the debtor delays or has promised delivery to separate creditors
  • Fortuitous events
• Accession


  Fruits of the thing or addition to or improvements upon the thing (the principal)
• Accessories


  Things joined to or included with the principal thing for the latter's embellishment, better use, or completion
• Lease of a house include lease of the lot on which the house is located
• If a person obliged to do something fails to do it, the same shall be executed at his cost.
• If he does it in contravention of the tenor of the obligation, it may be decreed that what has been poorly done be undone.
• When the obligation consists in not doing, and the obligor does what has been forbidden him, it shall be undone at his expense.
• Delay


  • Ordinary delay and Legal delay or default or mora
  • Requisites of delay or default by the debtor: (1) failure of the debtor to perform the obligation (2) demand – judicial or extrajudicial (3) failure of the debtor to comply with the demand
  • Effects of delay (1) mora solviende (2) mora accipiende
  • When demand is not necessary to put debtor in delay
• Those who in the performance of their obligations are guilty of fraud, negligence, or delay, and those who in any manner contravene the tenor thereof, are liable for damages.
• Responsibility arising from fraud is demandable in all obligations. Any waiver of an action to future fraud is void.
• Responsibility arising from negligence in the performance of every kind of obligation is also demandable, but such liability may be regulated by the courts, according to the circumstances.
• Fault or negligence of the obligor

  • Omission of that diligence which is required by the nature of the obligation and corresponds with the circumstances of the persons, of the time and of the place
  • When negligence shows bad faith, the provisions of articles 1171 and 2201, paragraph 2, shall apply
  • If the law or contract does not state the diligence which is to be observed in the performance, that which is expected of a good father of a family shall be required
• Except in cases expressly specified by the law, or when it is otherwise declared by stipulation, or when the nature of the obligation requires the assumption of risk, no person shall be responsible for those events which could not be foreseen, or which , though foreseen, were inevitable.
• Usurious transactions shall be governed by special laws.
• The receipt of the principal by the creditor , without reservation with respect to the interest , shall give rise to the presumption that said interest has been paid.
• The receipt of a later installment of a debt without reservation as to prior installment , shall likewise raise the presumption that such installment have been paid.
• The creditors, after having pursued the property in possession of the debtor to satisfy their claims, may exercise all the rights and bring all the actions of the latter for the same purpose, save those which are inherent in his person; they may also impugn the acts which the debtor may have done to defraud them.
• Subject to the laws, all rights acquired in virtue of an obligation are transmissible. If there has been no stipulation to the contrary.
• Article 1156 is a juridical necessity to give, to do, or not to do.
• Art. 1157 is an obligations arise from:

  1. Law;2.Contracts;3.Quasi-contracts;4.Acts or omissions punishable by law; and.Quasi-delicts.
• Art. 1158 is an obligation derived from law are not presumed. Only those expressly determined in this Code or special laws are demandable and shall be regulated by the precepts of the law which establishes them
• Art. 1159 is an Obligation arising from contracts that have the force of law between the contracting parties and should be complied with in good faith.