Oblicon: Nature and Effects of Obligation

• A thing is said to be specific or determinate particularly or physically segregated from others of the same class.
• A thing is generic or indeterminate when it refers only to a class or genus to which it pertains and cannot be pointed out with particularity
• A determinate thing is identified by its individuality.
• A generic thing is identified only by its specie.
• When obligation to deliver fruits arises:

  1. Generally, the obligation to deliver the thing due and, consequently, the fruits thereof, if any, arises from the time of the "perfection of the contract."
• Perfection, in this case, refers to the birth of the contract or to the meeting of the minds between the parties.
• When obligation to deliver fruits arises:

  2. If the obligation is subject to a suspensive condition or period, it arises upon the fulfillment of the condition or arrival of the term. However, the parties may make a stipulation to the contrary as regards the right of the creditor to the fruits of the thing.
• When obligation to deliver fruits arises:

  3. In contract of sale, the obligation arises from the perfection of the contract even if the obligation is subject to a suspensive condition or suspensive period where the price has been paid.
• Personal right is the right or power of a person (creditor) to demand from another (debtor), as a definite passive subject, the fulfillment of the latter's obligation to give, to do, or not to do.
• Real right is the right or interest of a person over a specific thing (like ownership, possession, mortgage) without a definite passive subject against whom the right may be personally enforced.
• In personal right, there is a definite active subject and a definite passive subject while in real right, there is only a definite active subject without any definite passive subject.
• A personal right is, therefore, binding or enforceable only against a particular person, while a real right is directed against the whole world.
• As a general rule, the debtor is not liable if his failure to preserve the thing is not due to his fault or negligence but to fortuitous events or force majeure.
• Duties of debtor in obligation to give a determinate thing.

  1. Preserve to take care of the thing.
  2. Deliver the fruits of the thing.
  3. Deliver the accessions and accessories.
  4. Deliver the thing itself.
  5. Answer for damages in case of non-fulfillment or breach.
• Diligence of a good father of a family - the phrase has been equated with ordinary care or that diligence which an average (a reasonable prudent) person over his own property
• Another standard of care - however, if the law or the stipulation of the parties provides another standard of care, said law or stipulation must prevail.
• Civil fruits - are those derived by virtue of a juridical relation
• Examples of civil fruits are rents of buildings, price of leases of lands, and other property
• The intention of the law is to protect the interest of the obligee should the obligor commit delay, purposely or otherwise, in the fulfillment of his obligation.
• Ownership and other real rights over property are acquired and transmitted in consequence of certain contracts by tradition or delivery.
• The meaning of the phrase "he shall acquire no real right over it until the same has been delivered to him," is that the creditor does not become the owner until the specific thing has been delivered to him.
• Art 1165: When what is to be delivered is determinate thing, the creditor, in addition to the right granted him by article 1170, may compel the debtor to make the delivery.
• Remedies of creditor in real obligation. In a SPECIFIC REAL OBLIGATION:

  1. Demand specific performance or fulfillment of the obligation with a right to indemnity for damages.
• Remedies of creditor in real obligation. In a SPECIFIC REAL OBLIGATION:

  2. Demand rescission or cancellation of the obligation with a right to recover damages.
• Remedies of creditor in real obligation. In a SPECIFIC REAL OBLIGATION:

  3. Demand payment of the damages only, where t is the only feasible remedy.
• In an obligation to deliver a determinate thing, the vert thing itself must be delivered.
• A generic real obligation - can be performed by a third person since the object is expressed only according to its family or genus.
• Where debtor delays or has promised delivery to separate creditors:

  • Does not exempt the debtor from responsibility. It likewise refers to determinate thing.
• Where debtor delays or has promised delivery to separate creditors:

  • a indeterminate thing cannot be the object of destruction by a fortuitous event because genus nunquam perit or genus never perishes.
• Accessions are the fruits of a thing or additions to or improvements upon a thing (the principal).
• Accessories are thing joined to or included with the principal thing for the latter's embellishment, better use, or completion.
• Note that while accessions are not necessary to the principal thing, the accessory and the principal thing must go together.
• According to principles of law, accessory follows the principal.
• Ordinary delay merely is the failure to perform an obligation on time.
• Legal delay or default or mora is the failure to perform an obligation on time which failure constitutes a breach of the obligation.
• Kinds of delay or default:

  1. Mora solvendi
  2. Mora accipiendi
  3. Compensation morae
• Mora solvendi or the delay on the part of the debtor to fulfill his obligation.
• Mora accipiendi or the delay on the part of the creditor to accept the performance of the obligation
• Compensatio morae or the delay of the obligors in reciprocal obligations
• In an obligation not to do, non-fulfillment may take place but delay is impossible for the debtor fulfills by not doing what has been forbidden him