Understanding Obligations and Contracts: Key Elements
Obligations
Class:
- Dar: Refers to the delivery of things, including money.
- Hacer: Refers to providing a service.
- No Hacer: Forbids the carrying out of certain conduct.
Obligations are subject to these rules.
Condition
A condition is a clause by which the acquisition or loss of a right depends on an uncertain future event that may or may not occur.
Term
A term is a clause that postpones the effects of an obligation. The term may be:
- True: When the date of compliance is determined, such as in a lease (for a 2-year term).
- Uncertain: When the date of its realization depends on a future event that will necessarily occur.
The Position
A duty imposed by one contracting party on the other, arising from a supply or exceptional accessory. Example: wills, grants.
Extinction of Obligations
Payment
Upon reaching the agreement, both parties comply, and the obligations cease to exist.
Novation (Refinancing)
The parties agree that the original obligation ceases to exist and is replaced by a new, different obligation.
Transaction
The parties agree that each gives the other a portion of the rights at issue.
Waiver of Creditor’s Rights
The creditor gifts the debtor a waiver of the breach of duty, thus eliminating the debt obligation.
Remission
The creditor returns the original statement of debt (e.g., a check) to the debtor.
Compensation
Requires that two parties are both creditor and debtor to each other, offsetting debts. Compensation only occurs if the claim is settled or involves money and is enforceable, meaning the debtor is in default.
Confusion
Occurs when the roles of creditor and debtor merge into the same person due to a legal reason (e.g., inheritance).
Prescription Liberatoria
The time period the law provides for parties to reject a contract before the courts due to a breach by the other party.
Inability to Pay
When compliance is physically or legally impossible without the debtor’s fault, due to force majeure (e.g., a micro-flood).
Contract
CC Art. 1137: A contract specifies that multiple people should agree on a declaration of will, intending to fix their rights. The will of the people involved is the essence of all contracts.
A contract exists every time a person expresses their willingness to give or do something, and the other person expresses their will in the same direction.
Elements of a Contract
Subject (Re)
The natural or legal persons involved in a contract.
Object
The behaviors or things that are going to be exchanged through the contract.
Methods
The legal requirements for the realization of each type of contract. These may be formal or informal (verbal or written).
Consent
Expresses the will of the parties in a joint statement. This expression of will together is called consent.
Contract with Permitted Content: When the parties voluntarily resolve what the contract will be.
Required Forms: When the law prescribes how the parties should express their consent.
Free Contracts
Generate a benefit for one party without dependents, as in the case of a donation.
Formal Contracts
Contracts in which the law requires parties to carry out certain ways to express their consent. These forms have a formal character, and the contract can only be proven by means of them.
Non-Formal Contracts
Contracts in which the law does not require any particular form for the parties to express consent. They can express it verbally, in writing, or in any other way. Example: buying candy at a kiosk.
Actual Contracts
Consent alone is not enough to consider the contract complete, requiring, in addition to consent, the delivery of the thing or object of the contract by one party. These contracts are called real.