Understanding Obligations and Liabilities in Civil Law

Posted on Jan 25, 2025 in Law & Jurisprudence

Concept and Classification of Obligations

Credit Rights: The powers that allow a person (creditor) to require another person (debtor) to act in a certain way. An obligation is the legal relationship whereby a person, called the debtor, is subject to performing a specific action that another person, named the creditor, has the right to demand.

Elements of an Obligation

  • Real Elements: The content of the material or performance obligation on which the obligation rests.
  • Personal Elements: Debtor and creditor.
  • Elements of the Relationship: The link between subjects:
    • Debit: The duty of the debtor to make payment.
    • Responsibility: In case of non-voluntary compliance by the debtor, the debtor is responsible with all their present and future assets.
    • Relationship: The relationship that unites the creditor with the debtor.

Sources of Obligations

  • Law: e.g., food obligation of parents regarding their children.
  • Quasi-Contract: e.g., unrelated business management and processing the payment term without being undue.
  • Contracts: The exercise of contractual autonomy of the will.

Classification of Obligations

  • Positive Obligations (debtor’s action) or Negative Obligations (no action by the debtor).
  • Single or Successive Treatment Obligations: Single treatment in a single act at once (buying); successive acts at different times (lease).
  • Divisible and Indivisible Obligations: Divisible compliance can be done in phases or parts homogeneously (loan return); indivisible parts cannot be fulfilled (indivisible transaction, e.g., a “horse”).
  • Unilateral and Bilateral Obligations: In unilateral obligations, the link is for one party (donation); in bilateral obligations, it is for two parties (purchase).
  • Pecuniary and Non-Pecuniary Obligations: Pecuniary obligations involve money. Stabilization clause: interest will be applied.
  • Main or Accessory Obligations: Main obligations can exist independently (return capital + interest); accessory obligations are incidentally linked to a main obligation (loans guaranteed by a guarantee).
  • Joint and Several Obligations: In joint obligations, each debtor and each creditor must have the right to demand their rightful party. In several obligations, any creditor can require any debtor to fully comply with the provision.

Extinction of Obligations

Payment or Fulfillment

Refers to the realization of the benefit obligation as of the object. It is the normal and proper way of extinguishing obligations and truly satisfying the creditor’s right.

Requirements:

  • Identity: The creditor receives the agreed benefit.
  • Integrity: Full payment is received.
  • At the time or deadline set by the parties: Non-compliance within the provided period causes a default situation.

Requirements for Default:

  • Overdue obligation.
  • Non-callable debt subject to the condition.
  • Requirement – judicial court or the debtor.
  • Mora accipiendi or creditor’s default.
  • Place: Provided by the parties.
  • Individuals who can make the payment: The debtor or a third party can make the payment, with or without substitution for the role of the creditor.
  • Individuals who can receive the payment: The creditor or a person duly authorized for this purpose can receive the payment.

Other Forms of Extinction

  • Loss of the object of the obligation:
    • Destruction or rating of the object.
    • Non-fortuitous loss (not the debtor’s fault).
    • Culposa (debtor’s fault) – the debtor becomes liable.
    • If the debtor defaults, they must provide compensation.
  • Remission: The creditor forgives all or part of the debt.
  • Confusion: The debtor and the creditor are combined in the same person, e.g., in a succession of inheritance.
  • Compensation: Two subjects are both debtors and creditors conversely.
  • Novation: Replacement of a new obligation with another.
  • Other Forms: Dación en pago (payment in kind), donating goods, end term by mutual agreement of the parties.

Liability: Credit Lesion

Injury of the creditor’s right determines that credit should not satisfy their right.

Reasons for Credit Lesion

  • No provision has been made:
    • The debtor is in arrears.
    • Non-final provision.
  • The provision or compliance has been made in a faulty manner.

Court Actions

  • Action requested for the fulfillment of the obligation by the debtor: repair in nature. In the event of denial by the debtor to comply, pecuniary obligations are executed to satisfy the credit.
  • Compensation for damages (tort):
    • Emerging damages.
    • Lost profits.
    • Moral damages.