Obligations and Contracts

Obligation is:
“The juridical necessity to comply with a prestation.”
-Sanches Roman
“Legal relation established between one person and another, whereby the latter is bound to the
fulfillment of a prestation which the former may demand of him.”
Obligation may be Civil or Natural
1. Civil obligation – is one which has a binding force in law, and which gives to the obligee
or creditor the right of enforcing it against the obligor or debtor in a court of justice.
2. Natural obligation – Is one which cannot be enforced by action, but which is binding on
the party who makes it in conscience and according to the natural law.
Civil and Natural Obligation Distinguished:
1. A civil obligation is based on positive law, while a natural obligation is based on equity
and natural law; and
2. The former is enforceable in courts of justice, while the latter is not.
4 Essential Requisites of Obligation
1. A juridical or legal tie, which binds the parties to the obligation and which may arise from
either bilateral or unilateral act of persons.
2. An active subject known as the obligee or creditor, who can demand the fulfillment of the
obligation.
3. A passive subject known as the obligor or debtor, against whom the obligation is juridically
demandable.
4. The fact, prestation ort service which constitutes the object of the obligation.
Primary Classification of Obligation
1. Pure and conditional (Arts. 1179-1192)
2. With a period (Arts. 1193-1198)
3. Alternative and facultativge (Arts. 1199-1206)
4. Joint and solidary (Arts. 1207-1222)
5. Divisible and indivisible (Arts. 1226-1225)
6. With a penal clause (Arts. 1226-1230)
Other Classification of a Secondary Character of Obligation
1. Legal, conventional and penal
2. Real and personal
3. Determinate and generic
4. Positive and negative
5. Unilateral and bilateral
6. Individual and collective
7. Accessory and principal
Contract – is a meeting of minds between two persons whereby one binds himself with respect to
the other, to give something or to render some services.
Compliance in good faith – performance in accordance with the stipulation, clauses, terms and
conditions of the contract.
Quasi-contracts – are those juridical relations arising from lawful, voluntary and unilateral acts,
by virtue of which the parties become bound to teach other, based on the principle that no
one shall be unjustly enriched or benefited at the expense of another.
Negotiorum gestio – is the judicial relation which arises whenever a person voluntarily takes
charge of the agency or management of the business or property of another without any
power or authority from the latter.
Solutio indebiti – is the judicial relation which arises whenever a person unduly delivers a thing
through mistake to another who has no right to demand it.
Offenses and Special Crimes without Civil Liability
1. Treason
2. Rebellion
3. Illegal possession of firearm
4. Gambling
Quasi-delicts – refers to all of those obligations which do not arise from law, contracts, quasi
contracts, or criminal offenses.
- fault or negligence of a person, who, by his act or omission, connected or unconnected
with, but independent from, any contractual relation, causes damage to another person.
Determinate thing – when the object is particularly designated or physically segregated from all
others of the same class.
Generic or indeterminate thing – when the object is designated merely by its class or genus without
any particular designation or physical segregation from all others of the same class.
Personal right (jus ad rem) – a right pertaining to a person or demand from another, as a definite
passive subject, the fulfillment of a prestation to give, to do or not to do.
Real right (jus in re) – right pertaining to a person over a specific thing, without a passive subject
individually determined against whom such right may be personally enforced.
Rights of the Creditor in Determinate Obligation
1. To compel specific performance
2. To recover damages for breech of the obligation.
Rights of Creditor in generic Obligations
1. To ask for performance of the obligation.
2. To ask that the obligation be complied with at the expense of the debtor.
3. To recover damages for breech of the obligation.
Obligation of Debtor in determinate Obligation
1. To perform the obligation specifically.
2. To take care of the thing with the proper diligence of a good father of a family.
Exceptions:
1. If the law requires another standard of care.
2. If the parties stipulate another standard of care.
3. To deliver all accession and accessories of the thing even though they may not be
mentioned.
4. To be liable for damages in case of breech of the obligation by reason of delay, fraud,
negligence, or contravention of the tenor thereof.
Accessions – All of those things which are produced by the thing which is the object of the
obligation as well as all of those which are naturally or artificially attached thereto.
Kinds of Accessions
1. Accession disereta – Natural, industrial and civil fruits.
 2. Accession industria – building, planting and sowing.
3. Accession natural – alluvion, avulsion, abandoned river beds and islands formed in non-
navigable or non-floatable rivers.
4. Accessions with respect to movable properties – adjunction or conjunction, confusion or
commixtion, and specification.
Accessories – it signifies all of those things which have for their object the embellishment, use or
preservation of another thing which is more important and to which they are not incorporated or
attached.
Obligations of the Debtor in Generic Obligations
1. To deliver a thing which is neither of superior nor inferior quality.
2. To be liable for damages in case of breech of the obligation by of delay, frauf, negligence
or contravention of the tenor thereof.
Genus nunquam peruit – the genus of a thing can never perish.
Voluntary and Involuntary Breech of Obligation
1. Voluntary – if the debtor or obligor in the performance of his obligation is guilty of default
(mora) or fraud (dolo), or negligence (culpa), or in any manner contravene the tenor
thereof.
2. Involuntary – if he is unable to comply with his obligation because of an event which
cannot be foreseen, or which, though foreseen, were inevitable.
Default (mora) – signifies the idea of delay in the fulfillment of an obligation with respect to time.
3 kinds of Default (mora)
1. Mora solvendi – the delay of the obligor or debtor to perform his obligation.
a. Mora solvendi ex re – when the obligation is an obligation to give.
b. Mora solvendi ex persona – when the obligation is an obligation to do.
2. Mora accipendi – the delay of the oblige or creditor to accept the delivery of the thing
which is the object of the obligation.
3. Compensatio morae – the delay of the parties or obligors in reciprocal obligations.
Requisites that the Obligor/Debtor be considered in Default
1. The obligation is demandable and already liquidated.
2. The obligor/debtor delays performance.
3. The creditor requires the performance judicially or extra-judicially.
Judicial demand – if the creditor files a complaint against the debtor for the fulfillment of the
obligation.
Extrajudicial demand – if the creditor demands from the debtor the fulfillment of the obligation
either orally or in writing.
Demand by the Creditor is not Necessary in Order that Delay to Exist
1. When the obligation or the law expressly so declares.
2. When from the nature and the circumstances of the obligation, it appears that the
designation of the time when the thing is to be delivered or the service is to be rendered
was a controlling motive for the establishment of the contract.
3. When demand would be useless, as when the obligor has rendered it beyond his power to
perform.

The obligor can not possibly incur in delay in negative obligation (not to do). These
obligation have a pecuniarity of their own which the law does not show but which is evident from
their special nature. Fulfillment and violation are possible, but not default or mora.
Reciprocal obligations – are those which are created or established at the same time, out of the
same cause, and which result in mutual relationship creditor and debtor between the parties.
- these obligations are conditional in the sense that fulfillment of an obligation by one party
depends upon the fulfillment of the obligation by the other.
Fraud (dolo) – consist in the conscious and intentional proposition to evade the normal fulfillment
of an obligation.
2 Kinds of Fraud
1. Civil fraud
a. The fraud (dolo) in the performance of obligation.
b. The fraud (dolo) in the constitution or establishment of an obligation.
2. Criminal fraud
Fraud in the Performance of the Fraud in the Establishment of an Obligation
Obligation
It is present only during the performance of a It is present only at the time of the birth of the
pre-existing obligation. obligation.
It is employed for the purpose of evading the It is employed for the purpose of securing the
normal fulfillment of an obligation. consent of the other party to enter into the
contract.
It results in the fulfillment or breech of the If it is the reason for the other party upon
obligation whom it is employed for entering into the
contract, result in the vitiation of his consent.
It gives rise to a right of the creditor or oblige It gives rise to a right of the innocent party to
to recover damage from the debtor or obligor. ask for the onnulment of the contract if the
fraud is causal or to recover damage if it is
incidental.
Negligence (culpa) – it consists in the 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.
- is simply the absence of due care required by the nature of the obligation.
2 Kinds of Negligence
1. Civil negligence – governed by arts. 1170, 1172,1173 and other provisions of New Civil
code.
a. Culpa contractual – the fault or negligence of the obligor by virtue of which he is
unable to perform his obligation arising from a pre-existing contract, because of the
omission of the diligence which is required by the nature of the obligation and
corresponds with the circumstances of the person, of the time and of the place.
b. Culpa aquiliana (quasi delicts) – the fault or negligence of a person who, because
of the omission of the diligence which is required by the nature of the obligation
and which must correspond with the place, causes damage to another.
2. Criminal negligence
Fortuitious event – an event which could not be foreseen, or which, though foreseen, was
inevitable.
- an event which takes place by accident and could not have been foreseen.
- Unexpected event or act of god which could neither be foreseen nor resisted.
General causes of Fortuitous Event
1. By nature – such as earthquakes, storms, floods, epidemic, fires, etc.
2. By the act of man – such as armed invasion, attack by bandits, governmental prohibitions,
robbery, etc.