Law on Obligations

Bullet Review
1. Definition
 An obligation is a juridical necessity to give, to do or not to do.
- Juridical necessity – civil obligation
- Not to do already covers not to give

2. Obligations according to subject matter

 To give – positive and real
 To do – positive and personal
 Not to do – negative and personal

3. Essential elements
 Active subject – creditor (obligee)
 Passive subject – debtor (obligor)
 Prestation/object
 Efficient cause

4. Personal essential elements

 Active subject
 Passive subject

5. Remedy for void obligations

 Action for declaration of nullity.
- This remedy does not prescribe.

6. Requisites of a prestation/object
 Possible, physically or juridically
 Determinate, or at least, determinable
 Possible equivalent in money
 Positive or negative obligation

7. Examples of efficient cause

 Relation established by
- Law
- Contracts
- Quasi-contracts
- Delicts
- Quasi-delicts

8. Obligation not enforceable by a court action

 Natural obligation – depends upon conscience

9. Distinctions between civil and natural obligations

Civil Natural
Binding force Positive law Equity and natural justice
Enforceable through courts Yes No

Note: However, voluntary fulfilment of a natural obligation by the debtor precludes him for
reimbursement.

10. Prescription
 Is the loss or acquisition of a right through lapse of time.
 Prescriptive period
- Oral contracts – 6 years
- Written contracts – 10 years
 Example:
- Creditor filed an action to collect a sum of money for a debt outstanding for 15 years
already. Debtor may file a motion to dismiss due to prescription.

11. Sources of civil obligation

 Law
 Contracts
 Quasi-contracts
 Delicts
 Quasi-delicts

12. Obligations arising from law

 It must be expressly determined. – not presumed
 The law cannot exist as a source of obligations, unless the acts to which its principles may be
applied exist.
 The obligations and correlative rights arising from law shall be governed by the law.

13. Obligations arising from contracts

 Contracts – meeting of minds
 Have the force of law between contracting parties.
 Should be complied in good faith.

14. Obligations arising from quasi-contracts

 Lawful, voluntary and unilateral acts
 Principle of unjust enrichment
 Examples of quasi-contacts
- Negotiorum gestio – Voluntary management of property/affairs of another without the
consent of the latter
- Solutio indebiti – Payment by mistake

16. Negotiorum gestio

 Officious manager
- Person who assumed voluntary administration of the property/affairs
 Nature of liability of two or more officious manager:
- General rule – solidary
- Exception – joint (when assumed to save thing/business from imminent danger)
 Officious manager shall be liable for any fortuitous event in any of the following instances:
- Undertakes risky operations.
- Prefers own interest.
- Fails to return the property or business after demand by the owner.
 Negotiorum gestio arises when:
- Property or business is neglected or abandoned.
- Unauthorized by owner.
17. Solutio indebiti
 Nature of liability of two or more payees under solutio indebiti:
- Solidary
 Liability:
- Under good faith – principal only
- Under bad faith – principal and interest
 A person in good faith accepts an undue payment of a thing certain or determinate be
responsible for the impairment or loss of the same or its accessories or accessions:
- When he has thereby been benefited.

18. Obligations arising from delicts

 Acts or omissions punishable by law
 Requisites:
- Wrongful act/omission
- Caused damage/injury
- Direct causal connection of cause and effect
 Culpa – negligence
 Culpa acquiliana – quasi-delicts
 Distinctions between delict and quasi-delict
Delict Quasi-delict
Violated right Public Private

Yes, but there are crimes with

Civil liability Yes
no civil liability
Present, except in criminal
Criminal Intent None
negligence

Compromise Cannot be compromised Can be compromised

Degree of evidence Proof beyond reasonable doubt Preponderance of evidence

19. Obligations arising from quasi-delicts

 Are acts or omissions that cause damage to another, there being fault or negligence but
without any pre-existing contractual relation between the parties.

 The plaintiff or injured party be barred or precluded from recovering damages:

- When plaintiff’s own negligence was the immediate and proximate cause of injury.
 For persons to be exempt from responsibilities arising from torts committed by persons under
their responsibility:
- By proving that they observed all the diligence of a good father of a family to prevent
damage.
 Nature of liability of two or more persons who are liable for quasi-delict or tort:
- Solidary (Joint tortfeasors)

20. Extraordinary diligence illustrative case

 While trying to pass each other on a narrow bridge, a passenger bus and a private automobile
collided and two persons, A and B, were injured. A was a passenger of the bus while B was a
pedestrian. The bus company was made a defendant although a chauffeur was driving the bus
and the owner-driver of the private car was also made a defendant.
- Q: What can be the source of obligation of the bus company as regards to A, the
passenger?
- A: Contract of carriage for failure to exercise extraordinary diligence.
- Q: What can be the source of obligation of the driver of passenger bus as regards to A,
the passenger?
- A: Quasi-delict or crime at the option of A.
- Q: What can be the source of obligation of the bus company as regards to B, the
pedestrian?
- A: Culpa acquiliana if he fails to exercise the diligence of a good father of a family in
selecting his employees.
- Q: What can be the source of obligation of the bus driver as regards to B, the
pedestrian?
- A: Quasi-delict or crime at the option of B.
- Q: What can be the source of obligation of the owner-driver of private car as regards to
A, the passenger?
- A: Quasi-delict or crime at the option of A.
- Q: What can be the source of obligation of the owner-driver of private car as regards to
B, the pedestrian?
- A: Quasi-delict or crime at the option of B.