CHAPTER 2 - NATURE AND EFFECT OF OBLIGATIONS

Specific/Determinate Thing 

DUTY TO PRESERVE THE THING:

• Particularly designated or physically segregated 

• Cannot be substituted without consent 

• Example: "the watch I am wearing" 

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Generic/Indeterminate Thing

DUTY TO PRESERVE THE THING

• Refers only to a class or genus 

• Can give anything of the same class 

• Example: "a Bulova calendar watch" 

1. Natural Fruits 

2. Industrial Fruits 

3. Civil Fruits 

Kinds of Fruits: 

Personal Right 

• Definite active and passive subject 

• Enforceable against a particular person 

• Example: Right to demand delivery 

Real Right 

• Only definite active subject 

• Directed against the whole world 

• Example: Ownership of property 

Ownership Acquired by Delivery: 

• Creditor does not become owner until the thing has been delivered 

• Before delivery: creditor has only personal right to demand delivery 

• After delivery: creditor acquires real right (ownership) 

Accessions 

Fruits, additions, or improvements to the principal 

Accessories 

Things joined for embellishment, better use, or completion 

Example: Trees on land, air conditioner in car 

Accessories 

Things joined for embellishment, better use, or completion 

Example: Key of a house, frame of a picture 

Ordinary Delay

merely the failure to perform an obligation on time

Legal Delay or Default or Mora

— the failure to perform on time which constitutes a breach of the obligation 

1. Mora Solvendi 

2. Mora Accipiendi 

3. Compensatio Morae 

Kinds of Delay: 

Mora Solvendi 

Delay on part of debtor to fulfill obligation 

Mora Accipiendi 

Delay on part of creditor to accept performance 

Compensatio Morae 

Delay in reciprocal obligations - cancels each other out 

1. Fraud 

2. Negligence '

3. Delay

4. Contravention

GROUNDS FOR LIABILITY

Fraud

Deliberate/intentional evasion of fulfillment (bad faith) 

Negligence

Voluntary act/omission without bad faith preventing normal fulfillment 

Delay

Failure to perform on time constituting breach 

Contravention

Violation of terms and conditions without justification 

Ordinary Negligence

— An action for future negligence may be renounced except where the nature of the obligation requires extraordinary diligence (e.g., common carriers) 

Gross Negligence

— Where negligence is gross or shows bad faith, it is equivalent to fraud. Any waiver of an action for future negligence of this kind is void 

1. Contractual Negligence (Culpa Contractual)

2. Civil Negligence (Culpa Aquiliana)

3. Criminal Negligence (Culpa Criminal)

Kinds of Negligence According to Source of Obligation 

Contractual Negligence (Culpa Contractual)

— negligence in contracts resulting in their breach. Not a source of obligation; merely makes the debtor liable for damages 

Civil Negligence (Culpa Aquiliana)

— negligence which by itself is the source of an obligation (quasi-delict or tort) 

Criminal Negligence (Culpa Criminal)

— negligence resulting in the commission of a crime

Fortuitous Event 

Any event which cannot be foreseen, or which, though foreseen, is inevitable 

The essence is a happening independent of the will of the debtor which makes the normal fulfillment of the obligation impossible 

Acts of Man

— event independent of the will of the obligor but not of other human wills (war, fire, robbery, murder, insurrection) 

Acts of God

— events totally independent of the will of every human being (earthquake, flood, rain, shipwreck, lightning, eruption of volcano)

Ordinary Fortuitous Events

Extra-ordinary Fortuitous Events

Kinds of Fortuitous Events 

Ordinary Fortuitous Events

— those which are common and could reasonably foresee (e.g., rain) 

Extra-ordinary Fortuitous Events

— those which are uncommon and could not have reasonably foreseen (e.g., earthquake, fire, war, pestilence, unusual flood)

Usury 

Contracting for or receiving interest in excess of the amount allowed by law for the loan or use of money, goods, chattels or credits 

Presumption 

The inference of a fact not actually known arising from its usual connection with another which is known or proved 

1. Conclusive Presumption  

2. Disputable (Rebuttable) Presumption

Two Kinds of Presumption 

Disputable (Rebuttable) Presumption

— one which can be contradicted or rebutted by presenting proof to the contrary (like the presumption in Article 1176) 

Conclusive Presumption

— one which cannot be contradicted (e.g., everyone is presumed to know the law)