Civil Law: General Obligations Flashcards

Vocabulary-style flashcards covering the definitions of key terms in the law of Obligations and Contracts based on the provided lecture notes.

Obligation

A juridical necessity to give, to do, or not to do according to Article 1156.

Civil Obligations

Obligations that give the creditor a right of action in courts of justice to enforce their performance.

Natural Obligations

Obligations not based on positive law but on equity and natural law; they do not grant a right of action to enforce performance.

Passive subject

The debtor or the one who is bound to the fulfillment of the obligation.

Active subject

The creditor or the one who is entitled to demand the fulfillment of the obligation.

Object or prestation

The conduct required to be observed by the debtor, which may consist of giving, doing, or not doing.

Juridical or legal tie

That which binds or connects the parties to the obligation; also known as a vinculum.

Right

The power which a person has under the law, to demand from another any prestation.

Wrong

An act or omission in violation of the legal right or rights of another; also known as a cause of action.

Injury

The illegal invasion of a legal right; the legal wrong to be redressed.

Damage

The loss, hurt, or harm which has resulted from an injury.

Damages

The sum of money given as a compensation for the injury or loss suffered.

Real obligation

An obligation to give a specific thing.

Positive Personal Obligation

An obligation to do or to render service.

Negative Personal Obligation

An obligation not to do, which includes the obligation not to give.

Quasi-contracts

Juridical relations arising from lawful, voluntary, and unilateral acts which are enforceable to the end that no one shall be unjustly enriched at the expense of another.

Negotiorum Gestio

A kind of quasi-contract involving the voluntary management of the property or affairs of another without the knowledge or consent of the latter.

Solutio indebiti

A Kind of quasi-contract that arises when something is received when there is no right to demand it and it was unduly delivered through mistake.

Quasi-delicts

Acts or omissions that cause damage to another through fault or negligence, there being no pre-existing contractual relation between the parties; also known as torts.

Specific or determinate thing

A thing that is particularly designated or physically segregated from all others of the same class.

Generic or indeterminate thing

A thing that refers only to a class or genus and cannot be pointed out with particularity.

Diligence of a good father of a family

The ordinary care that an average person exercises over his own property.

Natural fruits

The spontaneous products of the soil, and the young and other products of animals.

Industrial fruits

Products produced by lands of any kind through cultivation or labor.

Civil fruits

Derived by virtue of a juridical relation, such as the rent of buildings or the amount of perpetual annuities.

Personal right

The right or power of a person to demand from another, as a definite passive subject, the fulfillment of a prestation.

Real right

The right or interest of a person over a specific thing, like ownership, without a definite passive subject against whom the right may be personally enforced.

Accessions

The fruits of a thing or anything which is produced by it, or which is incorporated or attached thereto, either naturally or artificially.

Accessories

Things joined to or included with the principal thing for the latter's embellishment, better use, or completion.

Mora solvendi

The delay on the part of the debtor to fulfill his obligation.

Mora accipiendi

The delay on the part of the creditor to accept the performance of the obligation.

Compensatio morae

The delay of the obligors in reciprocal obligations; the delay of the obligor cancels the delay of the obligee.

Fraud (Dolo)

The deliberate or intentional evasion of the normal fulfillment of an obligation.

Dolo incidente

Incidental fraud committed in the performance of an obligation already existing because of a contract.

Dolo causante

Causal fraud employed in the execution of a contract, which vitiates consent.

Negligence (Culpa)

Any voluntary act or omission, there being no malice, which prevents the normal fulfillment of an obligation.

Fortuitous event

An event which could not be foreseen, or which, though foreseen, was inevitable; independent of the will of the debtor.

Mutuum

A simple loan of money or other consumable thing upon the condition that the same amount of the same kind and quality shall be paid.

Commodatum

A contract where one of the parties delivers to another something not consumable so that the latter may use the same for a certain time and return it.

Pure obligation

One which is not subject to any condition and no specific date is mentioned for its fulfillment, and is, therefore, immediately demandable.

Conditional obligation

One whose consequences are subject in one way or another to the fulfillment of a condition.

Suspensive condition

A condition the fulfillment of which will give rise to an obligation or right.

Resolutory condition

A condition the fulfillment of which will extinguish an obligation or right already existing.

Potestative condition

A condition which depends upon the sole will of one of the contracting parties.

Causal condition

A condition which depends upon chance or upon the will of a third person.

Mixed condition

A condition which depends partly upon chance and partly upon the will of a third person.

Period

A future and certain event upon the arrival of which the obligation subject to it either arises or is extinguished.

Alternative obligation

One where several prestations are due but the performance of one is sufficient to extinguish the obligation.

Facultative obligation

One where only one prestation has been agreed upon but the obligor may render another in substitution.

Joint obligation

One where the whole obligation is to be paid or fulfilled proportionately by the different debtors and/or is to be demanded proportionately by the different creditors.

Solidary obligation

One where each one of the debtors is bound to render, and/or each one of the creditors has a right to demand from any of the debtors, entire compliance with the prestation.

Divisible obligation

One the object of which, in its delivery or performance, is capable of partial fulfillment.

Indivisible obligation

One the object of which, in its delivery or performance, is not capable of partial fulfillment.

Penal clause

An accessory undertaking attached to an obligation to assume greater liability in case of breach.