Law on Obligations and Contracts Vocabulary

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering key terms and definitions from Chapters 1 through 3 of the Law on Obligations and Contracts.

Obligation

A juridical necessity to give, to do or not to do.

Prestation

The subject matter or particular conduct to be performed in the fulfillment of an obligation, which may be to give, to do, or not to do.

Civil Obligations

Obligations that derive their binding force from positive or substantive law and can be enforced by court action or the coercive power of public authority.

Natural Obligations

Obligations not based on positive law but on equity and natural law, which do not grant a right of action to enforce performance, but authorize retention of voluntary fulfillment.

Active Subject

The creditor or obligee; the person in whose favor the obligation is constituted or who can demand performance.

Passive Subject

The debtor or obligor; the person who is required or bound to perform the obligation.

Vinculum Juris

The efficient cause, juridical tie, or legal basis that binds the parties to an obligation.

Contract

A meeting of minds between two persons whereby one binds himself with respect to the other, to give something or to render some service.

Quasi-Contract

A juridical relation resulting from lawful, voluntary, and unilateral acts by virtue of which the parties become bound so that no one will be unjustly enriched at the expense of another.

Solutio Indebiti

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

Negotiorum Gestio

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

Delict

An act or omission punishable by law (a crime) which gives rise to civil liability alongside criminal liability.

Quasi-Delict

An act or omission causing damage to another through fault or negligence when there is no pre-existing contractual relation between the parties.

Determinate Thing

A specific object that is particularly designated or physically segregated from others of the same class.

Indeterminate Thing

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

Diligence of a Good Father of a Family

Ordinary care or that diligence which an average, reasonably prudent person exercises over his own property.

Natural Fruits

Spontaneous products of the soil, and the young and other products of animals produced without human labor.

Industrial Fruits

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

Civil Fruits

Revenues or income derived from property by virtue of a juridical relation, such as rents or annuities.

Personal Right

The right to demand that another specific person perform an obligation, enforceable only against the debtor.

Real Right

A right or power directly over a specific thing, enforceable against the whole world.

Accessions

Things that are produced by, attached to, or incorporated with the principal thing.

Accessories

Items intended for the use, preservation, or ornament of a principal thing.

Substitute Performance

A remedy in generic obligations or obligations to do where performance is obtained from another person at the debtor's expense.

Genus Nunquam Perit

A Latin legal maxim meaning 'the genus never perishes', stating that a generic thing is never legally lost.

Fortuitous Event

An event which could not be foreseen, or which, though foreseen, was inevitable.

Legal Delay (Mora)

The failure of a debtor to perform an obligation on time after demand has been made, giving rise to legal consequences.

Mora Solvendi

Delay on the part of the debtor to fulfill his obligation to give or to do.

Mora Accipiendi

Delay on the part of the creditor to accept the performance of the obligation.

Compensatio Morae

Delay of both obligors in reciprocal obligations, where the default of one cancels out the default of the other.

Fraud (Dolo)

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

Incidental Fraud (Dolo Incidente)

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

Causal Fraud (Dolo Causante)

Fraud employed in the execution of a contract which vitiates consent.

Negligence (Culpa)

The omission of that diligence which is required by the nature of the obligation and corresponds with the circumstances of persons, time, and place.

Usury

The charging of excessive or illegal interest on a loan or forbearance of money.

Pure Obligation

An obligation that is not subject to any condition or period and is immediately demandable.

Conditional Obligation

An obligation whose acquisition of rights or extinguishment depends upon the happening of a condition.

Condition

A future and uncertain event, or a past event unknown to the parties, upon which the effectivity or extinguishment of an obligation depends.

Suspensive Condition

A condition precedent whose fulfillment gives rise to the obligation.

Resolutory Condition

A condition subsequent whose fulfillment extinguishes an existing obligation.

Potestative Condition

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

Casual Condition

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

Mixed Condition

A condition that depends partly upon the will of one party and partly upon chance or a third person.

Constructive Fulfillment

The legal doctrine where a suspensive condition is deemed fulfilled because the obligor voluntarily prevented its fulfillment.

Obligation with a Period

An obligation whose effects or consequences are subjected to the arrival or expiration of a day certain.

Period (Term)

A future and certain event upon the arrival of which an obligation either arises or is terminated.

Suspensive Period (Ex Die)

A period upon the arrival of which the obligation becomes demandable.

Resolutory Period (In Diem)

A period upon the arrival of which the obligation terminates.

Alternative Obligation

A compound obligation wherein several prestations are due, but the complete performance of one is sufficient.

Facultative Obligation

An obligation where only one prestation is due, but the obligor may render another in substitution.

Joint Obligation

An obligation where the debt or credit is divided into as many equal shares as there are debtors or creditors, each being liable or entitled only for their proportionate share.

Solidary Obligation

An obligation where each debtor is bound to render, and/or each creditor has a right to demand, entire compliance with the prestation.

Passive Solidarity

Solidarity on the part of the debtors, where any one debtor can be made liable for the entire obligation.

Active Solidarity

Solidarity on the part of the creditors, where any one creditor can demand full compliance with the obligation.

Mixed Solidarity

Solidarity on the part of both the debtors and creditors in the same obligation.

Joint Indivisible Obligation

An obligation where the object is physically or legally indivisible, but the tie between the debtors or creditors is joint.

Divisible Obligation

An obligation whose object, in its delivery or performance, is capable of partial fulfillment.

Indivisible Obligation

An obligation whose object, in its delivery or performance, is not capable of partial fulfillment.

Obligation with a Penal Clause

An obligation containing an accessory undertaking to pay a penalty in case of breach of the principal prestation.

Principal Obligation

An obligation that can stand by itself and does not depend for its validity and existence upon another obligation.

Accessory Obligation

An obligation attached to a principal obligation and unable to stand alone.