Oblicon: Obligations and Contracts

• Oblicon is a combination of "obligations" and "contracts."
• It falls under civil law.
• Deals with the nature and consequences of obligations.

Obligation

• A juridical necessity to give, to do, or not to do.
• Juridical necessity enables courts to order the performance of an obligation.
• It's a legal duty enforceable in court, unlike moral or social duties.

Essential Requisites of an Obligation

• Passive subject (debtor or obligor) is bound to perform the obligation.
• Active subject (creditor or obligee) can demand the performance.
• Object or prestation (subject matter) is the debtor's required conduct, which may involve giving, doing, or not doing something.
• Juridical tie (vinculum or efficient cause) explains the obligation's existence, binding the parties.

Kinds of Obligation from the Viewpoint of Subject Matter

• Real obligation (obligation to give) involves the obligor delivering a thing to the obligee.
• Personal obligation (obligation to do or not to do) relates to performing or refraining from an act:
  • Positive personal obligation: Obligation to do.
  • Negative personal obligation: Obligation not to do.

Sources of Obligations

• Law: Obligations from law are not presumed; only those expressly determined are demandable and not presumed.
• Contracts: Obligations from contracts have the force of law between parties and must be complied with in good faith.
• Quasi-contracts: These obligations prevent unjust enrichment:
  • Negotiorum gestio: Voluntarily managing another's property or affairs without their consent.
  • Solutio indebiti: Obligation to return something received by mistake.
• Delicts (crimes): Governed by penal laws, where every person criminally liable is also civilly liable.
• Quasi-delicts (torts): Arising from damage caused by fault or negligence, requiring the responsible party to pay damages.

Nature and Effect of Obligations

• Diligence of a good father of a family signifies the required care in preserving the thing, unless law or contract specifies otherwise.
• Creditor's rights include:
  • Receiving fruits of the thing from when the obligation to deliver arises.
  • Demanding delivery.
  • Receiving damages for breach.
• A determinate thing is specifically designated or physically segregated.
• A generic thing refers to a class or genus.
• In obligations to do or not to do, failure to act results in execution at the obligor's cost:
  • Poor performance of the obligation may be ordered undone at the obligor's expense.

Delay

• Ordinary delay: Failure to perform on time.
• Legal delay (mora): Failure to perform on time which constitutes a breach.
• Kinds of delay:
  • Mora solvendi: Debtor's delay:
    • Mora solvendi ex re: Delay in obligations to give.
    • Mora solvendi ex persona: Delay in obligations to do.
  • Mora accipiendi: Creditor's delay in accepting performance.
  • Compensation morae: Delay in reciprocal obligations.
• Effects of delay include:
  • Debtor's breach.
  • Liability for damages.
  • Liability even for fortuitous events concerning determinate things.
• There can be no delay in negative obligations (not to do).

Grounds for Liability to Pay Damages

• Fraud (Dolo):
  • Incidental fraud (dolo incidente): Fraud during performance.
  • Causal fraud (dolo causante): Fraud in contract execution.
• Negligence (Culpa):
  • Contractual negligence (culpa contractual): Negligence in contract performance.
  • Civil negligence (culpa aquiliana): Negligence as the source of obligation.
  • Criminal negligence (culpa criminal): Negligence resulting in a crime.
• Delay (Mora)
• Contravention of terms.

Fortuitous Event

• Unforeseeable or inevitable events.
• Not liable unless:
  • Expressly specified by law.
  • Declared by stipulation.
  • The obligation's nature requires assumption of risk.

Simple and Compound Obligations

• Simple Obligation: Only one prestation.
• Compound Obligation: Two or more prestations:
  • Conjunctive: All prestations must be performed.
  • Distributive: Only one prestation needs to be performed:
    • Alternative: Several prestations are due, but performing one is enough.
    • Facultative: Only one prestation is due, but the debtor can substitute it.

Joint and Solidary Obligations

• Joint Obligation: Each debtor is liable only for a proportionate part of the debt.
• Solidary Obligation: Each debtor is liable for the entire obligation, but solidary liability cannot be presumed.

Divisible and Indivisible Obligations

• Divisible Obligation: Partial performance is possible.
• Indivisible Obligation: Partial performance is not possible.

Obligations with a Penal Clause

• Includes an accessory undertaking to pay a stipulated indemnity in case of breach.
• Functions:
  • Provides liquidated damages.
  • Strengthens coercive force.
• The penalty substitutes indemnity for damages and interest in case of noncompliance, unless otherwise stipulated.

Extinguishment of Obligations

• Payment or Performance: Delivery of money and performance of the obligation
• Loss of the thing due: When the object is lost.
• Condonation or Remission of Debt: Creditor's gratuitous abandonment of right
• Confusion or Merger of Rights: Creditor and debtor qualities meet in one person
• Compensation: When two persons are debtors and creditors of each other
• Novation: Substitution or change of the obligation
• Other causes:
  • Annulment
  • Rescission
  • Fulfillment of a resolutory condition
  • Prescription
• Death of a party is not a ground for extinguishment.

Contracts

• An agreement where one person binds themselves to another to give something or render service.
• Elements:
  • Consent: Meeting of minds.
  • Object: Subject matter.
  • Cause: Reason for entering the contract.

Classification of Contracts

• According to perfection:
  • Consensual: Perfected by consent.
  • Real: Perfected by delivery.
• According to cause:
  • Onerous: With consideration.
  • Gratuitous: Without consideration.
  • Remuneratory: The cause is service or benefit being remunerated.
• According to importance/dependence:
  • Principal: Can stand alone.
  • Accessory: Depends on another contract.
  • Preparatory: Means to an end.
• According to name:
  • Nominate: Has a special name in law.
  • Innominate: No special name.

Essential Characteristics of Contracts

• Obligatory force and compliance in good faith.
• Mutuality: Binds both parties; validity can't depend on one party's will.
• Relativity: Takes effect only between parties, assigns, and heirs, except for non-transmissible rights/obligations.
• Consensuality: Perfected by consent, binding parties to express stipulations and all consequences.

Requisites of Contracts

• Consent of the contracting parties.
• Object certain that is the subject matter.
• Cause of the obligation established.

Consent

• Conformity of wills, involving offer and acceptance:
• Offer: A contract proposal.
• Acceptance: Agreement to offer's terms.
• Requisites:
  • Intelligent
  • Free and voluntary
  • Conscious

Object

• The thing, right, or service that is the subject matter.
• Requisites:
  • Within commerce of men.
  • Licit (lawful).
  • Possible.
  • Determinate as to kind.

Cause

• The contract's essential reason
• Requisites:
  • Licit (lawful).
  • True.
  • Existent.

Reformation of Instruments

• Remedy to amend a written instrument to reflect the real agreement when it fails to do so due to mistake, fraud, inequitable conduct, or accident.
• Mutual mistake: Both parties mistaken.
• Unilateral mistake: Only one party mistaken.

Interpretation of Contracts

• Clear terms are controlled by their literal meaning if they leave no doubt regarding the parties' intention.
• Intention is judged mainly by contemporaneous and subsequent acts.
• General terms don't apply to distinct things or different cases outside the parties' intended agreement.

Defective Contracts

• Rescissible Contracts: Cause economic damage to a party or third person.
• Voidable Contracts: Consent is defective due to incapacity or vitiated consent.
• Unenforceable Contracts: Cannot be enforced in court unless ratified, due to certain legal defects.
• Void or Inexistent Contracts: Have no effect and cannot be ratified.

Oblicon, a branch of civil law, is a mix of obligations and contracts covering their nature and impact. An obligation is a legal need to act, enforceable by court order, differing from moral or social duties. It requires a passive subject (debtor), active subject (creditor), object/prestation, and juridical tie.