Table of Contents

CHAPTER III - OF THE EFFECT OF OBLIGATIONS

 

SECTION I - GENERAL DISPOSITIONS

Art. 34. Agreements legally entered into, have the effect of laws on those who have formed them.
They cannot be revoked, unless by mutual consent of the parties, or for causes acknowledged by law.
They must be performed with good faith.

Art. 35. Contracts oblige to the performance not only of what is expressly stipulated, but also to the performance of all things which, from equity, usage or law, are incidental to the obligation, according to its nature.

 

SECTION II - OF THE OBLIGATION OF GIVING

Art. 36. The obligation of giving includes that of delivering the thing, and of keeping it safe, until the delivery of it, the person who contracts to give, being liable, on failure, to pay damages to the person to whom he has contracted.

Art. 37. The obligation of carefully keeping the thing, whether the object of the contract be solely the utility of one of the parties, or whether its object be their common utility, subjects the person who has the thing in his keeping to take all the care of it that could be expected from a prudent father of a family.
This obligation is more or less extended with regard to certain contracts, the effects of which, in this respect, are explained under their respective titles.

Art. 38. The obligation to deliver the thing, is perfect, through the mere consent of the contracting parties.
It renders the creditor the owner, and makes the thing be at his risk from the time when it was to be delivered, although the delivery may not have taken place, unless the debtor delay to deliver it, in which case the thing remains as the risk of the latter.

Art. 39. The debtor is considered as having delayed the delivery, after he has been required to deliver, either by summons, or by any equivalent act, or by the effect of the agreement, when it is stipulated that without the necessity of any act, but by the mere expiration of the term fixed, the debtor shall be in default.

Art. 40. The effects of the obligation of giving or delivering any immoveable property, are regulated in the title of sale.

Art. 41. If the thing that one has engaged to give or to deliver to two persons successively, be merely moveable, he of the two persons who has really been put in possession of it, is preferred and remaims the owner of it, although his title be posterior in date, provided the possession be bona fide.

 

SECTION III - OF THE OBLIGATION OF DOING OR OF NOT DOING

Art. 42. Every obligation to do or not do, resolves itself into damages, in case of non execution on the part of the obligee.

Art. 43. Nevertheless the obligor has a right to require that whatever has been done in contravention to the agreement, be done; and he may be authorised to undo it at the expence of the obligee, without forfeiting his right to damages, if the case gives him a claim to them.

Art. 44. The obligor may also, in case of non execution, be authorised to cause the obligation to be executed by himself at the expence of the obligee.

Art. 45. If the obligation be not to do, he who contravenes it, becomes liable to damages by the mere act of contravention.

 

SECTION IV - OF THE DAMAGES RESULTING FROM THE NON EXECUTION OF THE OBLIGATION

Art. 46. Damages are due only when the debtor has delayed to fulfil his obligation, except however when the thing which the debtor had obliged himself to give or do, could have been given or done only at a certain time, which he has suffered to elapse.

Art. 47. The debtor is condemned if there be occasion, to the payment of damages, either on account of the non execution of the obligation, or on account of the delay of execution, whenever he fails to prove that the non execution is owing to some extraneous cause, not to be imputed to him, and that there is no want of good faith on his part.

Art. 48. There is no room for any damages, when by irresistible force, or a fortuitous event, the debtor has been hindered from giving or doing what he was obliged to give or do, or has been compelled to do what he was bound not to do.

Art. 49. The damages due to the creditor are generally for the loss he has sustained and the profit he has been deprived of, under the following exceptions and modifications.

Art. 50. The debtor is liable only to such damages as were foreseen, or might have been foreseen at the time of contracting, when it is not owing to his fraud, that the obligation has not been executed.

Art. 51. Even in case the non execution of the contract resulted from the fraud of the debtor, the damages for the loss sustained by the creditor, and the profit of which he has been deprived, must not exceed what has been the immediate and direct consequence of the non execution of the contract.

Art. 52. When the contract specifies that he who fails to execute it, shall pay a certain sum by way of damages, the other party can recover neither a larger nor a smaller sum.

Art. 53. In obligations confined to the payment of a certain sum, the damages arising from delay in the execution, are never adjudged to exceed the interest fixed by law, except where particular rules of commerce and suretyship govern the case.
Those damages are due without the creditor's being required to prove any loss.
They are due only from the day they are demanded, except in cases where the law makes them accrue of right.

Art. 54. Interest due on capitals may produce interest, either by a judiciary demand or by special agreement, provided that either in the demand or the agreement, the interest in question be due at least for an entire year.

Art. 55. Nevertheless income fallen due, such as rent, hire, arrearages or perpetual rents or annuities, bear interest from the day they are demanded, or from the day of the agreement.
The same rule applies to restitutions of fruits and to interest paid by a third person to the creditor in discharge of the debtor.

 

SECTION V - OF THE INTERPRETATION OF THE AGREEMENTS

Art. 56. In agreements we must endeavor to ascertain what was the common intention of the parties, rather than to adhere to the literal sense of the terms.

Art. 57. When a clause is susceptible of two interpretations, it must be understood in that in which it may have some effect, rather than in a sense which would render it nugatory.

Art. 58. Terms that present two meanings, must be taken in the sense most congruous to the matter of the contract.

Art. 59. Whatever is ambiguous is determined according to the usage of the country where the contract was made.

Art. 60. In contracts the clauses in common use must be supplied, though they be not expressed.

Art. 61. All clauses of agreements are interpreted the one by the other, giving to each the sense which results from the entire act.

Art. 62. In a doubtful case, the agreement is interpreted against him who has stipulated and in favor of him who has contracted the obligation.

Art. 63. However general be the terms in which a contract is couched, it extends only to the things concerning which it appears that the parties intended to contract.

Art. 64. When in a contract, a case has been expressed for the explanation of the obligation, it is not understood that by that the parties intended to restrict the extent which the engagement receives of right, to the cases not expressed.

 

SECTION VI - OF THE EFFECT OF AGREEMENTS WITH REGARD TO PERSONS NOT PARTIES TO THEM

Art. 65. Agreements have effect only on the contracting parties; they do not operate against any other persons, neither do not operate in their favor, except in the case provided for by article the 21st of this title.

Art. 66. Nevertheless a creditor may exercise all the rights and actions of his debtor, except such as are exclusively attached to the person.

Art. 67. He can also in his own name, attack the acts done by his debtor, tending to defraud him of his rights.




Provide Website Feedback / Accessibility Statement / Accessibility Assistance / Privacy Statement