Table of Contents

CHAPTER IV - OF THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF OBLIGATIONS

 

SECTION I - OF CONDITIONAL OBLIGATIONS

 

§ 1 - OF THE CONDITION IN GENERAL AND OF ITS DIFFERENT KINDS

Art. 68. The obligation is conditional when the fact depends on a future and uncertain event, whether it be suspended until the event happen, or be declared void in case the event shall or shall not have taken place.

Art. 69. The casual condition is that which depends on chance, and is no way in the power either of the creditor or of the debtor.

Art. 70. The potestative condition is that which makes the execution of the agreement depend on an event which it is in the power of the one or the other of the contracting parties to bring about or to hinder.

Art. 71. The mixt condition is that which depends at once on the will of one of the contracting parties, and on the will of a third person.

Art. 72. Every condition of a thing impossible or contra bonos mores (repugnant to moral conduct) or prohibited by law, is null and renders void the agreement with depends on it.

Art. 73. The condition not to do a thing impossible, does not render void the obligation contracted under that condition.

Art. 74. Every obligation is null, that has been contracted on a potestative condition on the part of him who binds himself.

Art. 75. Every condition must be performed in the manner that it is probable that the parties wished and intended that it should be.

Art. 76. When an obligation has been contracted on condition that au event shall happen within a limitted time, the condition is considered as broken when the time has expired without the event's having taken place. If there be no time fixed, the condition may always be performed, and it is not considered as broken, until it is become certain that the event will not happen.

Art. 77. When an obligation has been contracted on condition that a particular event shall not happen within a certain space of time, that condition is fulfilled when that time is elapsed without the event's having taken place; it is equally fulfilled if before the expiration of the time, it be certain that the event will not take place; and if the time be not fixed, the condition is not complied with, until it be certain that the event will not happen.

Art. 78. The condition is considered as fulfilled, when the fulfillment of it, has been prevented by the party bound to perform it.

Art. 79. The condition being complied with, has a retroactive effect to the day that the engagement was contracted; if the creditor dies before the accomplishment of the condition, his rights devolve on his heirs.

Art. 80. The creditor may before the fulfillment of the condition, perform all acts conservatory of his rights.

 

§ 2 - OF THE SUSPENSIVE CONDITION

Art. 81. The obligation contracted on a suspensive condition, is that which depends either on a future and uncertain event, or on an event which has actually taken place, without its being yet known to the parties.
In the former case, the obligation cannot be executed till after the event; in the latter, the obligation has its effect from the day on which it was contracted.

Art. 82. When the obligation has been contracted on a suspensive condition, the thing which forms the subject of the agreement, remains at the risk of the debtor, who has bound himself to deliver it, only in case of the event of the condition.
If the thing be entirely destroyed, without the fault of the debtor, the obligation is extinguished.
If the thing be impaired, without the fault of the debtor, it is at the option of the creditor, either to dissolve the obligation or to require the thing in the state in which it is, without diminution of the price.
If the thing be impaired, through the fault of the debtor, the creditor has a right to dissolve the obligation, or to require the thing in the state in which it is, with damages.

 

§ 3 - OF THE DISSOLVING CONDITION

Art. 83. The dissolving condition is that which, when accomplished, operates the revocation of the obligation, placing matters in the same state as though the obligation had not existed.
It does not suspend the execution of the obligation; it only obliges the creditor to restore what he has received, in case the event provided for in the condition takes place.

Art. 84. The dissolving condition is always understood in synallagmatic contracts, in case of either of the parties not complying with his engagements.
In this case, the contract is not dissolved of right, the party towards whom the engagement has not been executed, has the option either to compel the other party to the execution of the agreement, if it be possible, or to require its dissolution, with damages.
The dissolution must be sued for at law, and the defendant may be allowed delay, according to circumstances.

 

SECTION II - OF OBLIGATIONS TO BE PERFORMED AT A CERTAIN TERM

Art. 85. The term differs from the condition, in as much as it does not suspend the engagement, but only retards its execution.

Art. 86. What is due only at a certain time, cannot be demanded before the expiration of the intermediate time, but what has been paid in advance, cannot be redemanded.

Art. 87. The term is always presumed to be stipulated in favor of the debtor, unles it result from the stipulation, or from circumstances, that it was also agreed upon in favor of the creditor.

Art. 88. The debtor can no longer claim the benefit of the term, after he has failed, or after he has, by his own act diminished the securities that he had given by the contract, to his creditor.

 

SECTION III - OF THE ALTERNATIVE OBLIGATIONS

Art. 89. The debtor in an alternative obligation, is discharged by the delivery of one of the two things that were comprised in the obligation.

Art. 90. The option belongs to the debtor, unless it has been expressly granted to the creditor.

Art. 91. The debtor may exhonerate himself, by delivering one of the two things promised, but he cannot force the creditor to receive a part of the one and a part of the other.

Art. 92. The obligation is pure and simple, although contracted in an alternative manner, if one of the two things promised could not be the subject of the obligation.

Art. 93. The alternative obligation becomes pure and simple, if one of the things promised be destroyed, even through the fault of the debtor, and can no longer be delivered. The price of that thing cannot be offered in its stead.
If both the things be destroyed, and the debtor be in fault with regard to one of them, he must pay the price of that one which was destroyed the last.

Art. 94. When in the cases provided for in the preceding article, the option was given by agreement to the creditor; either only one of the things is destroyed, and then if it be without fault of the debtor, the creditor must have that one which remains; if the debtor be in fault, the creditor may demand the thing that remains, or the price of that which is destroyed;
Or both the things are destroyed, and then if the debtor be in fault with regard to both, or even with regard to one of them alone, the creditor has his option to demand either of them.

Art. 95. If both the things be destroyed, without the fault of the debtor, and before he has delayed the delivery, the obligation becomes extinct conformably to article the 202d of this title.

Art. 96. The same principles apply to cases where there are more than two things comprised in the alternative obligation.




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