Table of Contents

TITLE XIII – OF MANDATE OR COMMISSION

 

CHAPTER I – OF THE NATURE OF PROXIES, MANDATES AND COMMISSIONS

Art. 1. A procuration or letter of attorney is an act by which one person gives power to another to transact for him one or several affairs.

Art. 2. The contract is perfected only by the acceptance of the person empowered to represent the principal.

Art. 3. A power of attorney may be accepted either expressly and in the act itself, or by a posterior act, or tacitly by the attorney’s acting under it.

Art. 4. If the proxy or attorney in fact, pleads that he has not accepted or acted under the power, it is incumbent on the principal to prove he has.

Art. 5. The procuration is gratuitous, unless there have been a contrary agreement.

Art. 6. A power of attorney may be given either by a public act, or by a writing under private signature, even by letter.
It may also be given verbally; but of this testamonial proof is admitted only conformably to the title of contract or conventional obligations in general.

Art. 7. A blank may be left for the name of the attorney in fact, in the letter of attorney.
In that case the bearer of it is deemed the person empowered.

Art. 8. It may be either general, for all affairs; or special for one affair alone.

Art. 9. It may vest an indefinite power to do whatever may appear conducive to the interest of the principal, or it may restrict the power given to the doing of what is specified in the procuration.

Art. 10. The attorney in fact has no power to alienate any thing but what is moveable and perishable.
To accept or reject a succession;
To acknowledge a debt;
To compromise or refer to arbitrators;
To make a transaction in matters of litigation;
To sue for restitution in integrum with regard to an act;
Unless a special power to that effect be given in the procuration.

Art. 11. A power to make a transaction on a matter in litigation, does not include that of compromising or referring to arbitrators.

Art. 12. A power to receive, includes that of giving a receipt in acquittance.

 

CHAPTER II – WHAT PERSONS MAY BE APPOINTED ATTORNIES IN FACT

Art. 13. All persons not legally debarred from the management of their own affairs, may be attornies in fact.

Art. 14. Even a minor who has attained the age of eighteen years, or a married woman, provided she accepts the procuration only under the authorisation of her husband, may be appointed an attorney in fact.

Art. 15. He who appoints a minor his attorney in fact, has no action against him for his mismanagement, but according to the general rules concerning the obligations of minors.

 

CHAPTER III – OF THE OBLIGATIONS OF A PERSON ACTING UNDER A POWER OF ATTORNEY

Art. 16. The attorney in fact is bound to discharge the functions of the procuration as long as he continues to hold it, and he is responsible to his principal for the damages that may result from the non performance of his duty.

Art. 17. The attorney is responsible not only for unfaithfulness in his management, but also for his fault.

Art. 18. He is obliged to render an account of his management, unless this obligation has been expressly dispensed with in his favor.

Art. 19. He is obliged to restore to his principal whatever he has received by virtue of his procuration, even should he have received it unduly.

Art. 20. In case of an indefinite power, the attorney cannot be sued for what he has done with good intention.
The judge must have regard to the nature of the affair, and the difficulty of communication between the principal and the attorney.

Art. 21. The attorney is answerable for the person substituted by him to manage in his stead, if the procuration did not empower him to do it.

Art. 22. He is also answerable for his substitute, if, having the power to appoint one, and the person to be appointed not being named in the procuration, he has appointed as his substitute a person notoriously incapable or of suspicious character.

Art. 23. Even where the attorney is answerable for his substitute, the principal may, if he thinks proper, come directly upon the substitute.

Art. 24. The attorney cannot go beyond the limits of his procuration, whatever he does in exceeding his power is null and void with regard to the principal, unless ratified by the latter; and the attorney is alone bound by it in his individual capacity.

Art. 25. When there are several attornies in fact empowered by the same act, they are not responsible jointly and severally (in solido) to one another, for the acts of each, unless such responsibility be expressed in the procuration.

Art. 26. The attorney is answerable for the interest of any sum of money he has employed to his own use, from the time he has so employed it, and for that of any sum remaining in his hands from the day he becomes a defaulter by delaying to pay it over.

 

CHAPTER IV – OF THE OBLIGATIONS OF THE PRINCIPAL WHO ACTS BY HIS ATTORNEY IN FACT

Art. 27. The first obligation of the principal is to execute, or ratify what has been done according to the power by him given.

Art. 28. Though the principal should refuse to ratify what his attorney has done, the latter is not therefore bound towards those with whom he has transacted any business, unless he acted in his own name or exceeded the limits of his power.

Art. 29. The attorney has a right to the reimbursement of the money advanced by him, and the contingent expences he has been at, in the execution of his procuration, even in case the affair has not succeeded, provided there has been no fault on his part.
The principal is even obliged to reimburse to the attorney, those expences and advances, though they be more considerable than he himself would have employed, had he undertaken the business, provided no fraud nor fault can be imputed to the attorney.

Art. 30. The attorney must also be compensated for such losses as he has sustained on occasion of the management of his principal’s affairs, when he cannot be reproached with imprudence.

Art. 31. If the attorney has advanced any sum of money, for the affairs of the principal, the latter owes the interest of it from the day on which the advance is proved to have been made.

Art. 32. If the attorney has been empowered by several persons for an affair common to them, every one of these persons shall be bound jointly and severally (in solido) to him for all the effect of the procuration.

 

CHAPTER V – HOW THE PROCURATION EXPIRES

Art. 33. The procuration expires;
By the revocation of the attorney;
By the attorney’s renunciation of the power;
By the principal’s changing his condition;
By death;
And by the interdiction of the principal or of the attorney.
The whole under the following modifications.

Art. 34. The principal is at liberty to revoke his power of attorney whenever he thinks proper.

Art. 35. If the principal only notifies his revocation to the attorney, and not to the persons with whom he has empowered said attorney to transact for him, said persons shall always have the right of action against the principal to compel him to execute or ratify what has been done by said attorney; the principal has however a right of action against the said attorney.

Art. 36. The appointment of a new attorney to transact the same business produces the same effect as a revocation of the first, from the day the said appointment is notified to said first attorney and to the persons with whom he was to transact.

Art. 37. The attorney may renounce his power of attorney by notifying to the principal his renunciation, provided said renunciation be made in such circumstances that no injury can result therefrom to the principal.

Art. 38. He may also renounce to his powers as attorney when he is in the impossibility to fulfil the duties imposed on him, or when a considerable injury might result to him therefrom.

Art. 39. Should the principal loose the right which he has vested in his attorney, that circumstance destroys equally the powers of the attorney.

Art. 40. If the attorney being ignorant of the death or of the determination of the rights of his principal, should continue to act under his power of attorney, the transactions done by him until he has been made acquainted with either of these circumstances, are considered as valid.

Art. 41. In case of the death of the attorney, his heir ought to inform the principal of it, and in the mean time said heir is bound to attend to said business, as circumstances may require, for the benefit of said principal.




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