Table of Contents
- Cover Page
- Foreword
- Abbreviations
- Synopsis
- Preliminary title Of the general definitions of rights and the promulgation of the laws
- Book I Of persons
- Title I Of the distinction of persons, and the privation of certain civil rights in certain cases
- Title II Of domicil and the manner of changing the same
- Title III Of absent persons
- Chapter I Of the curatorship of absent persons
- Chapter II Of the putting into provisional possession the heirs of the absentee
- Chapter III Of the effects of absence upon the eventual rights which may belong to the absentee
- Chapter IV Of the effects of absence respecting marriage
- Chapter V Of the care of minor children whose father has disappeared
- Title IV Of husband and wife
- Title V Of the separation from bed and board
- Chapter I Of the causes of separation from bed and board
- Chapter II Of the proceedings on separation from bed and board
- Chapter III Of the provisional proceedings to which a suit for separation may give occasion
- Chapter IV Of objections to the action of separation from bed and board
- Chapter V Of the effects of separation from bed and board
- Title VI Of master and servant
- Title VII Of father and child
- Title VIII Of minors, of their tutorship, curatorship and emancipation
- Chapter I Of tutorship
- Section I General dispositions
- Section II Of tutorship by nature
- Section III Of tutorship by will
- Section IV Of the tutorship by the effect of the law
- Section V Of dative tutorship
- Section VI Of the under tutor
- Section VII Of the causes which dispense or excuse from the tutorship
- Section VIII Of incapacity for, exclusion from and deprivation of the tutorship
- Section IX Of the administration of the tutor
- Chapter II Of the curatorship of minors
- Chapter III Of emancipation
- Chapter I Of tutorship
- Title IX Of persons insane, idiots, and other persons incapable of administering their estate
- Title X Of communities or corporations
- Book II Of things and of the different modifications of property
- Title I Of things or estates
- Title II Of absolute ownership
- Title III Of usufruct, use and habitation
- Title IV Of predial services or services of land
- Book III Of the different manners of acquiring the property of things
- Preliminary title General dispositions
- Title I Of successions
- Chapter I Of the different sorts of successions and heirs
- Chapter II Of legal successions
- Chapter III Of irregular successions
- Chapter IV In what manner successions are opened
- Chapter V Of the incapacity and unworthiness of the heirs
- Chapter VI In what manner a succession is accepted and how it is renounced
- Chapter VII Of the administration of vacant estates and estates ab intestato
- Chapter VIII Of partition among heirs and of the collation of goods
- Title II Of donations inter vivos (between living persons) and mortis causa (in prospect of death)
- Chapter I General dispositions
- Chapter II Of the capacity necessary for disposing of and receiving by donation inter vivos or mortis causa
- Chapter III Of the portion disposable, and of its reduction in case of excess
- Chapter IV Of dispositions reprobated by the law in donations inter vivos and mortis causa
- Chapter V Of donations inter vivos (between living)
- Chapter VI Of dispositions mortis causa (in the prospect of death)
- Section I Of testament or codicil
- Section II Of the form of testaments and codicils
- Section III Of testamentary dispositions
- Section IV Of the institution of heir and of disinherison
- Section V Of legacies
- Section VI Of the opening and the proof of wills, and of testamentary executions
- Section VII Of the revocation of testaments and codicils and of their caducity
- Section VIII Of the interpretation of testamentary dispositions
- Chapter VII Of partitions made by parents among their descendants
- Chapter VIII Of donations made by marriage contract to the husband or wife, and to the children to be born of the marriage
- Chapter IX Of donations between married persons, either by marriage contract, or during the marriage
- Title III Of contracts and of conventional obligations in general
- Chapter I Preliminary dispositions
- Chapter II Of the conditions essential to the validity of agreements
- Chapter III Of the effect of obligations
- Section I General dispositions
- Section II Of the obligation of giving
- Section III Of the obligations of doing or of not doing
- Section IV Of the damages resulting from the non execution of the obligation
- Section V Of the interpretation of the agreements
- Section VI Of the effect of agreements with regard to persons not parties to them
- Chapter IV Of the different kinds of obligations
- Chapter V Of the extinction of obligations
- Chapter VI Of the proof of obligations and of that of payment
- Title IV Of engagements formed without agreements, or of quasi contracts and quasi offences
- Title V Of marriage contract
- Title VI Of sale
- Chapter I Of the nature and form of the contract of sale, and of the manner in which it is to be performed
- Chapter II Of persons capable of buying and selling, and of things which may be sold
- Chapter III Of the obligations of the seller
- Chapter IV Of the obligations of the buyer
- Chapter V Of the nullity and rescissions of the sale
- Chapter VI Of sales by cant or auction
- Chapter VII Of the assignment or transfer of debts and other incorporeal rights
- Title VII Of exchange
- Title VIII Of letting and hiring
- Title IX Of partnership
- Title X Of loan
- Title XI Of deposit and sequestration
- Title XII Of aleatory contracts
- Title XIII Of mandate or commission
- Chapter I Of the nature of proxies, mandates and commissions
- Chapter II What persons may be appointed attornies in fact
- Chapter III Of the obligations of a person acting under a power of attorney
- Chapter IV Of the obligations of the principal who acts by his attorney in fact
- Chapter V How the procuration expires
- Title XIV Of suretyship
- Title XV Of transactions
- Title XVI Of respite
- Title XVII Of compromises or arbitration
- Title XVIII Of pledge
- Title XIX Of privileges and mortgages
- Title XX Of occupancy, possession and prescription
- Title XXI Of the title by judgment or seizure
- Index
- Manuscript index
- Manuscript index Part 2
TITLE III - OF CONTRACTS AND OF CONVENTIONAL OBLIGATIONS IN GENERAL
CHAPTER I - PRELIMINARY DISPOSITIONS
Art. 1. A contract is an agreement by which one or more persons oblige themselves to one or more other persons, to give, to do, or not to do a certain thing.
Art. 2. A contract is synallagmatic or bilateral, when the contracting parties reciprocally obligate themselves to each other.
Art. 3. It is unilateral, when one or more persons have entered into an obligation towards one or more other persons, without the latter's being under any engagement.
Art. 4. It is commutative, when each of the parties engages to give or do a thing that is deemed an equivalent for what is given to him or done for him.
When the equivalent consists in the chance of gain or loss of each of the parties, from an uncertain event, the contract is aleatory.
Art. 5. The contract of beneficence, is that in which one of the parties procures to the other, an advantage purely gratuitous.
Art. 6. The onerous contract is that which subjects each of the parties, to give or to do a certain thing.
Art. 7. Contracts whether they have or have not, an appropriate denomination, are subject to general rules which are the subject of the present title.
The rules peculiar to certain contracts, are established under the titles relative to each of them respectively, and the rules peculiar to commercial transactions are established by the laws relating to commerce.
CHAPTER II - OF THE CONDITIONS ESSENTIAL TO THE VALIDITY OF AGREEMENTS
Art. 8. To the validity of an agreement four conditions are essential:
The consent of the party who obligates himself;
The capacity to contract;
A determinate object forming the matter of an engagement;
A lawful purpose in the obligation.
SECTION I - OF CONSENT
Art. 9. That is no valid consent that is given through error, or is extorted by violence or surprised by fraud.
Art. 10. Error is a cause of nullity in an agreement, only when it falls on the very substance of the thing that is the object of it.
It is not a cause of nullity, when it falls only on the person with whom one intended to contract, unless the consideration of that person be the principal cause of the agreement.
Art. 11. Violence exercised against the person who has contracted an obligation, is a cause of nullity, though it has been exercised by a different person from him for whose advantage the agreement has been made.
Art. 12. Violence is that which naturally tends to make an impression on a person possessing sound judgment, and to inspire him with the fear of exposing his person, or fortune to a considerable and immediate evil.
In a question of violence, regard must be had to the age, sex and condition of the person.
Art. 13. Violence is a cause of nullity of a contract, not only when it has been exercised on the contracting party, but also when it has been exercised on the wife, the husband, the descendants or ascendants of the party.
Art. 14. The mere reverential fear of a father, a mother or other ascendants, when no violence has been exercised, does not suffice to annul a contract.
Art. 15. A contract cannot be attacked on account of violence, if after the violence has ceased, the contract has been approved, either expressly or tacitly or by suffering to elapse the time of restitution fixed by law.
Art. 16. Fraud is a cause of nullity in a contract, when the artifices practised by one of the parties, are such that it is evident that but for these artifices, the other party would not have contracted.
It is not presumed and must be proved.
Art. 17. An engagement contracted by error, violence or fraud, is not of itself void, but voidable by an action of nullity or of rescission, in the case and after the manner explained in the 7th section of the fifth chapter of the present title.
Art. 18. Lesion vitiates agreements only in certain contracts, or with regard to certain persons, as will be explained in the same section.
Art. 19. In general a person can engage or stipulate in his own name for none but himself.
Art. 20. Yet A. may engage B. promising that B. shall ratify, but A. becomes liable to indemnify the person with whom he engages for B. if B. refuses to ratify and abide by the engagement.
Art. 21. A person may, in like manner, stipulate for the advantage of a third person, when such is the condition of a stipulation that he makes for himself, or of a donation that he makes to another.
He who has made such a stipulation, can no longer revoke it, if the third person has declared himself willing to avail himself of it.
Art. 22. A person is deemed to have stipulated for himself, his heirs and assigns, unless the contrary be expressed, or result from the nature of the agreement.
SECTION II - OF THE CAPABILITY OF THE PARTIES CONTRACTING
Art. 23. Every person may contract unless declared incapable by law.
Art. 24. Persons incapable of contracting are:
Slaves;
Minors;
Persons under interdiction;
Married women, in cases expressed by law; and generally all those to whom the law has interdicted certain contracts.
Art. 25. Neither a minor, a person under interdiction, nor a married woman can attack their respective engagements on the plea of incapacity, unless in cases provided by law.
Persons capable of engaging, cannot plead the incapacity of a minor, a person under interdict, or a married woman, with whom they have contracted.
SECTION III - OF THE OBJECT AND THE MATTER OF CONTRACTS
Art. 26. Every contract has for its object a thing which one of the parties obliges to give or which one of the parties obliges to do or not to do.
Art. 27. The mere use or the mere possession of a thing, may be, as well as the thing itself, the object of a contract.
Art. 28. Nothing but what is an object of commerce, can be the object of an agreement.
Art. 29. An obligation must have for its object, something determinate, at least as to its species.
The quantity of a thing may be uncertain, provided it be capable of being ascertained.
Art. 30. Future things may be the object of an obligation.
One cannot however renounce the succession of an estate not yet devolved, nor can any stipulation be made with regard to such a succession, even with the consent of him whose succession is in question.
SECTION IV - OF THE CAUSE
Art. 31. An obligation without a cause, or with a false or unlawful cause, can have no effect.
Art. 32. An agreement is not the less valid, though the cause be not expressed.
Art. 33. The cause is illicit when it is forbidden by law, when it is contra bonos mores (contrary to moral conduct) or to public order.
TITRE III – DES CONTRATS ET DES OBLIGATIONS CONVENTIONNELLES EN GÉNÉRAL
CHAPITRE I – DISPOSITIONS PRÉLIMINAIRES
Art. 1. Le contrat est une convention par laquelle, une ou plusieurs personnes s'obligent envers une ou plusieurs autres, à donner, à faire, ou à ne pas faire quelque chose.
Art. 2. Le contrat est Synallagmatique ou bilatéral, lorsque les contractans s'obligent réciproquement les uns envers les autres.
Art. 3. Il est unilatéral, lorsqu'une ou plusieurs personnes sont obligées, envers une ou plusieurs autres, sans que de la part de ces dernières il y ait d'engagement.
Art. 4. Il est commutatif, lorsque chacune des parties s'engage à donner, ou à faire une chose qui est regardée comme l'équivalent de ce qu'on lui donne, ou de ce qu'on fait pour elle.
Lorsque, l'équivalent consiste dans la chance de gain ou de perte, pour chacune des parties, d'après un événement incertain, le contrat est aléatoire.
Art. 5. Le contrat de bienfaisance, est celui dans lequel une des parties procure à l'autre un avantage purement gratuit.
Art. 6. Le contrat, à titre onéreux, est celui qui assujettit chacune des parties à donner ou à faire quelque chose.
Art. 7. Les contrats, soit qu'ils ayent une dénomination propre, soit qu'ils n'en ayent pas, sont soumis à des règles générales, qui sont l'objet du présent titre.
Les règles particulières à certains contrats, sont établies sous les titres relatifs à chacun d'eux, et les règles particulières aux transactions commerciales, sont établies par les lois relatives au commerce.
CHAPITRE II – DES CONDITIONS ESSENTIELLES POUR LA VALIDITÉ DES CONVENTIONS
Art. 8. Quatre conditions sont essentielles pour la validité d'une convention.
Le consentement de la partie qui s'oblige;
La capacité de contracter;
Un objet certain, qui forme la matière de l'engagement;
Une cause licite dans l'obligation.
SECTION I – DU CONSENTEMENT
Art. 9. Il n'y a point de consentement valable, si le consentement n'a été donné que par erreur, ou s'il a été extorqué par violence, ou surpris par dol.
Art. 10. L'erreur n'est une cause de nullité de la convention, que lorsqu'elle tombe sur la substance même de la chose qui en est l'objet.
Elle n'est point une cause de nullité, lorsqu'elle ne tombe que sur la personne avec laquelle on a intention de contracter, à moins que la considération de cette personne ne soit la cause principale de cette convention.
Art. 11. La violence exercée contre celui qui a contracté l'obligation, est une cause de nullité, encore qu'elle ait été exercée par un tiers, autre que celui au profit duquel la convention a été faite.
Art. 12. Il y a violence, lorsqu'elle est de nature à faire impression sur une personne raisonnable, et qu'elle peut lui inspirer la crainte d'exposer sa personne ou sa fortune à un mal considérable et présent.
On a égard, en cette matière, à l'âge, an sexe et à la condition des personnes.
Art. 13. La violence est une cause de nullité du contrat, non-seulement lorsqu'elle a été exercée sur la partie contractante, mais encore lorsqu'elle l'a été sur son époux ou sur son épouse, sur ses descendans ou ses ascendans.
Art. 14. La seule crainte révérencielle envers le père, la mère, ou autre ascendant, sans qu'il y ait eu de violence exercée, ne suffit pas pour annuler le contrat.
Art. 15. Un contrat ne peut plus être attaqué, pour cause de violence, si, depuis que la violence a cessé, ce contrat a été approuvé, soit expressément, soit tacitement, soit en laissant passer le tems de la restitution, fixé par la loi.
Art. 16. Le dol est une cause de nullité de la convention, lorsque les manœuvres pratiquées, par l'une des parties, sont telles, qu'il est évident que, sans ces manœuvres, l'autre partie n'aurait pas contracté;
Il ne se présume pas, et doit être prouvé.
Art. 17. La convention contractée, par erreur, violence, ou dol, n'est point nulle de plein droit; elle donne seulement lieu à une action en nullité, ou en rescision, dans les cas et de la manière expliquée à la section 7 du chapitre 5 du présent titre.
Art. 18. La lésion ne vicie les conventions, que dans certains contrats et à l'égard de certaines personnes, ainsi qu'il sera expliqué en la même section.
Art. 19. On ne peut, en général, s'engager, ni stipuler, en son propre nom, que pour soi-même.
Art. 20. Néanmoins, on peut se porter fort, pour un tiers, en promettant le fait de celui-ci, sauf l'indemnité, contre celui qui s'est porté fort, ou qui a promis de faire ratifier, si le tiers refuse de tenir l'engagement.
Art. 21. On peut, pareillement, stipuler au profit d'un tiers, lorsque telle est la condition d'une stipulation que l'on fait pour soi-même, ou d'une donation que l'on fait à un autre. Celui qui a fait cette stipulation ne peut plus la révoquer, si le tiers a déclaré vouloir en profiter.
Art. 22. On est censé avoir stipulé, pour soi et pour ses héritiers et ayans cause, à moins que le contraire ne soit exprimé, ou ne résulte de la nature de la convention.
SECTION II – DE LA CAPACITÉ DES PARTIES CONTRACTANTES
Art. 23. Toute personne peut contracter, si elle n'en est pas déclarée incapable par la loi.
Art. 24. Les incapables de contracter, sont:
Les esclaves;
Les mineurs;
Les interdits;
Les femmes mariées, dans les cas exprimés par la loi;
Et, généralement, tous ceux auxquels la loi a interdit certains contrats.
Art. 25. Le mineur, l'interdit et la femme mariée, ne peuvent attaquer, pour cause d'incapacité, leurs engagemens, que dans les cas prévus par la loi.
Les personnes capables de s'engager, ne peuvent opposer l'incapacité du mineur, de l'interdit, ou de la femme mariée, avec qui elles ont contracté.
SECTION III – DE L'OBJET ET DE LA MATIÈRE DES CONTRATS
Art. 26. Tout contrat a pour objet une chose, qu'une partie s'oblige à donner, ou qu'une partie s'oblige à faire, ou à ne pas faire.
Art. 27. Le simple usage, ou la simple possession d'une chose, peut être, comme la chose même, l'objet du contrat.
Art. 28. Il n'y a que les choses qui sont dans le commerce, qui puissent être l'objet des conventions.
Art. 29. Il faut que l'obligation ait pour objet, une chose au moins déterminée, quant à son espèce.
La quotité de la chose peut être incertaine, pourvu qu'elle puisse être déterminée.
Art. 30. Les choses futures peuvent être l'objet d'une obligation.
On ne peut, cependant, renoncer à une succession non ouverte, ni faire aucune stipulation, sur une pareille succession, même avec le consentement de celui de la succession duquel il s'agit.
SECTION IV – DE LA CAUSE
Art. 31. L'obligation sans cause, ou sur une fausse cause, ou sur une cause illicite, ne peut avoir aucun effet.
Art. 32. La convention n'est pas moins valable, quoique la cause n'en soit pas exprimée.
Art. 33. La cause est illicite, lorsqu'elle est prohibée par la loi, quand elle est contraire aux bonnes mœurs et à l'ordre public.
