Contracts Article 1305-1355

Question 1

A contract is a meeting of minds between two persons whereby one binds himself, with a respect to the other, to give something or to render some service.

Answer 1

ARTICLE 1305

Question 2

The contracting parties may establish such stipulations, clauses, terms and conditions as they may deem convenient, provided they are not contrary to law, morals, good customs, public order, or public policy.

Answer 2

ARTICLE 1306

Question 3

Innominate contracts shall be regulated by the stipulations of the parties, by provisions of Titles I and II of this book, by the rules governing the most analogous nominate contracts, and by customs of the place

Answer 3

Article 1307

Question 4

The contract must bind both contracting parties; its validity or compliance cannot be left to the will of one of them

Answer 4

ARTICLE 1308

Question 5

The determination of performance may be left to a third person, whose decision shall not be binding until it has been made known to both contracting parties

Answer 5

ARTICLE 1309

Question 6

The determination shall not be obligatory if it is evidently inequitable. In such case, the courts shall decide what is equitable under the circumstances

Answer 6

ARTICLE 1310

Question 7

Contracts take effect only between the parties, their assigns and heirs, except in case where the rights and obligations arising from the contract are not transmissible by their nature, or by stipulation or by provision of law. The heir is not liable beyond the value of the property he received from the decedent.

If a contract should contain some stipulation in favor of a third person, he may demand its fulfillment provided he communicated his acceptance to the obligor before its revocation. A mere incidental benefit or interest of a person is not sufficient. The contracting parties must have clearly and deliberately conferred a favor upon of a third person.

Answer 7

ARTICLE 1311

Question 8

In contracts creating real rights, third persons who come into possession of the object of the contract are bound thereby, subject to the provisions of the Mortgage Law and the Land Registration Laws

Answer 8

ARTICLE 1312

Question 9

Creditors are protected in cases of contracts intended to defraud them

Answer 9

ARTICLE 1313

Question 10

Any third person who induces another to violate his contract shall be liable for damages to the other contracting party

Answer 10

ARTICLE 1314

Question 11

Contracts are perfected by mere consent, and from that moment the parties are bound not only to fulfillment of what has been expressly stipulated but also to all the consequences which, according to their nature, may be in keeping with good faith, usage and law

Answer 11

ARTICLE 1315

Question 12

Real contracts such as deposit, pledge and commodatum, are not perfected until the delivery of the object of obligation

Answer 12

ARTICLE 1316

Question 13

No one may contract in the name of another without being authorized by the latter, or unless he has by law a right to represent him.

A contract entered in the name of another by one who has no authority or legal representation, or who has acted beyond his powers, shall be unenforceable, unless it is ratified, expressly or impliedly, by the person on whose behalf it has been executed, before it is revoked by the other contracting party.

Answer 13

ARTICLE 1317

Question 14

There is no contract unless the following requisites concur:
1. Consent of the contracting parties
2. Object certain which is the subject matter of the contract;
3. Cause of the obligation which is established

Answer 14

ARTICLE 1318

Question 15

Consent is manifested by the meeting of the offer and the acceptance upon the thing and the cause which are to constitute the contract. The offer must be certain and the acceptance absolute. A qualified acceptance constitutes a counter offer.

Acceptance made by letter or telegram does not bind the offerer except from the time it came to his knowledge. The contract, in such a case, is presumed to have been entered into the place where the offer was made.

Answer 15

ARTICLE 1319

Question 16

An acceptance may be express or implied

Answer 16

ARTICLE 1320

Question 17

The person making the offer may fix the time, place, and manner of acceptance, all of which must be complied with.

Answer 17

ARTICLE 1321

Question 18

An offer becomes ineffective upon the death, civil interdiction, insanity, or insolvency of either party before acceptance is conveyed.

Answer 18

ARTICLE 1323

Question 19

When the offerer has allowed the offeree a certain period to accept, the offer may be withdrawn at any time before acceptance by communicating such withdrawal, except when the option is founded upon a consideration, as something paid or promised

Answer 19

ARTICLE 1324

Question 20

Unless it appears otherwise, business advertisements of things for sale are not definite offers, but mere invitations to make an offer

Answer 20

ARTICLE 1325

Question 21

Advertisements for bidders are simply invitations to make proposals, and the advertiser is not bound to accept the highest or lowest bidder, unless the contrary appears

Answer 21

ARTICLE 1326

Question 22

The following cannot give consent to a contract:
1. Unemancipated minors
2. Insane or demented persons, and deaf-mutes who do not know how to write

Answer 22

ARTICLE 1327

Question 23

Contracts entered into during a lucid interval are valid. Contracts agreed to in a state of drunkenness or during a hypnotic spell are voidable.

Answer 23

ARTICLE 1328

Question 24

The incapacity declared in Article 1327 is subject to the modification determined by law, and is understood to be without prejudice to special disqualifications established in the laws

Answer 24

ARTICLE 1329

Question 25

A contract where consent is given through mistake, violence, intimidation, undue influence, or fraud is voidable

Answer 25

ARTICLE 1330

Question 26

In order that mistake may invalidate consent, it should refer to the substance of the thing which is the object of the contract, or to those conditions which have principally moved one or both parties to enter into the contract Mistake as to the identity or qualifications of one of the parties will vitiate consent only when such identity or qualifications have been the principal cause of the contract A simple mistake of account shall give rise to its correction

Answer 26

ARTICLE 1331

Question 27

When one of the parties is unable to read, or if the contract is in a language not understood by him, and mistake or fraud is alleged, the person enforcing the contract must show that the terms thereof have been fully explained to the former.

Answer 27

ARTICLE 1332

Question 28

There is no mistake if the party alleging it knew the doubt, contingency or risk affecting the object of the contract

Answer 28

ARTICLE 1333

Question 29

Mutual error as to the legal effect of an agreement when the real purpose of the parties is frustrated, may vitiate consent

Answer 29

ARTICLE 1334

Question 30

There is violence when in order to wrest consent, serious or not irresistible force is employed. There is intimidation when one of the contracting parties is compelled by a reasonable and well grounded fear of an imminent and grave evil upon his person or property, or upon the person or property of his spouse, descendants or ascendants, to give his consent To determine the degree of intimidation, the age, sex, and condition of the person shall be borne in mind. A threat to enforce one's claim through competent authority , if the claim is just or legal, does not vitiate consent

Answer 30

ARTICLE 1335

Question 31

Violence or intimidation shall annul the obligation, although it may have been employed by a third person who did not take part in the contract.

Answer 31

ARTICLE 1336

Question 32

There is undue influence when a person takes improper advantage of his power over the will of another, depriving the latter of a reasonable freedom of choice. The following circumstances shall be considered: the confidential, family, spiritual and other relations between the parties, or the fact that the person alleged to have been unduly influenced was suffering from mental weakness, or was ignorant or in financial distress.

Answer 32

ARTICLE 1337

Question 33

There is fraud when, through insidious words or machinations of one of the contracting parties, the other is induced to enter into a contract which, without them, he would not have agreed to.

Answer 33

ARTICLE 1338

Question 34

Failure to disclose facts, when there is a duty to reveal them, as when the parties are bound by confidential relations, constitutes fraud.

Answer 34

ARTICLE 1339

Question 35

The usual exaggerations in trade, when the other party had an opportunity to know the facts, are not in themselves fraudulent.

Answer 35

ARTICLE 1340

Question 36

A mere expression of an opinion does not signify fraud, unless made by an expert and the other party has relied on the former's special knowledge

Answer 36

ARTICLE 1341

Question 37

Misrepresentation by a third person does not vitiate consent, unless such misrepresentation has created substantial mistake and the same is mutual.

Answer 37

ARTICLE 1342

Question 38

In order that fraud may make contract voidable, it should be serious and should not have been employed by both contracting parties Incidental fraud only obliges the person employing it to pay damages

Answer 38

ARTICLE 1344

Question 39

Simulation of a contract may be absolute or relative. The former takes place when the parties conceal their true agreement

Answer 39

ARTICLE 1345

Question 40

An absolutely simulated or fictitious contract is void. A relative simulation, when it does not prejudice a third person is not intended for any purpose contrary to law, morals, good customs, public order or public policy binds the parties to their real agreement.

Answer 40

ARTICLE 1346

Question 41

All things which are not outside the commerce of men, including future things, may be the object of a contract. All rights which are not intransmissible may also be the object of contracts No contract may be entered into upon future inheritance except cases expressly authorized by law All services which are not contrary to law, morals, good custom, public order or public policy may likewise the object of a contract.

Answer 41

ARTICLE 1347

Question 42

Impossible things or services cannot be the object of contracts

Answer 42

ARTICLE 1348

Question 43

The object of every contract must be determinate as to its kind. The fact that the quantity is not determinate shall not be an obstacle to the existence of the contract, provided it is possible to determine the same, without the need of a new contract between the parties.

Answer 43

ARTICLE 1349

Question 44

In onerous contracts the cause is understood to be , for each contracting party, the prestation or promise of a thing or a service by the other; in remuneratory ones, the service or benefit which is remunerated; and in the contracts of pure beneficence, the mere liberality of the benefactor.

Answer 44

ARTICLE 1350

Question 45

The particular motives of the parties in entering into a contract are different from the cause thereof

Answer 45

ARTICLE 1351

Question 46

Contracts without cause, or with unlawful cause, produce no effect whatever. The cause is unlawful if it is contrary to law, morals, good customs, public order or public policy.

Answer 46

ARTICLE 1352

Question 47

An offer made through an agent is accepted from the time acceptance is communicated to him

Answer 47

ARTICLE 1322

Question 48

The statement of a false cause in contracts shall render them void, if it should not be proved that way they were founded upon another cause which is true and lawful.

Answer 48

ARTICLE 1353

Question 49

Although the cause is not stated in the contract, it is presumed that it exists and is lawful, unless the debtor proves the contrary

Answer 49

ARTICLE 1354

Question 50

Except in cases specified by law, lesion or inadequacy of cause shall not invalidate a contract, unless there has been fraud, mistake, or undue influence.

Answer 50

ARTICLE 1355