ESSENTIAL REQUISITES OF CONTRACTS

Question 1

ART. 1318

Answer 1

There is no contract unless the following concur:

a. ) Consent of the contracting parties;
b. ) Object certain which is the subject matter;
c. ) Cause of the obligation which is established.

Question 2

RT. 1319

Answer 2

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 acceptance absolute. A qualified acceptance constitutes a counter-offer.

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

Question 3

ART. 1320

Answer 3

An acceptance may be express or implied.

Question 4

ART. 1321

Answer 4

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

Question 5

ART. 1322

Answer 5

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

Question 6

ART. 1323

Answer 6

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

Question 7

ART. 1324

Answer 7

When the offerer has allowed the offeree a certain period to accept, the offer may be withdrawn at any time before the acceptance by communicating such withdrawal, except when the option is founded upon a consideration, as something paid or promised.

Question 8

ART. 1325

Answer 8

Unless it appears otherwise, business advertisements of things for sales are not definite offer, but mere invitation to make an offer.

Question 9

ART. 1326

Answer 9

Advertisement 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.

Question 10

ART. 1327

Answer 10

The following cannot give consent to a contract:

a. ) Unemancipated minors;
b. ) Insane or demented person and deaf-mute who do not know how to write.

Question 11

ART. 1328

Answer 11

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

Question 12

ART. 1329

Answer 12

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

Question 13

ART. 1330

Answer 13

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

Question 14

ART. 1331

Answer 14

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 contracts.

A simple mistake of account shall give rise to its correction.

Question 15

ART. 1332

Answer 15

When one of the parties is unable to write, 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.

Question 16

ART. 1333

Answer 16

There is no mistake when the person alleging it knew the doubt, contingency or risk affecting the object of the contract.

Question 17

ART. 1334

Answer 17

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

Question 18

ART. 1335

Answer 18

There is violence when in order to wrest consent, serious or 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 consent.

To determine the degree of intimidation, the age, sex and condition shall be borne in mind.

A threat to enforce one’s claim to competent authority, if the claim is just or legal, does not vitiate consent.

Question 19

ART. 1336

Answer 19

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.

Question 20

ART. 1337

Answer 20

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 that the person alleged to have been unduly influenced was suffering from mental weakness, or was ignorant, or in financial distress.

Question 21

ART. 1338

Answer 21

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.

Question 22

ART. 1339

Answer 22

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

Question 23

ART. 13340

Answer 23

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

Question 24

ART. 1341

Answer 24

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

Question 25

ART. 1342

Answer 25

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

Question 26

ART. 1343

Answer 26

Misrepresentation made in good faith is not fraudulent but may constitute error.

Question 27

ART. 1344

Answer 27

In order that fraud may make a 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 damages.

Question 28

ART. 1345

Answer 28

Simulation of a contract may be absolute or relative. The former takes place when the parties do not intend to be bound at all; the latter, when the parties conceal their true agreement.

Question 29

ART. 1347

Answer 29

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

Question 30

ART. 1347

Answer 30

All things which are not outside the commerce of me, 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 is cases expressly authorized by law.

All services which are not contrary to law, morals, good customs, public policy or public order may likewise be the object of a contract.

Question 31

ART. 1348

Answer 31

Impossible things or services cannot be the object of contracts.

Question 32

ART. 1349

Answer 32

To object of every contract shall 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.

Question 33

ART. 1350

Answer 33

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

Question 34

ART. 1351

Answer 34

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

Question 35

ART. 1352

Answer 35

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

Question 36

ART. 1353

Answer 36

The statement of a false contract shall render them void, unless it is proved that they were founded upon a cause which is true and lawful.

Question 37

ART. 1354

Answer 37

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

Question 38

ART. 1355

Answer 38

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