ESSENTIAL REQUISITES OF CONTRACTS Flashcards
ART. 1318
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.
RT. 1319
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.
ART. 1320
An acceptance may be express or implied.
ART. 1321
The person making an offer must fix the time, place and manner of acceptance, all of which must be complied with.
ART. 1322
An offer made through an agent is accepted from the time the acceptance is communicated to him.
ART. 1323
An offer is ineffective upon the death, civil interdiction, insanity or insolvency of either party before acceptance is conveyed.
ART. 1324
When the offerer has allowed the offeree a certain period to accept, the offer may be withdrawn at any time before the acceptance by communicating such withdrawal, except when the option is founded upon a consideration, as something paid or promised.
ART. 1325
Unless it appears otherwise, business advertisements of things for sales are not definite offer, but mere invitation to make an offer.
ART. 1326
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.
ART. 1327
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.
ART. 1328
Contracts entered into during a lucid interval are valid. Contract agreed in state of drunkeness or during a hypnotic spell are voidable.
ART. 1329
The incapacity declared in Article 1327 is subject to modifications determined by law, and is without prejudice to special disqualifications established in the laws.
ART. 1330
A contract where consent is given through mistake, violence, intimidation, undue influence or fraud is voidable.
ART. 1331
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.
ART. 1332
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.
ART. 1333
There is no mistake when the person alleging it knew the doubt, contingency or risk affecting the object of the contract.
ART. 1334
Mutual error as to the legal effect of an agreement when the real purpose of the parties is frustrated, may vitiate consent.
ART. 1335
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.
ART. 1336
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.
ART. 1337
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.
ART. 1338
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.
ART. 1339
Failure to disclose facts, when there is a duty to reveal them, as when the parties are bound by confidential relations, constitutes fraud.
ART. 13340
The usual exaggerations in trade, when the other party had the opportunity to know the facts, are not in themselves fraudulent.
ART. 1341
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.
ART. 1342
Misrepresentation by a third person does not vitiate consent, unless such misrepresentation has created substantial mistake and the same is mutual.
ART. 1343
Misrepresentation made in good faith is not fraudulent but may constitute error.
ART. 1344
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.
ART. 1345
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.
ART. 1347
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.
ART. 1347
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.
ART. 1348
Impossible things or services cannot be the object of contracts.
ART. 1349
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.
ART. 1350
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.
ART. 1351
The particular motives of the parties in entering into a contract are different from the cause thereof.
ART. 1352
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.
ART. 1353
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.
ART. 1354
Although the cause is not stated in the contract, it is presumed to exists and is lawful unless the debtor proves the contrary.
ART. 1355
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.
