ARTICLE 1161

Civil obligations arising from criminal offenses shall be governed by penal laws, subject
to the provisions of Article 2177, and of pertinent provisions of Chapter 2, Preliminary
Title, on Human Relations, and of Title XVIII of this Book, regulating damages.

 Crimes (except the so-called victimless crimes) have 2 aspects: PUBLIC and PRIVATE
 PUBLIC – it is an offense against the Sovereign, which, through its ancient and
elaborate system of criminal justice, of crimes and penalties, metes out punishment
 PRIVATE – is concerned with the civil indemnification of the victim or his family for the
wrong perpetrated; it involves the civil liability arising from the crime
 Civil liability arising from crime
o Article 100 of the RPC
 Art. 100. Civil liability of a person guilty of a felony. Every person
criminally liable for a felony is also civilly liable.
 When a crime is committed, resulting in injury to the person or property of another, the
injured party (or his heirs) may seek redress for the injury done, in accordance with this
article and the Penal Code above quoted. His cause of action would be civil liability
arising from the crime.
 The same felonious act resulting in damage can, in certain cases, also constitute a
QUASI-DELICT, or possibly, a BREACH OF CONTRACT.
o The injured party can elect which cause of action to pursue, subject to the
restriction that double or multiple recovery cannot be had

ARTICLE 1169
Those obliged to deliver or to do something incur in delay from the time the obligee
judicially or extrajudicially demands from them the fulfillment of their obligation.

 General rule: demand is necessary to incur in delay (mora solvendi ex persona)

 Exceptions (mora solvendi ex re):
o When the obligation or the law expressly so declares;
 There must be some provision in the agreement which stipulates or
imports that non-performance on due date will give rise to delay or default
without need of demand
o When from the nature and the circumstances of the obligation it appears
that the designation of the time when the thing is to be delivered or the
service to be rendered was a controlling motive for the establishment of
the contract;
 There should be actual or apparent intention of the parties and before
time may be so regarded by a court, there must be a sufficient
manifestation of that intention
o When demand would be useless as when the obligor has rendered it
beyond his power to perform
 Cover cases of non-performance, not late performance; the creditor does
not have to wait for the arrival of the period to consider the obligation
breached or contravened and therefore may take the appropriate
remedies even before the period arrives
  In reciprocal obligations, neither party incurs in delay if the other does not comply
or is not ready to comply in a proper manner with what is incumbent upon him.
From the moment one of the parties fulfills his obligation, delay by the other
begins.
o For reciprocal obligations requiring simultaneous performance, demand consists
in one party communicating to the other that he is ready to perform
o For reciprocal obligations calling for different dates of performance, demand must
be made by the party entitled to performance on the party bound to perform
 3 KINDS OF MORA:
o Mora solvendi – delay in performance
o Mora accipiendi – delay in acceptance
o Compensatio morae – reciprocal or bilateral delay
 REQUISITES OF MORA:
o Obligation be demandable and already liquidated
o Debtor delays performance
o Creditor requires performance judicially or extrajudicially
 EFFECTS OF MORA:
o Creditor may elect either to demand either the remedy of performance or of
resolution
o If the obligation consists in the delivery of a specific or determinate thing, the risk
of loss due to fortuitous event is laid on the debtor
o The debtor is liable for damages

ARTICLE 1177
The creditors, after having pursued the property in possession of the debtor to satisfy
their claims, may exercise all the rights and bring all the actions of the latter for the same
purpose, save those which are inherent in his person; they may also impugn the acts
which the debtor may have done to defraud them.

 REMEDIES TO ENFORCE OBLIGATIONS:

o Levy and execution of the debtor’s non-exempt property
 The most immediate object of the debtor’s remedy of compliance is, of
course the property already existing in the debtor’s patrimony (those
things owned and actually possessed by the debtor)
 Art. 2236. The debtor is liable with all his property, present and
future, for the fulfillment of his obligation, subject to the exceptions
provided by law.
 No article or species of property shall be exempt from execution
issued upon a judgment recovered for its price or upon a judgment
of foreclosure of a mortgage thereon
o Accion Subrogatoria
 Subrogatory in the sense that the creditor is given the right to act on his
debtor’s behalf
 This is different from the subrogation constituting an active, subjective
novation which transfers the credit to the third person
  Here, these is no transfer, but a kind of agency granted by law to the
creditor’s creditor. Thus, here the creditor is suing not in his own name
but in that of his debtor
 REQUISITES:
 A debt is due that is not intuit personae (not purely personal to the
suing creditor’s debtor)
 There is a willful refusal or failure of the suing creditor’s debtor to
collect
 Insufficiency of the debtor’s assets to satisfy the credit (accion
subrogatoria is a subsidiary one)
 EXTENT OF RECOVERY:
 The creditor, because of the subrogatory nature of the suit, may
recover the full amount or the entire property from his
debtor’s debtor and will be subject to all the defenses which
the debtor’s debtor can set up against the debtor
 Should the amount or value recovered, however, be in excess of
what is owing to the suing creditor, the excess has to be turned
over to the debtor
o Accion Pauliana
 Rescissory action – allows creditors to set aside transfers of property by
their debtors which defraud them by preventing them from obtaining full
satisfaction for their credits
 REQUISITES:
 The plaintiff asking for rescission has a credit prior to the
alienation although demandable later
o Without any existing debt, there can neither be injury nor
fraud
o While it is necessary that the credit of the plaintiff must
exist prior to the fraudulent alienation, the date of the
judgment enforcing it is immaterial
o Even if the judgment be subsequent to the alienation, it is
merely declaratory, with retroactive effect to the date when
the credit was constituted
 The debtor has made a subsequent contract conveying a
patrimonial benefit to a third person
o The conveyance diminishes the debtor’s patrimony and
correspondingly increases the third person’s patrimony
o Law provides for another instance of accion pauliana – a
case where there is no conveyance by the debtor but a
renunciation to the prejudice of the creditors
 The creditor has no other legal remedy to satisfy his claim
o Accion pauliana – last recourse remedy; it can be availed
of only if the debtor does not have sufficient assets in his
patrimony to satisfy the debt
 o Art. 1383. The action for rescission is subsidiary; it cannot
be instituted except when the party suffering damage has
no other legal means to obtain reparation for the same
 The act being impugned is fraudulent
o Fraud meaning damage or prejudice to the creditor, may
be presumed or a proven fact
o Fraud is presumed: contracts by virtue of which the debtor
alienates property by gratuitous title, alienations by
onerous title, donation – when at the time thereof the
donor did not reserve sufficient property to pay his debts
prior to the donation
 The third person who received the property conveyed, if it is
by onerous title, has been an accomplice in the fraud
o If the alienation by the debtor was by onerous title, accion
pauliana will prosper only if the transferee was complicit in
the fraudulent conveyance (i.e. not unaware of the
economic damage that would be caused to the creditor
o If the complicit transferee has, in the meantime, in turn
transferred it onerously to someone else who is in good
faith, such complicit transferee will be liable with his own
property
o If the transferee was innocent of complicity, the
converyance cannot be assailed
 Art. 1385. Neither shall rescission take place when
the things which are the object of the contract are
legally in the possession of third persons who did
not act in bad faith
o If the alienation to the third person is by gratuitous title, the
good faith/bad faith of the transferee is immaterial
 Not having parted with value for what he received,
the transferee suffers no damage in having to
return the property received
 Instance of accion pauliana which does not involve a conveyance but a
renunciatioin of an inheritance (or a portion of it):
 Art. 1052. If the heir repudiates the inheritance to the prejudice of
his own creditors, the latter may petition the court to authorize
them to accept it in the name of the heir
o Rationale: the debtor deprives himself of property that he
could have used to pay his debtors, whom he would
otherwise not be able to pay because of lack of resources
in his own patrimony
 EXTENT OF ACCION PAULIANA:
 Right of rescission is pro tanto: the creditor’s right to rescind is
limited tot the amount he needs to have his credit satisfied
o Beyond that amount, he is a stranger to the conveyance or
to the renunciation
 o Art. 1384. Rescission shall be only to the extent necessary
to cover the damages caused
o Accion Directa
 Creditors are given the right to proceed against certain parties who may
be indebted to their debtors
 Similar to accion subrogatoria but differs from it in that the creditor in
accion directa can demand only to the extent of his claim
 2 instances explicitly recognized by law: lessor’s right against the
sublessee, and the laborer or materialman’s right against the owner

ARTICLE 1185
The condition that some event will not happen at a determinate time shall render the
obligation effective from the moment the time indicated has elapsed, or if it has become
evident that the event cannot occur.
If no time has been fixed, the condition shall be deemed fulfilled at such time as may
have probably been contemplated, bearing in mind the nature of the obligation.

 Refers to suspensive conditions which are negative

 Since the suspensive condition is negative, its non-occurrence will give birth to the
obligation, the opposite – logically enough – of the rule in which the suspensive condition
was positive
 If the negative condition is resolutory, its non-occurrence will have the opposite effect: it
will extinguish the obligation

ARTICLE 1193
Obligations for whose fulfillment a day certain has been fized, shall be demandable only
when that day comes.
Obligations with a resolutory period take effect at once but terminate upon arrival of the
day certain.
A day certain is understood to be that which must necessarily come, although it may not
be known when.
If the uncertainty consists in whether the day will come or not, the obligation is
conditional, and it shall be regulated by the rules of the preceding Section.

 Period – a space of time which has an influence on obligation as a result of a juridical

act, and either suspends their demandableness or produces their extinguishment
 Obligations with a period are those whose consequences are subjected in one way or
another to the expiration of said period or term
 Period and term are used interchangeably by the Civil Code
 A period and a condition are alike as to futurity and dissimilar as to certainty
o The essential nature of a condition lies in uncertainty while certainty constitutes
the essence of a period
 The certainty of a period may be as to time or as to fact.
o It is certain as to time when it date can be definitely determined or computed
o It is certain as to fact when only its occurrence is sure but the precisetime of such
occurrence is not known
ARTICLE 1201
The choice shall produce no effect except from the time it has been communicated.

 This requirement of communication applies to all varieties of alternative obligation –

whether the choice belongs to the debtor, or the creditor, or a third person
 The communication may be in any form and in any manner sufficient to inform the other
party of the fact of selection
 EFFECT OF COMMUNICATION OF CHOICE:
o To make the obligation unitary or specific and brings the obligation under the
rules on specific obligations (ex. the rule of extinguishment in case of fortuitous
event)
 PURPOSE OF REQUIREMENT:
o Without such communication, the creditor or third person will not know which
prestation he is to perform
o When the choice belongs to the debtor, it is fair to notify the creditor in order to
allow him reasonable time to prepare for acceptance; also, as soon as the choice
is communicated by the debtor to the creditor, the obligation ceases to be
alternative but is converted into a specific one
 Fortuitous loss of the prestation after notice but before due date does not
entitle the creditor to demand the other prestation but rather extinguishes
the obligation because of caso fortuito

ARTICLE 1209
If the division is impossible, the right of the creditors may be prejudiced only by their
collective acts, and the debt can be enforced only by proceeding against all the debtors.
If one of the latter should be insolvent, the others shall not be liable for his share.

 A joint obligation consists of several obligations – there are really as many obligations as
the number of debtors multiplied by the number of creditors
 The failure or refusal of any of the debtors to pay his share of the debt does not give rise
to any additional liability on the part of the co-debtors
 Demand by the creditor on any of the co-debtors will be a basis for delay or an
interruption of prescription, as the case may be, only insofar as the debtor on whom
demand is made is concerned. Such demand does not affect the other debtors
 Insolvency of any of the co-debtors does not increase the liability of the other co-debtors
 JOINT INDIVISIBLE OBLIGATIONS- the indivisibility of the prestation does not ipso
facto import solidarity
 Since the obligation is joint, performance must be by all the debtors or in favor of all the
creditors
o Should there however be breach, the liability for damages will be apportioned
among the debtors or the creditors, as the case may be.
 The prestation thus becomes divisible among the several parties; this is
without prejudice to the liability of the culpable party to reimburse his co-
debtors and co-creditors for the liability that these latter had to assume
ARTICLE 1217
Payment made by one of the solidary debtors extinguishes the obligation. If 2 or more
solidary debtors offers to pay, the creditor may choose which offer to accept.
He who made the payment may claim from his co-debtors only the share which
corresponds to each, with the interest for the payment already made. If the payment is
made before the debt is due, no interest for the intervening period may be demanded.
When one of the solidary debtors cannot, because of his insolvency, reimburse his share
to the debtor paying the obligation, such share shall be borne by all his co-debtors, in
proportion to the debt of each.

 This contemplates passive solidarity – that payment by one is payment by all, with the
result that the obligation is extinguished in whole or in part, as the case may be
 Passive solidarity -mutual guaranty
o Accurate to a certain extent – insofar as any of the solidary debtors can be made
to pay the whole amount
 Paying debtor is entitled to reimbursement from his co-debtors in an amount
representing the share of each
 In case of insolvency of any of the debtors, all the others, including the paying co-debtor,
will have to bear proportionately the insolvent’s share.

ARTICLE 1225
For the purposes of the preceding articles, obligations to give definite things and those
which are not susceptible of partial performance shall be deemed to be indivisible.

When the obligation has for its object the execution of a certain number of days of work,
the accomplishment of work by metrical units, or analogous things which by their nature
are susceptible of partial performance, it shall be divisible.

However, even though the object or service may be physically divisible, an obligation is
indivisible if so provided by law or intended by the parties.

In obligations not to do, divisibility or indivisibility shall be determined by the character

of the prestation in each particular case.

 Under the general rule of indivisibility, partial non-performance is tantamount to total

non-performance. This is subject to the following qualifications:
o Substantial performance in good faith
o Waiver by the creditor