Rescissible Contracts

Article 1380. Contracts validly agreed upon may be rescinded in the cases

established by law. (1290)

Article 1381. The following contracts are rescissible:

(1) Those which are entered into by guardians whenever the wards
whom they represent suffer lesion by more than one-fourth of the
value of the things which are the object thereof;

(2) Those agreed upon in representation of absentees, if the latter

suffer the lesion stated in the preceding number;

(3) Those undertaken in fraud of creditors when the latter cannot in

any other manner collect the claims due them;

(4) Those which refer to things under litigation if they have been
entered into by the defendant without the knowledge and approval of
the litigants or of competent judicial authority;

(5) All other contracts specially declared by law to be subject to

rescission. (1291a)

Article 1382. Payments made in a state of insolvency for obligations to

whose fulfillment the debtor could not be compelled at the time they were
effected, are also rescissible. (1292)

Article 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. (1294)

Article 1384. Rescission shall be only to the extent necessary to cover the

damages caused. (n)

Article 1385. Rescission creates the obligation to return the things which

were the object of the contract, together with their fruits, and the price with
its interest; consequently, it can be carried out only when he who demands
rescission can return whatever he may be obliged to restore.
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.

In this case, indemnity for damages may be demanded from the person
causing the loss. (1295)

Article 1386. Rescission referred to in Nos. 1 and 2 of article 1381 shall

not take place with respect to contracts approved by the courts. (1296a)

Article 1387. All contracts by virtue of which the debtor alienates property

by gratuitous title are presumed to have been entered into in fraud of
creditors, when the donor did not reserve sufficient property to pay all debts
contracted before the donation.

Alienations by onerous title are also presumed fraudulent when made by

persons against whom some judgment has been rendered in any instance
or some writ of attachment has been issued. The decision or attachment
need not refer to the property alienated, and need not have been obtained
by the party seeking the rescission.

In addition to these presumptions, the design to defraud creditors may be

proved in any other manner recognized by the law of evidence. (1297a)

Article 1388. Whoever acquires in bad faith the things alienated in fraud of

creditors, shall indemnify the latter for damages suffered by them on
account of the alienation, whenever, due to any cause, it should be
impossible for him to return them.

If there are two or more alienations, the first acquirer shall be liable first,
and so on successively. (1298a)

Article 1389. The action to claim rescission must be commenced within

four years.

For persons under guardianship and for absentees, the period of four years
shall not begin until the termination of the former's incapacity, or until the
domicile of the latter is known. (1299)