I.

In General
A. When the law takes effect

B. Retroactivity of laws

C. Mandatory or Prohibitory laws

D. Waiver of rights

E. Repeal of laws

F. Conflict of laws

G. Human Relations

H. Applicability of Penal Laws

II. Persons and Family Relations

A. Persons
1. Kinds of Persons

2. Capacity to at

3. Domicile and residence of persons

B. Rights and Obligations of Couples in intimate Relationships

C. Marriage

D. Legal Separation
E. Rights and Obligations between Husband and Wife

F. Property Relations of the Spouses

G. The Family

H. Paternity and Filiation

I. Adoption

J. Support

K. Parental Authority

L. Emancipation

M. Summary Judicial Proceedings in the Family Code

N. Use of Surnames

O. Absence

P. Civil Registrar

III. Property
A. Classification of Property

B. Ownership

C. Accession

D. Quieting of Title

E. Co-ownership

F. Possession

G. Usufruct
 H. Easements

I. Nuisance

J. Modes of Acquiring Ownership

IV. Prescription
A. Types of Prescription

B. When Prescription is Inapplicable

C. Prescription or Limitation of Actions

D. Interruption

V. Succession
A. General Provisions

B. Testamentary Succession

C. Legal or Intestate Succession

D. Provisions Common to Testate and Intestate Succession

VI. Obligations
A. General Provisions
1. Definition: An obligation is a juridical necessity to give, to do or not to do

2. Elements of an obligation

a. vinculum juris or legal tie – the efficient cause established by the various sources of
obligations that essentially binds the parties to the obligation.

b. active subject – the oblige or creditor who wan demand the fulfilment of the obligation
 c. passive subject – the debtor or obligor, from whom the obligation is juridically demandable

d. fact, prestation or service which constitutes the object of the obligation

3. Sources of obligations: law, contracts, quasi-contracts; delicts; and quasi-delicts.

B. Nature and effect of obligations

1. Obligation to give

2. Obligation to do or not to do

3. Transmissibility of obligations

4. Performance of obligations

5. Breaches of Obligations: Under the NCC, the following acts or omissions of the obligor/debtor will
result in the breach of the obligation for which he can be held liable for damages:

a. default or mora – signifies the idea of delay in the fulfillment of an obligation. There are three
kinds of default or mora, to wit: mora solvendi, mora accipiendi, compensation morae

b. fraud or dolo – consists in the conscious and intentional proposition to evade the normal
fulfillment of an obligation. There may be fraud in the performance of a preexisting obligation or
dolo incidente, or fraud in the perfection of a contract or dolo causante.

c. negligence or culpa – consists in the omission of that diligence which is required by the nature
of the obligation and corresponds with the circumstances of the persons, time and place.

d. contravention of the tenor of the obligation –

6. Remedies available to creditor in cases of breach.

Under Art. 1177 of the NCC, there are three general remedies which are available to the creditor for the
protection and enforcement of his right against the debtor, to wit:

i. to exhaust the property in possession of the debtor;

ii. to be subrogated to all the right and actions of the debtor, save those which are inherent in
his person, or accion subrogatoria; and

iii. to impugn all of the acts which the debtor may have done to defraud him, or accion
pauliana.

NOTE: Accion subrogatoria and accion pauliana are subrogatory to the first.
C. Kinds of Obligations
1. Pure: one whose effectivity or extinguishment does not depend upon the fulfillment or non-
fulfillment of a condition or upon the expiration of a term or period. As a consequence, a pure obligation
is characterized by the quality of immediate demandability.

2. Conditional obligation: one whose effectivity is subordinated to the fulfillment or non-fulfillment of a

FUTURE and UNCERTAIN fact or event

3. Obligation with a period or term: those whose demandability or extinguishment are subject to the
expiration or a term or period.

4. Alternative or facultative:

a. Alternative obligations – refer to those juridical relations which comprehend several objects
or prestations which are due, but the payment or performance of one of them would be
sufficient.

b. Facultative obligations – refer to those juridical relations where only one object or prestation
has been agreed upon by the parties to the obligation, but the obligor may deliver or render
another in substitution.

5. Joint and solidary obligations

a. Joint obligation – an obligation where there is a concurrence of several creditors, or several debtors,
or several creditors and debtors, by virtue of which, each of the creditors has a right to demand, while
each of the debtors is bound to render compliance only with his proportional part of the prestation
which constitutes the object of the obligation.

b. Solidary obligation – an obligation where there is a concurrence of several creditors, or several

debtors, or several creditors and debtors, by virtue of which, each of the creditors has a right to
demand, while each of the debtors is bound to render entire compliance with the prestation which
constitutes the object of the obligation.

6. Obligations with a penal clause: one with an accessory undertaking, by virtue of which the obligor
assumes a greater liability in case of breach of the obligation. A penal clause has three purposes, to wit:
1. To insure the performance of the obligation, 2. To liquidate the amount of damages to be awarded to
the injured party in case of breach of the principal obligation, and 3. In exceptional cases, to punish the
obligor in case of breach of the principal obligation.

NOTE: The penalty shall substitute the indemnity for damages and the payment of interests in case of
non-compliance if there is no stipulation to the contrary. Nevertheless, damages shall be paid if the
obligor reuses to pay the penalty or is guilty of fraud in the fulfillment of the obligation.
D. Extinguishment of Obligations
1. Payment or performance: payment means not only the delivery of money, but also the performance
in any other manner of an obligation. Payment shall be made, as a general rule, to: 1. The person in
whose favor the obligation has been constituted, or 2. His successor in interest, or 3. Any person
authorized to receive it. Generally, payment made to a person other than those enumerated shall not be
valid, unless: 1. Payment made to a third person has redounded to the benefit of the creditor; or 2.
Payment was made to the possessor of the credit, provided it was made in good faith.

Notes:

Legal Tender: refers to such currency which may be used for the payment of all debts, whether
public or private. In the Philippines, legal tender are all the notes and coins issued by the BSP
which shall be fully guaranteed by the Republic of the Philippine Government.

Sec. 63 of the Central Bank Act provides that checks representing deposit money do not have
legal tender power and their acceptance in the payment of debts, both public and private, is at
the option of the creditor. Provided, however, that a check which has been CLEARED and
CREDITED to the account of the creditor shall be equivalent to a delivery to the creditor in cash
in an amount equal to the amount credited to his account.

2. Loss of determinate thing due or impossibility or difficulty of performance

Loss of the thing due: means that the thing which constitutes the object of the obligation perishes or
goes out of commerce of man, or disappears in such a way that its existence is unknown, or it cannot be
recovered. In its broad sense, it means impossibility of compliance with the obligation through any
cause.

Art. 1266 – In obligations to do, when the prestation which constitutes the object of the obligation
becomes legally or physically impossible, the obligor is released, provided that such impossibility was
not due to his fault and that it took place before he has incurred in delay.

3. Condonation or remission of debt: is an act of liberality, by virtue of which the oblige, without
receiving any price or equivalent, renounces the enforcement of the obligation, as a result of which it is
extinguished in its entirety or in that part or aspect of the same to which the remission refers.

The following requisites must concur in order that an obligation shall be extinguished by remission:

1. it must be gratuitous;

2. it must be accepted by the obligor

3. the obligation must be demandable.

In case of an implied remission contemplated under Art. 1271, the requisites are as follows: 1. That the
document evidencing the credit was delivered by the creditor to the debtor, 2. That such document is a
private document [evidencing credit], and 3. That the delivery was voluntary.

4. Confusion: the merger of the characters of creditor and debtor in the same person, by virtue of which
the obligation is extinguished. In order that there will be a confusion of rights which will result in the
extinguishment of the obligation, it is essential that the following requisites must concur: (1) that the
merger of the characters of creditor and debtor must be in the same person; (2) that it must be place in
the person of either the principal creditor or the principal debtor; and (3) that it must be complete and
definite.

Note: The requisite that the merger must be complete and definite does not mean that the
extinguishment of the obligation should be complete or total in character. It merely means that whether
the merger refers to the entire obligation or only a part of it, it must be of such a character that there
will be a complete and definite meeting of all the qualities of creditor and debtor in the obligation.

5. Compensation: may be defined as a mode of extinguishing in their concurrent amount those

obligations of persons who in their own right are creditors and debtors of each other. The essential
requisites of compensation are as follows:

i. there must be two parties who in their own right are principal creditors and principal debtors
of each other;

ii. both debts must consist in money, or if the things due are fungibles/consumables, they must
be of the same kind and quality

iii. both debts must be due

iv. both debts must be liquidated and demandable

v. there must be no retention or controversy commenced by third persons over either of the
debts and communicated in due time to the debtor

vi. the compensation must not be prohibited by law

6. Novation: is the substitution or change of an obligation by another, resulting in its extinguishment or

modification, either by changing its object or principal conditions, or by substituting another in place of
the debtor, or by subrogating a third person in the rights of the creditor

VII. Contracts
A. General Provisions
1. Stages of contracts
 2. Classification

3. Essential Requisites

B. Formality

C. Reformation of Instruments

D. Interpretations of Contracts

E. Defective Contracts
1. Rescissible contracts

2. Voidable contracts

3. Unenforceable contracts

4. Void or inexistent contracts

5. Distinguish: resolution and rescission of contracts

Who shall bear the risk of loss after the contract of sale has been perfected, but before the thing sold
has been delivered, the determinate thing is lost through no fault of the seller?

Art. 1480: Any injury to or benefit from the thing sold, after the contract has been perfected, from the
moment of the perfection of the contract to the time of delivery shall be governed by Art. 1163 to 1165,
and Art. 1262.

This rule shall apply to the sale of fungible things, made independently and for a single price, or without
consideration of their weight, number or measure

Should fungible things be sold for a price fixed according to weight, number or measure, the risk shall
not be imputed to the vendee until they have been weighed, counted or measured and delivered unless
the latter has incurred in delay.

Art. 1504: Unless otherwise agreed, the goods remain at the seller’s risk until the ownership therein is
transferred to the buyer, but when the ownership therein is transferred to the buyer, the goods are at
the buyer’s risk whether actual delivery has been made or not, except that:

(1) Where delivery of the goods has been made to the buyer or to a bailee for the buyer, in
pursuance of the contract and the ownership in the goods has been retained by the seller
merely to secure performance by the buyer of his obligations under the contract, the goods are
at the buyer’s risk from the time of such delivery;
 (2) Where actual delivery has been delayed through the fault of either the buyer or seller, the
goods are at the risk of the party in fault.

Art. 1538: In case of loss, deterioration or improvement of the thing before its delivery, the rules in Art.
1189 shall be observed, the vendor being considered the debtor.

Jurisprudence