WEEK FOUR

LAW OF OBLIGATION IN THE TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY SECTOR

Q: What is the importance of the law on obligations and contracts in Tourism,

hospitality and travel?
A: A person desiring to engage in business in the tourism, travel and hospitality industry
will meet certain obligations

OBLIGATIONS

Q: What is an obligation?
A: “Art. 1156. An obligation is a juridical necessity to give, to do, and not to do.”
• An obligation is a legal duty, the violation of which may become the basis of an
action of law.

Q: What are the different elements of an obligation?

A: the four elements of an obligation are:
1. Obligee/ creditor—the active subject; has the power to demand the prestation
2. Obligor/debtor—the passive subject; the one who is bound to perform the
prestation
3. Object/ prestation—an object or undertaking to give, to do, or not to do
4. Juridical tie/ vinculum tie—the compelling reason for the creation of the
obligation

Q: What are the obligations of the debtor?

A: The following are the obligations of ther debtor depending on the prestation:
1. Obligation to give a determinate thing
a. To deliver the thing which he has obligated himself to do
b. To take care of the thing with the proper diligence of a good father of a family
c. To deliver all its accessories and accessions
d. To pay damages in case of breach of obligation
2. Obligation to do
a. If the debtor fails to do what he is obliged to do, it will be at his expense
b. If the work is done in contravention of the tenor of the obligation, it will be
re-done at the debtor’s expense
c. If the work of poorly done, it will be re-done at the debtor’s expense

Q: What are the sources of liability/ damages of a party in an obligation?

A: for a party to be held liable for damages for the obligation, the following are the grounds:
1. Fraud (Dolo)—there is intent to evada the normal fulfillment of the obligation and
to cause damage
a. Dolo incidente—fraud incident to the performance of an obligation
b. Dolo causante-- fraud in coming up with an obligation
2. Negligence (culpa)—lack of diligence or carelessness; that omission of that
diligence which is required by the nature of the obligation and corresponds with the
circumstances of the persons, or the time, of the place.

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 3. Delay (Mora)—the debtor can be held liable for the delay or default in the
fulfillment of the obligation only after the creditor has made his demand, judicial or
extrajudicial, on the debtor, except:
a. when the law expressly provides that demand is not necessary
b. when the contract expressly stipulates that demand is not necessary
c. when time is of the essence; and
d. when demand would be useless
4. Contravention of the tenor of the obligation—where the performance is
contrary to what is agreed upon or stipulated

Q: What are the sources of obligation? Discuss and define each.

A: Art. 1157. Obligations arise from:
(1) Law
(2) Contracts;
(3) Quasi-contracts
(4) Acts or omissions punishable by law; and
(5) Quasi-delicts

• Contracts-- meeting of the minds betweeen two persons whereby one binds himself
with respect to the other, to give something or to render some service.
• Quasi-contract- a lawful, voluntary and unilateral act based on the maxim that no
one shall unjustly enrich himself at the expense of another.
o Solutio indebiti—payment by mistake
o Negotiorum gestio—takes place when a person without teh consent of teh
owner, assumes the management of an abandoned business.
• Criminal offenses—governed by the provisions of the Revised Penal Code
(restitution, reparation, indemnification of the consequential damages) and by the
provisions of the Civil Code on damages
• Quasi-delicts—any act or omission which causes damage to another, there being
fault or negligence, and there being no pre-existing contractual relations between the
parties.

Q: What are the primary classifications of obligations and define.

A: The primary classifications of obligations under the Civil Code are:
1. Pure and conditional obligations
2. Obligations with a period
3. Alternative and facultative obligations
4. Joint and solidary obligations
5. Divisible and indivisible obligations
6. Obligations with a penal clause
• Pure obligation—one which is noyt subject to any condition and no specific date is
mentioned for its fulfillment and is therefore, immediately demandable
• Conditional obligation—one which consequences are subject in one way or
another to the fulfillment of a condition.
• Obligation with a period—one which consequences are subject in one way or
another to the expiration of the said period or term
• Joint obligations—those where there concur two or more creditors and debtors in
one and the same obligation, there is no right to demand nor a duty on the part of
each of the latter to render entire compliance of the entire obligation.

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 • Solidary obligations—those in which concur several creditors or debtors or both,
and where each creditor has the right to demand, and each debtor is bound to
perform, in its entirety, the prestationconstituting the object of the obligation.
• Obligations witha penal clause—an obligation which contains an accessory
obligation imposing upin the obligor added burdens or which operates as a
previously stipulated indemnity, for teh purpose of securing the performance of the
principal obligation. It substitute indemnity for damages and therefore, it does away
with proof of damages sufffered in case of breach of the obligation.

Q: What are the modes of extinguishing an obligation?

A: Art 1231. Obligations are extinguished:
(1) By payment or performance;
(2) By loss of the thing due;
(3) By the condonation or remission of the debt
(4) By the confusion or merger of the rights of the creditor and debtor;
(5) By compensation;
(6) By novation
Other causes of extinguishment of obligations such as annulment, rescission, fulfillment
of resolutory condition and prescription are governed elsewhere in this Code.
• Examples of other causes of extingusihment of obligations:
1. Death—extinguishes obligations which are purely personal in character
2. Happening of fortuitous event—extraordinary events not foreseeable or
avoidable, events that could not be foreseen, or which, though foreseen, were
inevitable
a. Acts of god/ nature
b. Acts of man
3. By will of one of the parties

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