An obligation is a juridical necessity to give, to do or not do. (Art.

1156, Civil Code of the Philippines)

Juridical necessity means that the court may be asked to order the performance of an obligation if the
debtor refuses to perform it. If an obligation cannot be enforced through the courts, it may be
disregarded with impunity.

• Requisites of obligation

1. Active subject (creditor or obligee) -The party who has the right to demand performance of the
obligation.
2. Passive subject (debtor or obligor) -The party who is obliged to perform the obligation.
3. Prestation -The object or subject matter of the obligation. It may consist of giving, doing or not
doing something.
4. Efficient cause -The vinculum or the legal or juridical tie which binds the parties to an obligation.
The efficient cause of an obligation may be any of the five sources of obligation.

• Civil obligation distinguished from natural obligation

a. Civil obligations are based on positive law, while natural obligations are based on equity
and natural law. (Art. 1423)
b. Civil obligations give a right to compel their performance, while natural obligations do
not grant a right of action to compel their performance, but after voluntary fulfillment
by the obligor, they authorize the retention of what has been delivered or rendered by
reason thereof. (At. 1423)

• Sources of Obligations

1. Law
- Obligations derived from law not presumed.
2. Contract
- A contract is a meeting of minds between two persons whereby one binds himself, with
respect to the other, to give something or to render some service.
3. Quasi-contract
- A quasi-contract is a juridical relation arising from certain lawful, voluntary and unilateral
acts, and which has for its purpose the payment of indemnity to the end that no one
shall be unjustly enriched or benefited at the expense of another.
✓Two principal kinds of quasi-contracts:
a. Negotiorum gestio
- This takes place when a person voluntarily takes charge of the business or
property of another, without any power from the latter.
b. Solutio indebiti
- This takes place when something is received when there is no right to demand
it, and it was unduly delivered through mistake. The recipient must return what
was received by mistake.
4. Acts and omissions punished by law ( delicts )
- These are also crimes or felonies.
5. Quasi-delict (or tort or culpa aquiliana),
- an act or omission which causes damage to another there being fault or negligence but
without any pre existing contractual relations between the parties.

NATURE AND EFFECT OF OBLIGATIONS

• Determinate thing and generic thing

- An obligation to give consists of the delivery of a thing which may be determinate or

generic.
- A determinate thing is one which is particularly designated or physically segregated from
all others of the same class
- A generic or indeterminate thing is one that refers to a class or genus without being
distinguished from others of the same class.

• Obligations of one obliged to give a determinate thing

- To take care of the thing with the diligence of a good father of a family, unless the law or
stipulation of the parties requires another standard of care.
 - To deliver the fruits of the thing.
 Kinds of fruits
a) Natural fruits
- Natural fruits are the spontaneous products of the soil and the young and other
products of animals. Thus, the trees and plants that grow naturally from the soil without
the intervention of man are natural fruits.
b) Industrial fruits
- Industrial fruits are those produced by land of kind through cultivation or labor, (Art.
442) such as rice, corn and other products of land that come into existence through
human labor.
c) Civil fruits
- Civil fruits are those which are the result of a juridical relation such as the rents of
buildings, the price of leases of lands and other property.

• Right of the creditor to the fruits

- The creditor has a right to the fruits of the thing from the time the obligation to deliver
the thing arises. Such obligation to deliver arises as follows:
a. If the obligation is a pure obligation or one whose performance is not subject
to a suspensive period or suspensive condition, the obligation to deliver arises
from its perfection.
b. If the obligation is subject to a suspensive condition or suspensive period,
then, the obligation to deliver arises upon the fulfillment of the condition or
upon the arrival of the term.

• Nature of the creditor’s right

 Personal right (jus in personam or jus ad rem )

- A right that may be enforced by one person on another.
 Real right ( jus in re )
- Right or power over a specific thing, such as possession or ownership.

• To deliver its accessions and accessories even if they have not been mentioned.

1) Accessions
- everything which is produced by a thing or which is incorporated or attached thereto,
either naturally or artificially.
2) Accessories
- Joined to or included with the principal thing for the latter’s better use, perfection or
enjoyment.

• Remedies of the creditor when the debtor fails to perform an obligation to give (real obligation)

1. Obligation to deliver a determinate thing

 To compel the debtor to make the delivery.
 To demand the payment of damages from the debtor.
2. Obligation to deliver a generic thing
 To ask that the obligation be complied with a expense of the debtor.
 To demand the payment of damages from the debtor.
3. Obligations in obligation to do
a. If the debtor performs the obligation but does it in contravention of the
tenor thereof–
 To have the obligation be executed at the expense of the debtor.
 To demand the payment of damages from the debtor. (Art.
1170)
b. If the debtor performs the obligation but does it poorly
 To ask that what was poorly done be undone at the debtor's
expense.
 To demand the payment of damages from the debtor.
4. If the debtor does what has been forbidden him
 To ask that what has been done be undone at the debtor’s expense.
 To demand the payment of damages from the debtor. (Art. 1170)
• Loss due to fortuitous event of the determinate thing

- As a rule, the loss of the thing due by reason of fortuitous event extinguishes the
debtor's obligation.

• Grounds of liability to pay damages

I. Delay
- Delay or default or mora is the non-fulfillment of an obligation with respect to time.
II. Kinds of delay
 Mora solvendi -Default on the part of the debtor
a.) Mora solvendi ex re -Debtor's default in real obligations (obligations to give).
b.) Mora solvendi ex persona-Debtor's default in personal obligations (obligations to do).
 Mora accipiendi (See Art. 1268) Default on the part of the creditor.
 Compensatio morae Default of both parties in reciprocal obligations; here it is as if
neither party was in default.