Extinguishment of Obligations

Art. 1231 of the Civil Code lists 10 causes for extinguishing obligations. This list is not exclusive, and there are parts of the Civil Code that also provide for causes for the extinguishing of obligations. There are also cases that serve as a basis for the rationale be hind extinguishing obligations.

Art. 1231 Causes

1.) Payment or performance

2.) Loss of the thing due

3.) Condonation/remission of the debt

4.) Merger of the rights of the creditor and debtor in the same person (also called confusion)

5.) Compensation

6.) Novation

7.) Annulment

8.) Recission

9.) Fulfillment of a resolutory condition (also found in Art. 1179, Civil Code)

10.) Prescription (also in Art. 1139, Civil Code)

Other Causes

1.) Waiver/renunciation by the creditor (Art. 6, Civil Code)

2.) Mutual agreement/mutual dissent (mutuo disenso) (Saura Import & Export vs. DBP, 44 SCRA 445)

3.) Compromise (Art. 2028, Civil Code)

4.) Fulfillment of a resolutory term (Art. 1193, Civil Code)

5.) Death of a debtor when the obligation is purely personal (like an obligation to render personal services)

6.) Decision or will of one of the parties in certain contracts like agency, partnership and lease of services

7.) Happening of unforeseen events (Art. 1165 par. 3 &1174, Civil Code)

8.) Abandonment of the property charged with an obligation like the abandonment of an interest in a party wall (Art. 662, Civil Code)