Void or Inexistent Contracts/Natural

Obligations
Bautista, Francis A.
School of Electrical, Electronics, and Computer Engineering
Mapúa Institute of Technology
Muralla St., Intramuros, Manila 1002 Philippines
francisjigsaw@gmail.com

Abstract— Chapter 9 of the Law on Obligations
and Contracts book details void or inexistent
contracts while Title III is about Natural
Obligations as defined in terms of agreements
between parties. At the latter part of the paper,
the answers to the problems asked are provided.
If a contract is void, a party thereto can always
bring a court action to declare it void or inexistent,
and a party against whom a void contract is sought
to be enforced can always raise the defense of
nullity despite the passage of time.

On the other hand, Title III of the book discusses

Keywords—Void contracts, inexistent contracts,
Article 1414, Article 1428
I. INTRODUCTION
Chapter 9 discusses void and inexistent
contracts. Void contracts are contracts that yield no
effect in legal aspects due to its defects. They are
considered as inexistent from its inception or from
the very beginning. Inexistent contracts are
agreements that are without any one of the
following elements (consent, object, and cause).
This means that such agreements do not comply
with formalities that are essential for the existence
of a contract.
A void or inexistent contract can be
characterized as follows; (1) having no force or
effect (2) cannot be ratified (3) the inability to
waive its right to setup the defense for the
declaration of its inexistence (4) no prescription of
its action or defense for the declaration of its
inexistence, (5) those whose defense of illegality is
not available to third persons whose interests are
not directly affected (6) those who cannot give rise
to a valid contract.
natural obligations. Natural obligations originated
in the Roma law where they grew in importance in
order to temper with equity and justice the severity
of the jus civile. In the ancient system of law, there
were two kinds of obligations: the civil and the
natural. The latter would not be enforced by a civil
action but it had juridical consequences.
This provides the definition of natural
obligations as those with no enforcement by civil
actions implying that they need not be cited in the
civil code to attest to its truth.
II. DEFINITION OF TERMS
A. Void contracts
Void contracts are those which, because of
certain defects, generally produce no effect at all.
B. Inexistent contracts
Inexistent contracts refer to agreements which
lack one or some or all of its elements or do not
comply with formalities which are essential for the
existence of a contract.
 C. Article 1414
When money is paid or property delivered for
an illegal purpose, the contract may be repudiated
by one of the parties before the purpose has been
accomplished, or before any damage has been
caused to a third person. In such case, the courts
may, if the public interest will thus be subserved,
allow the party repudiating the contract to recover
the money or property.
D. Article 1428
situation by reason of which M cannot recover the
2000 from N.
Solution:
M cannot recover the money from N. This
is in accordance with Article 1428 which details
that he voluntarily performed the obligation while
any enforcement of a civil obligation has failed
since M is minor and he cannot give consent. The
money cannot be recovered since he voluntarily
proceeded with a contract that is voidable.

When, after an action to enforce a civil

obligation has failed, the defendant voluntarily
perfoms the obligation, he cannot demand the
return of what he has delivered or the payment of
the value of the service he has rendered.
IV. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I would like to give acknowledgement to
my classmates who share discussions with me for
the topics of this course, and of course my professor
Engr. Cardenas for guiding us along the way.

III. ANSWERS TO PROBLEMS

V. REFERENCES
Problem 1
[1] H. S. De Leon, The Law on Obligations and
In consideration of Php 10, 000 given by X Contracts, Quezon City, REX Printing Company,
to Y, the latter agreed to burn the house of Z. Later, 2014, pp.474
X told Y to forget the agreement and return the
money. Y refused. Is X entitled to recover from Y?

Solution:

Yes, X can recover the money from Y. The money

is delivered to burn a property which is considered
illegal. In such case, it falls under Article 1414
which states that a contract that involves money
paid for illegal purposes may be repudiated by one
of the parties before the purpose has been
accomplished. Though it is not stated if the house
was really burned, we can assume it not to be so and
thus, the court can order the receiving party to bring
back the money to be recovered.

Problem 2

M, a minor, bought a bicycle for Php 2,000

from N, who is not a minor. Under the law, the
contract is voidable because M is incapacitated to
give consent because of his minority. Give the