OBLIGATIONS AND CONTRACTS

Philippine Constitution

Answer the question/s briefly but with legal basis.

Aside from incapacity and simulation of contract, what are the causes that vitiate
consent or render it defective so as to make the contract voidable? Explain briefly each.

Answer:

Aside from incapacity and simulation of contract, the other causes that vitiate consent or
render it defective so as to make the make the contract voidable are error or mistake,
violence or force, intimidation or threat or duress, undue influence, and fraud or deceit.
Error or mistake, under Article 1331, is the false notion of a thing or a fact material to the
contract. The mistake will render the contract void if it robs it of all substance. Violence or
force, under Article 1335, is a serious or irresistible force employed to wrest consent.
Similarly, intimidation or threat or duress, is when one contracting party compelled by a
reasonable and well-grounded fear of an imminent and grave evil upon his person or
property, or upon the person or property of his spouse, descendants or ascendants, to
give his consent. According to Article 1336, violence or intimidation shall annul the
obligation. Violence, force, intimidation or threat, duress is a ground for the contract to be
void because this is when a person is forced to do something against his or her will.
Intimidation need not resort to physical force. Intimidation is internal while violence is
external. Another ground that makes the contract voidable, and is under Article 1337, is
undue influence. It is when one party takes advantage of his power over the will of
another, depriving the latter of a reasonable freedom of choice, to prevent him from acting
understandingly and voluntarily. It is isolating the victim from receiving advice except from
the persuader; it is putting the free will of one party entering the contract into question.
Fraud or deceit, under Article 1338, is when through insidious words or machinations of
one of the contracting parties, the other is induced to enter into a contract which, without
them, he would not have agreed to. It is the deliberate or intentional evasion of the normal
fulfillment of an obligation. It involves a design to mislead or deceive another; thus, it leads
to voidable contract.