Article 1156

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

Obligations
Manresa defines the term as a "legal relation established between one party and
another, whereby the latter is bound to the fulfillment of a prestation which the former may
demand of him.

Civil obligations
Obligations which give to the creditor or oblige a right of action in courts of justice to
enforce their performance.

Natural obligations
Not being based on positive law but on equity and natural law, do not grant a right of
action to enforce their performance.
Although in case of voluntary fulfillment by the debtor, the latter may not recover what
has been delivered or rendered by reason thereof. (A.1423)

Essential requisites of an obligation (JAPO)

1. Passive subject
2. Active subject
3. Object or prestation
4. Juridical tie or legal tie

(1) Passive subject

(called debtor or obligor) or the person who is bound to the fulfillment of the obligation;
he who has the duty.

(2) Active subject

(called creditor or oblige) or the person who is entitled to demand the fulfillment of the
obligation; he who has a right.

(3) Object or prestation

(subject matter of the obligation) or the conduct required to be observed by the debtor.
It may consist in giving, doing, or not doing. (A.1232)
Without the prestation, there is nothing to perform.
In bilateral obligations (A.1191), the parties are reciprocally debtors and creditors.

(4) Juridical tie or legal tie

(called the vinculum juris or efficient cause) or that which binds or connects the parties
to the obligation.
The tie in an obligation can easily be determined by knowing the source of the
obligation. (A.1157)
Form of obligation
GR:
The law does not require any form in obligations arising from contracts for their validity
or binding force. (A.1356)
Obligations arising from other sources (A.1157) do not have any form at all.

EXP:
Contracts where the (1) law; (2) by its nature; or (3) the stipulation of the parties in
which a particular form is required.

Distinguish obligation, right, and wrong (cause of action).

(1) Obligation, is the act or performance which the law will enforce.
(2) Right, on the other hand, is the power which a person has under the law, to demand
from another any prestation.
(3) Wrong (cause of action), according to its legal meaning, is an act or omission of one
party in violation of the legal right or rights of another, causing injury to the latter.

Essential elements of cause of action

(1) A legal right in favor of a person (creditor/plaintiff);
(2) A correlative legal obligation on the part of another (debtor/defendant) to respect or
not violate said right; and
(3) An act or omission in breach or violation of said right by which the defendant with
consequential injury or damage to the plaintiff.

Cause of action v. Right of action

Cause of action is governed by procedural laws.
Right of action or the right to commence and maintain an action depends on substantive
law. --- The right of action springs from the cause of action, but does not accrue until all the
facts which constitutes the cause of action have occurred.

Cause of action based on a written contract

Prescribes after 10 years from the time the right of action accrues. (A.1144)
The accrual refers to the cause of action.
An action based on contract accrues only when an actual breach or violation thereof
occurs, not from the date of execution of the contract.
The cause of action resulting form breach of contract is dependent on the facts of each
particular case.
In money claims arising from a contract of employment, prescriptive period is 3 years
from the time the cause of action accrues.

Injury, damage and damages, distinguished

(1) Injury is the illegal invasion of a legal right; it is the wrongful act or omission which
causes loss or harm to another; It is the legal wrong to be redressed.
(2) Damage is the loss, hurt, or harm which results from the injury.
 (3) Damages denote the sum of money recoverable as amends for the wrongful act or
omission; It is the recompense or compensation awarded or recoverable for the damage
or loss suffered.

Existence of one without the other.

There may be injury without damage and damage without injury.

(1) Proof of loss for injury.

A wrongful violation of a legal right is not sufficient to entitle a person to sue
another in a court of justice for the enforcement or protection of said right.

GR: To sue, there must be a wrongful violation of a legal right, in addition, loss or
damage caused by the violation of said right.
Pecuniary proof is required for actual or compensatory damages.

EXP: No pecuniary proof is required in order that moral, nominal, temperate,

liquidated, or exemplary damages may be awarded. (A.2216)

(2) Liability for damages of a person for exercising his legal rights.
A person has the right to take all the steps to enforce his legal and/or equitable
rights.
One who makes use of his legal right does no injury.
If damage results from a person’s exercising his legal rights, it is damnum absque
injuria (damage without injury).
The plaintiff must establish that the damage to him resulted from a breach or
violation of legal duty which the defendant owed to him; otherwise, the consequences
must be borne by the plaintiff.
For the law to give redress for an act (or omission) causing damage, that act
must be not only hurtful, but wrongful.

The principle of damnum absque injuria does not apply when there is abuse of a
person’s right.
Article 19 prescribes a “primordial limitation on all rights” by setting certain
standards that must be observed in the exercise thereof.
Such abuse will give rise to damages. Good faith, however, is presumed.

Kinds of obligation according to subject matter.