Group 5 (1280-1299)
ARTICLE 1280. Notwithstanding the provisions of the
preceding article, the guarantor may set up compensation as
regards what the creditor may owe the principal debtor.
ARTICLE 1281. Compensation may be total or partial. When
the two debts are of the same amount, there is total
compensation.
ARTICLE 1282. The parties may agree upon the compensation
of debts which are not yet due.
ARTICLE 1283. If one of the parties to a suit over an
obligation has a claim for damages against the other, the
former may set it off by proving his right to said damages and
the amount thereof.
ARTICLE 1284. When one or both debts are rescissible or
voidable, they may be compensated against each other
before they are judicially rescinded or avoided.
ARTICLE 1285. The debtor who has consented to the
assignment of rights by the creditor in favor of a third person,
cannot set up against the assignee the compensation which
would pertain to him against the assignor, unless the
assignor was notified by the debtor at the time he gave his
consent, that he reserved his right to the compensation. If
the creditor communicated the cession but the debtor did
not consent thereto, the latter may set up the compensation
of debts previous to the cession, but not of the subsequent
ones. If the assignment is made without the knowledge of
the debtor, he may setup the compensation of all credits
prior to the same and also later ones until he had knowledge
of the assignment.
ARTICLE 1286. Compensation takes place by operation of
law, even though the debts may be payable at different
places, but there shall be an indemnity for expenses of
exchange or transportation to the place of payment.
ARTICLE 1287. Compensation shall not be proper when one
of the debts arises from a depositum or from the obligations
of a depositary or of a bailee in commodatum. Neither can
compensation be set up against a creditor who has a claim
for support due by gratuitous title, without prejudice to the
provisions of paragraph 2 of article 301.
ARTICLE 1288. Neither shall there be compensation if one of
the debts consists in civil liability arising from a penal offense.
ARTICLE 1289. If a person should have against him several
debts which are susceptible of compensation, the rules on
the application the rules on the application of payments shall
apply to the order of the compensation.
ARTICLE 1290. When all the requisites mentioned in Article
1279 are present, compensation takes effect by operation of
law, and extinguishes both debts to the concurrent amount,
even though the creditors and debtors are not aware of the
compensation.
ARTICLE 1291. Obligations may be modified by:
(1) Changing their object or principal condi- tions;
(2) Substituting the person of the debtor;
(3) Subrogating a third person in the rights of the creditor.
ARTICLE 1292. In order that an obligation may be
extinguished by another which substitutes the same, it is
imperative that it be so declared in unequivocal terms, or
that the old and the new obligations be on every point
incompatible with each other.
ARTICLE 1293. Novation which consists in substituting a new
debtor in the place of the original one, may be made even
without the knowledge or against the will of the latte, but not
without the consent of the creditor. Payment by the new
debtor gives him the rights mentioned in Articles 1236 and
1237.
ARTICLE 1294. If the substitution is without the knowledge or
against the will of the debtor, the new debtor's insolvency or
non-fulfillment of the obligation shall not give rise to any
liability on the part of the original debtor.
ARTICLE 1295. The insolvency of the new debtor, who has
been proposed by the original debtor and accepted by the
creditor, shall not revive the action of the latter against the
original obligor, except when said insolvency was already
existing and of public knowledge, or known to the debtor,
when he delegated his debt.
ARTICLE 1296. When the principal obligation is extinguished
in consequence of a novation, accessory obligations may
subsist only insofar as they may benefit third persons who
did not give their consent.
ARTICLE 1297. If the new obligation is void, the original one
shall subsist, unless the parties intended that the former
relation should be extinguished in any event.
ARTICLE 1298. The novation is void if the original obligation
was void, except when annulment may be claimed only by
the debtor, or when ratification validates acts which are
voidable.
ARTICLE 1299. If the original obligation was subject to a
suspensive or resolutory condition, the new obligation shall
be under the same condition, unless it is otherwise
stipulated.