Obligation

Anobligation isa legal duty, by which a person is bound to do or not to doacertain thing.

Civil Code Cal. § 1427; Civil Code Dak. § 798.

The binding power of a vow, promise, oath, or contract, or of law, civil, political, or moral, independent of a promise; that which constitutes legal or moral duty, and which renders a person liable to coercion and punishment for neglecting it. Webster. “Obligation” is the correlative of “right.” Taking the latter word in its politico-ethical sense, as a power of free action lodged ina person, “obligation” is the corresponding duty, constraint, or binding force which should prevent all other persons from denying, abridging, or obstructing such right, or interfering with its exercise. And the same {fs its meaning as the correlative of a “jus in rem.” Taking “right” as meaning a “jus in personam,” (a power, demand, claim, or privilege inherent in one person, and incident upon another,) the “obligation” is the coercive force or control imposed upon the person of incidence by the moral law and the positive law, (or the moral law as recognized and sanctioned by the positive law,) constraining him to accede to the demand, render up the thing claimed, pay the money due, or otherwise perform what is expected of him with respect to the subject-matter of the right. In a limited and arbitrary sense, it means a penal bond or “writing obligatory,” that is,a bond containing a penalty, with a condition annexed for the payment of money or performance of coyenants.

Co, Litt. 172.

Obligation is (1) legal or moral duty, as opposed to physical compulsion; (2) a duty incumbent upon an individual, or a specific aud limited number of individuals, as opposed to a duty imposed upon the world at large; (3) the right to enforce sucha duty, (jus in personam,) as opposed to such a right as that of property, (jus i rem,) which avails against the world at large; (4) a bond contuining a penalty, with a condition annexed, for the payment of money, performance of covenants, or the like. Mozley & Whitley. In English expositions of the Roman law, and works upon general jurisprudence, “obligation” is used to translate the Latin “obligatio.” In this sense its meaning is much Classification. The various sorts of obligations may be classified aid defined as follows: They are either perfect or tmpenfect. A perfect obligation is one recognized and sanctioned by positivelaw; one of which the fulfillment can be enforced by the aid of the law. But if the duty created by the obligation operates only on the moral sense, without being enforced by any positive law, it is called an “imperfect obligation,” and creates no rigtit of action, nor has it any legal operation. The duty of exercising gratitude, charity, aud the other merely moral duties ia an exampieof this kind of obligation. Civil Code La. art.

1757.

They are either natural or civil, A natural obligation is one which cannot be enforced by action, but which is binding on the party who makes it in conscience and accord: ing to natural justice. A civil obligation is a legal tie, which gives the party with whom it is contracted the right of enforcing its performance by law. Civil Code La. art.

1757.

They are either express or implied; the former being those by which the obligor binds himself in express terms to perform his obligation; while the latter are such as are raised by the implication or inference of the law from the nature of the transaction. They are determinate or indeterminate; the former being the case where the thing contracted to be delivered is specified as an individual; the latter, where it may be any one of a particular class or species. They are divisible or indivisible, according as the obligation may ov may nut be lawfully broken into several distinct obligations without the consent of the obligor. They are joint or several; the former, where there are two or more obligors binding themselves jointly for the performance of the obligation; the iatter, where the obligors promise, each for himself, to fulfill the engagement. They are personal or real; the former being the case when the obligor himself is personally liable for the performance of the engagement, but does not directly bind his property; the latter, where real estate, not the person of the obligor, is primarily liable for performance. They are heritable or personal. The former is the ease when the heirs and assigns of one party may enlorce the perfurmance against the heirs of the other; the latter, They are either principal or accessory. A principal obligation is one which is the most important object of the engagement of the contracting parties; while an accessory obligation depends upon or is collateral to the principal. They may be either conjunetive or aiternafive. ‘The former is one in which the several objects in it are connected by a copulative, or in any other manner which shows that all of them are severally comprised in the contract. ‘This contract creates as many different obligations as there are different objects; und tle debtor, when hse wishes to discharge himself, may force the creditor to receive them separately, But where the things which form the object of the contract are separated by a disjunctive, then the obliga. tion is aiternative. A promise to deliver a certain thing or to pay a specified sum of money is an example of this kind of obligation. Civil Code La. art.

2063.

They are either simple or conditional. Simple obligations are such as are not de pendent for their execution on any event provided for by the parties, and which are net agreed to become void on the happening of any such evant. Conditional obligations are such as are made to depend on an uncertain event. If the obligation is not to take effect until the event happens, it is a suspensive condition; if the obligation takes effect immediately, but is liable to be defeated when the event happens, it is then aresolutory condition. Civil Code La. arta. 2020, 2021, They may be either single or penal; the latter, when a penal clause is attached to the undertaking, to be enforced in case the obligor fails to perform; the former, when no such penaity is added.