[CIVIL LAW LECTURE]Article 31, Independent Civil Actions and Sources of Obligations | LEARN WITH LEX

in our last lesson we talked about article 30 of the civil code we learned that article 30 applies when the injured party opts to file a civil action rather than pursue a criminal prosecution when that happens capacity the quantum of proof required is mere preponderance of evidence we learned that it can be made expressly or impliedly we also learned about the effects of the death of the accused on the criminal prosecution the death of the accused extinguishes his criminal liability but his civil liability may persist depending on the stage of the prosecution at the time

of his or her death in today's lesson we're going to take a look at article 31 of the civil code it's a very short provision but it opens up a lot of new concepts that we can learn together by the end of this lesson you should be able to number one enumerate and define the sources of obligations under the civil code to identify independent civil actions and how these claims are made three explain how a single actor omission can give rise to multiple causes of action all of this and more coming right up hi my

name is lex and welcome to lex in motion in this channel i'll be helping you build your competence confidence and capability in law school start today by hitting the subscribe button below new episodes are posted every friday article 31 of the civil code provides that when the civil action is based on an obligation not arising from the act or omission complained of as a felony such civil action may proceed independently of the criminal proceedings and regardless of the result of the latter against provision but you will encounter it again when you get to criminal procedure

torts and damages and obligations and contracts we know that every person who is criminally liable is also civilly liable we also know that when a criminal action is filed against a person the civil aspect or the civil action is deemed automatically instituted so article 31 liability ions article 31 when the source of the obligation is not the act or omission that is complained of as a crime when the duty to pay damages arises not because of the crime but arises from another source of obligation then it is called an independent civil action an independent civil

action is a civil action that arises from any other source of obligation except from a crime or felony they may be filed at any time even when there is a pending criminal prosecution independent civil actions exist on a parallel reality with the criminal prosecution the acquittal or conviction of the accused in the criminal action has no bearing no impact on the outcome of the independent civil action however there are two important rules that bind them first the quantum of evidence required in independent civil action is mere preponderance of evidence second the injured party cannot in

any way shape or form recover twice the damages he or she cannot recover damages in the criminal case and at the same time from the independent civil you can stop here however there are some important concepts that i want to share with you these are the things that you will later on learn in other courses and i want to give you a head start by teaching them to you now article 31 of the civil code mentions an obligation what is an obligation somewhere in the internet there is a video of me teaching obligations and contracts

this is the first lesson in that series i cannot tell you where daily hindi gaming platform shout out salamat what is an obligation article 1156 of the civil code provides that an obligation is a juridical necessity to give to do or not to do there are a lot of big words in that definition capability and let's break that down obligations are easy to spot through words and phrases like i promise to or i bind myself to or simply and future tense i will give you let's take a look at a few examples of obligations number

one i promise to give you 10 000 pesos on christmas day 2021. two i promise to give you a cat or a dog on your birthday three i will give you 150 pesos for washing my car all of these sentences imply an obligation there is an imposition a duty on one person that duty on my part is giving you money or a cat or a dog but the law is clear an obligation can be about giving doing or not doing under the old roman law when a person binds himself to do something there is an

imposition of a duty upon that person if that person fails to perform the obligation then by the sheer force and effect of law that person is literally tied he is literally bound and sold off to slavery to satisfy his debt or obligation or he can even be chopped up into pieces jose maria manresa spanish civil code and by extension our civil code he says that codes should as a matter of policy refrain from defining he says that definitions should be left to judges justices treatises and the second criticism to the definition under article 1156 of

the civil code is that it is inadequate to definition manresa offers his definition an obligation is a legal relation between one person the creditor and another the detour in which the latter is bound to comply with a presentation which the former has a right to demand from him the good thing about manresa's definition is that he defines an obligation as a legal relationship between two persons further manresa points to the effects of this relationship the debtor must comply with the prestation and the creditor has a right to demand from the detour the definition of manresa

is good but the better definition and i think the one that is the most complete is from justice jose benedicto luna reyes or justice jbl reyes for short his definition borrowed from another spanish commentator jose arias ramos they say that an obligation is a theoretical relation whereby a person called the creditor may demand from another call the debtor the observance of determinate conduct and in case a bridge may obtain satisfaction from the assets of the latter this definition by justice jbl reyes gives us the same two persons a creditor and the debt or the debtor

is bound to observe a determinate conduct januk in case there is failure to do so the creditor may obtain satisfaction from the assets of the debtor notice that the law says he may be he will or he shall obtain satisfaction this is because in obligations and contracts there are several remedies in case of breach of obligations from these definitions of an obligation we know that there are two parties to an obligation and that there is a conduct or prestation that must be performed this conduct can mean something to give to do or not to do

and at the very core of an obligation there is a bond a tie a connection that brings these two parties together article 1157 of the civil code provides that obligations arise from number one law two contracts three quasi-contracts four axor missions punished by law and five quasi-delics according to the man the myth and the living legend professor ruben balane says that the law is the ultimate source of obligation he says that without the law the other sources of obligation might not exist it is the law article 1157 of the civil code to be exact that

tells us the sources of these obligations let's look at a more concrete example here capacity minimum one of the parties is given a prestation or a conduct this conduct is to give and the object of the prestation is the minimum wage or the lowest possible sueldo for any person in a given industry or sector for a given region the source of this obligation is our labor law articles 194 and 195 of the family code impose an obligation to parents to support their children the parties in this obligation or the conduct that's required the preservation here

is to give and render support what is the object of this prestation the object would be sustenance or food shelter clothing expenses for education among others another source of obligation is contracts article 1305 of the civil code provides that a contract is a meeting of the minds between two persons whereby one binds himself with respect to the other to give something or to render some service the word contra comes from the latin phrase starbucks coffee bean or wherever you get your morning coffee binds itself to give you the off you want to your utmost satisfaction

in return you bind yourself to give to the barista a particular amount of money in exchange for the coffee so here you have another contract with the credit card company the company pays the merchant for and your behalf you also have the obligation to pay for whatever is charged on this credit card plus whatever exorbitant charges they may impose on bus or jeepney we are entering into a contract of carriage the operator of the bus jeepney or the lrta have the unconditional obligation to transport us to carry us from point a halimbawa i mulasa santolan

station we are also entering into a contract with our employers depending on the negotiation of the contract of employment we bind ourselves to render the service these duties and perform our responsibilities to the best of our abilities in return the company must supply us with the tools we need to perform our duties to meet the minimum benefits required by law and to pay us according to the terms of our contracts another source of obligation is a question contract a question contract is a theoretical relation similar to a contract which arises from certain lawful voluntary and

unilateral acts with the objective of preventing unjust enrichment or benefit at the expense of another so is uncontracted the basis is the onset of both parties the basis of the contract is not consent or mutual agreement it is only a unilateral act one way long obligation against unjust enrichment there is a separate discussion on unjust enrichment and i'll be leaving a link to that in the description down below but i want to draw your attention to two of the most prominent ones we have negochorum gesture and solutio in deputy negociorum gesture happens when a person

voluntarily takes charge of an agency or management of another's abundant or neglected business or property without the owner's authority military attack is he voluntarily harvested in wise farm and sold the goods rather than risk a complete loss on the part of why who has abandoned his farm and has failed to return x now has the obligation to return the proceeds of the sale of the fruits and vegetables of why under the principle that no man or woman should enrich his or herself at the expense of another person again i am oversimplifying but if there are

other duties and obligations imposed upon the official's manager when you get to obligations and contracts for now what you need to remember about negotiator gesture is that the abandonment must be very very clear another example would be solution in deputy solution in debit is a juridical relation that arises when something is received when there is no right to demand it and it was unduly delivered through mistake classic scenario 650 a in this scenario has no right to demand 650 pesos at best he is only entitled to 150 pesos the payment made by b was made

by mistake now the law provides that a must return the excess under solution based on the principle that no man or woman should unjustly enrich his or herself at the expense of another the fourth source of obligations are the axor missions punished by law again the last few lessons have been dedicated on this principle say it with me apathy every person criminally liable is also civilly liable the basis is that behind every crime the accused injuries not only the people of the philippines but the private offended party damages are there to somewhat make the person

whole again finally we have quesadillas article 2176 of the civil code tells us that whoever by actual remission causes damage to another there being fault or negligence is obliged to pay for the damage done such falter negligence if there is no pre-existing contractual relation between the parties is called aque cydelic and is governed by the provisions of this chapter a quiz deli capatid is not a crime however it attaches civil liability upon any person who causes damage hindi important all that the law requires is that there is damage to another that such damage was caused

by the fault or negligence and that person who causes the injury has to pay for the damage done now it is also a very broad subject such that it used to occupy three units attempts to bridge the gap between crimes or delegates and damages arising from contracts it is an independent source of obligation and it's also part of the reason why we have independent civil actions the best way for us to understand this capacity is by discussing the classic law school problem professor so please listen carefully my counting variations the gist is the same but

richard was the passenger of the bltd bus driven by danilo the bus was traveling from allen northern summer and bound to manila they passed by the biturang manok road in antimon and quezon province danilo had just taken over the shift and was visibly drunk when he took the wheel also traveling the same road but on the opposite direction meaning passoutsila was a passenger jeepney driven by jasper on board this jeep they were the spouses bueno who were also traveling with their dog buttik when the two vehicles passed each other on beethoven the passenger bus sideswiped

the jeepney danilo lost control of the bus and collided against a parked vehicle on the side of the road jasper was also unable to regain control of the jeep and it rolled off the cliff landing on a house owned by eduardo as a result of the accident patricia was injured and completely lost all sensation from the waist down the spouse's bueno died but batik survived eduardo lost his house but he managed to survive if you were the lawyer for patricia what are the legal remedies available to you if you were the lawyer for the family

of the spouses bueno or for buttik discuss all of the legal options available for your client who is liable to eduardo and for the destruction of his house post this video monaco then try to figure out your answer uncle modito i sources of obligation patricia here has the option of filing a criminal case for reckless improvements resulting to serious physical injuries against the driver of the bus that hilo danilo was drunk at the time of the accident and he must be held liable therefore the quantum of proof required is proof beyond reasonable doubt if the

driver cannot pay for the damages then the bus company must step in to be held accountable for the damages in the alternative patricia can also file an action for breach of contract of carriage when she bought a ticket and boarded the bus the operator of the bus had an unconditional obligation to transport patricia from allen northern summer all the way to araneta city the quantum of proof required is mere preponderance of evidence because the breach of the contract of carriage is only a civil case finally patricia can also file a civil action for damages under

article 2176 or quasi-derelict under our civil code the law provides that whoever causes damage there being fault or negligence is obliged to pay for the damage done the existence of the contract of carriage between patricia and bltd bus company is not a bar for recovery because the same negligent act that breaks the contract is also attorned this case should be filed against the driver and the operator of the bus the quantum of proof required is mere preponderance of evidence what we can see here is that there is a single act independent civil actions these are

civil cases for damages and they are based on any source of obligation except that of the leaks they proceed independently from the criminal prosecution they exist in a parallel reality and whatever happens in the criminal case has no bearing no impact on independent civil actions they are only bound by the primordial consideration that the injured party cannot recover twice the damages for the same act or omission elsewhere in the civil code then these will be covered in the succeeding lessons these are the independent civil actions number one article 32 or the breach of constitutional and

other rights to article 33 which broadly speaking covers defamation fraud or physical injuries three article 34 or the refusal or failure of city or municipal police officers to give protection for article 2176 or quesadillas or culpa aguilana we will discuss these provisions in later episodes completed but for now i want you to remember that in the case of patricia the independent civil action she can file is not based on article 33 but under article 2176 of the civil code which lays down for us the requisites of a wayside delegate no reservation is required for independent

civil actions precisely because they are independent they can be filed before or after or even during dependency of the criminal prosecution ghanaian syllabus as a procedural device going back to our problem earlier the answer for the family of the spouses bueno and batik are essentially the same they can file a criminal case against the driver of the jeepney for reckless improvements resulting to homicide they can also proceed against the operator of the jeepney for breach of contract of carriage the big difference competed is that the family can also file an independent civil action and the

basis this time is article 33 of the civil code i encourage you to read ahead kapatid pero i will explain this later when we get to article 33 the only limitation is that the family and but it cannot recover damages in both the criminal prosecution and in the civil case of breach of contract of carriage or independent civil action for eduardo he can sue both drivers for reckless importance resulting to damage to property under article 346 of the revised penal code he also has the option to sue the operators of both vehicles for thirds under

article 2176 of the civil code is that the facts are not enough to tell us who caused the accident in the first place or who is the proximate cause of the loss again that's a topic for torts and damages of action or reason to come to earth on the basis of breach of contract of carriage he also cannot recover twice once in the criminal case and another for torts to summarize tonight's lesson number one obligations arise from law contracts quasi-contracts delics and quasi delegates two independent civil actions are distinct and separate from criminal prosecution and

they are bound only by the prohibition on double recovery three a single actor omission can give rise to multiple causes of action based on different sources of obligations i think we can stop here kapatid along overwhelming at this point provision article 31. this was the way i learned the law many many years ago and i have discussed my process of learning the law in much much greater detail in the book decada 10 life lessons from 10 years in law school every purchase of this book will support our mission of bringing the law to the people

and more people to the law our mission of helping raise an entire generation of god-fearing lawyers who can bring justice where there is none if you get a copy today while it's on pre-order you'll be getting it at a huge discount and you can get a chance to win a one-on-one coaching session with me you can order your copy through the link in the description down below also hopefully there is a quiz that will help test how much you actually understood and remember from our discussion if you would like us to continue with our discussion

on intro to persons please show me your support by typing yes in the comments down below thank you so much for watching like and share this video for good law school carmine i will see you next friday