Object Certain
• It is the subject matter of the contract.
• It may be things, rights, or services.
For a thing to be an object certain, the following requisites must be present:
1. The thing must be within the commerce of men.
2. It must not be impossible, legally or physically.
3. It must be in existence or capable of coming into existence.
4. It must be determinate or determinable without the need of a new contract between the
parties.
For a service to be an object certain, the following requisites must be present:
1. The service must be within the commerce of men.
2. It must not be impossible, physically or legally i.e. prostitution, killing a person, etc.
3. It must be determinate or capable of being made determinate.
• Rights are generally transmissible except for some rights that are intransmissible by their nature, by
stipulation, or by the provision of law.
• Future inheritance is not one of those rights that are transmissible; it consists of any property or right,
not in existence or capable of determination at the time of the contract, that a person may inherit.
• Future inheritance may not generally be an object of a contract as it is neither determinate nor
determinable, at the least, since inheritance can only be determined upon the death of the decedent.
However, that the rule does not apply in the following cases:
o In the case of donations by reason of marriage between spouses with respect to their
future property to take effect, only in the event of death, to the extent laid down by law
in testamentary succession
o In the case of partition of property by act inter vivos by a person to take effect upon his
death
Cause of Contracts
• It is the essential reason or purpose which the contracting parties have in view at the time of entering
into the contract. It is something bargained for or given by a party in exchange for a legally enforceable
promise of another.
• In a reciprocal contract, i.e. contract of sale, the cause for one is the object for the other.
2. Contracts may also be remuneratory or remunerative or one the cause of which is the service or
benefit which is remunerated. Example: the services rendered by a surgeon where his patient
agreed to pay P500,000
3. Contracts may be gratuitous or one the cause of which is the liberality of the benefactor or giver.
Examples: commodatum, pure donation, guaranty, and suretyship
Cause vs. Motive
1. The cause refers to the direct reason for the contract while motive refers to its indirect reason.
2. The cause is always known to the other contracting party while motive need not be known to the
other party.
3. Cause is an essential element of the contract, but motive is not.
4. When the cause is illegal, the contract becomes invalid. But when motive is illegal, the validity of
the contract is not affected.
Cause Motive
Immediate or direct reason Remote or indirect reason
Always known to the other contracting party May be unknown to the other party
Essential element of a contract Not an essential element of a contract
Its illegality affects the validity of the contract Its illegality does not render the contract void
Lesion or inadequacy of cause will invalidate a contract when there has been fraud, mistake, or undue
influence and in cases specified by law:
• Article. 1381 (1). Those which are entered into by guardians whenever the wards whom they
represent suffer lesion by more than 1/4 of the value of the things which are the object
thereof.
• Article 1381 (2). Those agreed upon in representation of absentees, if the latter suffer the
lesion stated in the preceding number.
• Article 1398. A partition judicial or extra-judicial, may also be rescinded on account of lesion
when anyone of the co-heirs received things whose value is less, by at least 1/4, than the share
to which he is entitled, considering the value of the things at the time they were adjudicated.
• Article 1470. Gross inadequacy of price does not affect a contract of sale, except as it may
indicate a defect in the consent, or that the parties really intended a donation or some other
act or contract.
References
Civil Code of the Philippines
De Leon, H. S. & De Leon Jr., H. M. (2014). The law on obligations and contracts. Philippines: Rex Book
Store.
Paras, E. (2016). Civil code of the Philippines annotated prescription; obligations and contracts article
1106-1457. Philippines: Rex Book Store.
Pineda, E. (2009). Obligations and contracts. Philippines: Central Book Supply, Inc.