Joint and Solidary Obligations, Pecuniary Obligations
Obligations
a) Joint Obligations
b) Solidarity (with multiple parties)
a) The Commonwealth reflects the idea of community among the subjects that integrate distinct parties, which is reflected in the joint ownership on both the assets and liabilities of the obligation.
The principle of unity of action states that only collective acts of debtors cause damage to the right of creditors. If there is a harmful performance by a single debtor, the duty to compensate will fall on them, becoming a partial obligation. This is an exception, as the legitimization recognizes any of the owners acting for the benefit of the community.
b) External relations should be distinguished between the obligated parties, and internal relations among the various creditors or debtors, respectively.
External relations have the peculiarity that each subject can act individually against the other party of the relation and conduct the whole credit or debt independently of their participation. Recognition is given to individual legitimization without denying each concurrence. For the contrary, all the credit or the debt applies. This rule takes the following form:
- In active solidarity (creditors), each creditor is entitled to enforce and receive it and whatever actions it deems necessary for the conservation of the credit.
- In passive solidarity (debtors), we can demand the enforcement of any debtor, some of them, or all simultaneously.
Internal relations between creditors and debtors are governed by partiality. These arise from the principle that once payment has been produced, they tend to return internal equilibrium between different subjects, where a creditor has taken what is owed, or a debtor has paid what is owed.
Special Focus: Pecuniary Obligations
a) Money: These are identified because the object of provision is money. This is a key player in the developed economy in which it plays a dual role: a medium of exchange of a general nature and serves as a general measure of value.
Legal regularization corresponds to fixing things, meaning what money is and what the unit represents as value and currency. The course of money is legal because the order is punishable and forced because it is taxed as a means of payment.
b) Debts of money: Obligations on the debtor must submit a divisible unit of money that can take these forms:
- The benefit consists of money initially fixed by the nominal value that can be specified at the time of payment in the amount of currency (Debts sum).
- The parties can fix parts or species with which the obligation must be paid, specifying the currency.
- Those in which the amount of money is not initially fixed, but fixed by the value of the property to be substituted. They respond to the obligation to order damages or reparation (Value Debt).
Only the debt amount, debt is called pecuniary in the strict sense, and we refer to it.
c) The value of alterations: nominalist principle. The main problem with this type of debt is that the money can undergo changes in its exchange value, since the amount can be initially fixed, which has a different purchasing power at the time of payment. Therefore, fluctuations or inflationary/deflationary processes occur. This occurs when there is a space of time since the obligation is created until it is fulfilled, or in lasting obligations.
Two solutions:
- Nominalist principle: The debtor must surrender the set amount according to the nominal value, so fluctuations in the money are irrelevant. It has the security advantage of the market but can provoke unfair situations and disequilibrium between the parties of the obligation.
- Value principle: The amount is set at the time of payment according to the real value of money, so money debts become value debts. It creates uncertainty about the amount to be paid, but it is fairer.
In our system, the nominalist principle governs, although in certain circumstances, monetary fluctuations can be taken into account.
d) Interest debt: It is fundamental in such obligations in the productive nature of money and reflects the idea of compensating for the use of capital as a necessary ancillary pecuniary. It is ancillary in nature, as it depends on the debt capital. The amount is normally determined as a percentage of the capital due, although it can be fixed by other criteria.