PART II
Subrogation
Section 226. A person is subrogated to the rights of a creditor is entitled to exercise in his own name all the rights which the creditor had in respect of the obligation including any security for it.
By real subrogation, a property is substituted for another property in the same juristic position as the previous one.
Section 227. When a creditor has received as compensation for damage the full value of the thing or right which is the subject of the obligation, the debtor is, by operation of law, subrogated into the position of the creditor with regard to such thing or right.
Section 228. If, in consequence of the circumstance which makes the performance impossible, the debtor acquires a substitute or a claim for compensation for the object owed, the creditor may demand delivery of the substitute received or may claim for compensation by himself.
If the creditor has a claim for compensation on account of non-performance, the compensation to be made to him is diminished, if he exercises the right specified in the foregoing paragraph, by the value of the substitute received or of the claim for compensation.
Section 229. Subrogation takes place by operation of law and ensues to the benefit of the following persons:
- The person who, being himself a creditor, pays another creditor who has priority to him ow ing to such other creditor having a preferential right, pledge or mortgage.
- When acquires an immovable property, the person who uses the purchase price in paying off the persons who have mortgages thereon.
- The person who, being bound with other or for others to pay a debt and was interested in paying the same, has paid it.
Section 230. If the creditor levies compulsory execution upon an object belonging to the debtor, any person who through the execution incurs danger of losing a right in the object is entitled to satisfying the creditor. The same right belongs to the possessor of a thing if he incurs danger of losing possession through the execution.
If a third person satisfies the creditor he is subrogated of the claim of the latter. Such claim may not be enforced to the detriment of the creditor.
Section 231. If properties mortgaged, pledged or otherwise subject to a preferential right, are insured, the mortgage, pledge or other preferential right extends to the claim against the insurer.
In case of immovable property, the insurer shall not pay the indemnity to the assured until he has given notice of his intention to do so to the mortgagee or other preferred creditor, and has not within one month from such notice received any objection to the payment, provided always that the insurer knew or ought to have known of the mortgage or other preferential right; however, any right registered in the Land Registry is deemed to be known to the insurer.
The same rule shall apply to mortgage of movables allowed by law. In case of movable property, the insurer may pay the indemnity to the assured directly, unless he knew or ought to have known of the pledge or other preferential right.
The insurer is not liable to the creditor if the insured property is restored or a substitute for it is provided.
The same rule shall be applied mutatis mutandis in case of expropriation as well as in case of indemnity due to the owner of the property for destruction or damage.
Section 232. If under the foregoing section a sum of money is being substituted for the property destroyed or damaged, such sum shall in no case be delivered to the mortgage, pledge or other preferred creditor before the obligation secured is due, and if the parties cannot come to an agreement with the debtor, each of them is entitled to demand that the said sum be deposited at the Deposit Office their common benefit unless the debtor gives proper security.
PART III
Exercising Debtor’s Claims
Section 233. If, to the prejudice of the creditor, the debtor refuses or neglects to exercise a claim the creditor may, in order to protect his obligation, exercise such claim in his own name of behalf of the debtor, except those which are purely personal to the debtor.
Section 234. The creditor who exercises a claim belonging to his debtor must summon the debtor to appear in the action.
Section 235. A creditor may exercise a claim belonging to the debtor for the whole amount due to the debtor, without regard to the amount due to him. But the defendant may satisfy the creditor by paying the amount due to him alone, provided that if the original debtor has joined as a plaintiff he may proceed to judgment for the balance.
In any case the creditor cannot obtain more than what is due to him.
Section 236. The defendant may set up against the creditor all defenses which he may have against the debtor, excepting those which arose after the entry of the action.
PART IV
Cancellation of fraudulent acts
Section 237. The creditor is entitled to claim cancellation by the Court of any juristic act done by the debtor with knowledge that it would prejudice his creditor; but this does not apply if the person enriched by such act did not know, at the time of the act, or the facts which could make it prejudicial to the creditor, provided, however, that in case of gratuitous act the knowledge on the part of the debtor alone is sufficient.
The provisions of the foregoing paragraph do not apply to a juristic act whose subject is not a property right.
Section 238. The cancellation under the foregoing section cannot affect the right of a third person acquired in good faith.
The foregoing paragraph does not apply if the right is acquired gratuitously.
Section 239. Cancellation operates in favour of all the creditors.
Section 240. A claim for cancellation cannot be brought later than one year from the time when the creditor knew of the cause of cancellation, or later than ten years since the act was done.