Blacks Law Dict. 1st ed

840

OBLIGATION

OBLIGATIO

Classification. The various sorts of obli gations may be classified and defined as fol lows: They are either perfect or imperfect. A perfect obligation is one recognized and sanctioned by positive law; one of which the fulfillment can be enforced by the aid of the law. But if the duty created by the obliga tion operates only on the moral sense, with out being enforced by any positive law, it is called an "imperfect obligation," and creates no right of action, nor has it any legal op eration. The duty of exercising gratitude, charity, and the other merely moral duties it an example of this kind of obligation. Civi] Code La. art. 1757. They are either natural or civil. A nat ural obligation is one which cannot be en forced 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 ob ligation; 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 contiacted 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 or may not be lawfully broken into several distinct obligations with out 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 latter, where the obligors promise, each for himself, to fulfill the en gagement. They are personal or real; the former be ing the case when the obligor himself is per sonally liable for the performance of the en gagement, but does not directly bind his prop erty; the latter, where real estate, not the person of the obligor, is primarily liable for performance. They are heritable or personal. The for mer is the case when the heirs and assigns of one party may enforce the performance against the heirs of the other; the latter, when the obligor binds himself only, not his heirs or repiesentatives.

ObUgatUmes quasi ex delicto. This class cm braces all torts not coming under the denomination of "delieta, " and not having a special form of ac tion provided for them by law. They differed widely in character, and at common law would in some cases give rise to an action on the case; in others to an action on an implied contract. Ort. Inst §§ 1781-1793. OBLIGATION. An obligation is a legal duty, by which a person is bound to do or not to do a certain 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 con stitutes legal or moral duty, and which ren deis a person liable to coercion and punish ment 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 in a person, "obligation" is the corresponding duty, constraint, or binding force which should prevent all other persons from deny ing, abridging, or obstructing such right, or interfering with its exercise. And the same is 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 inci dent 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,) con straining him to accede to the demand, ren der 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 con dition annexed for the payment of money or performance of covenants. Co. Litt. 172. Obligation is (1) legal or moral duty, as opposed to physical compulsion; (2) a duty incumbent up on an individual, or a specific and limited number of individuals, as opposed to a duty imposed upon the world at large; (3) the right to enforce such a fl^y, (Jus in personam,) as opposed to such a right as that of property, (jus in rem,) which avails against the world at large; (4) a bond con taining a penalty, with a condition annexed, for the payment of money, performance of covenants, or the like. Mozley & Whitley. In English expositions of the Boman law, and works upon general jurisprudence, "ob ligation" is used to translate the Latin M o6 ligatio." In this sense its meaning is much wider than as a technical term of English law. See OBLIGATIO.

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