Material and formal aspects on the limitation of patrimonial responsibility in the light of article 603 of the Civil Code – Some critical considerations and reflections

Abstract

A business between two or more people always involves a mutual and reciprocal agreement that requires a certain empathy and prior knowledge between the parties. The empathy is even greater if we talk about a gratuitous legal transaction, in which the legal transaction only involves an ablation for one of the parties, enriching the patrimonial sphere of the other, without any required consideration. On the other hand, this sphere of assets is used to guarantee compliance with the obligations, since the so-called "general guarantee of obligations" is carried out by means of the execution of the assets of the debtor who, for a reason which can be imputed to him, fails to comply with the valid obligations entered into and which he should timely comply with under the terms agreed upon.

It is on these two premises that the possibility of exclusion of patrimonial responsibility of the debtor by the will of a third party is based. In the case of gratuitous legal transactions that do not require the destruction of the debtor's assets, since the debtor is enriched merely by the will of a third party, the Law cannot fail to provide guarantees that such donations enjoy some protection in the face of possible interference by creditors seeking to satisfy their claims, even if to the detriment of the will of the donor of the donation.