You managed another’s affair: expenses are repaid up to the benefit it gave

They are Articles 1518 and 1519 of the Civil Code of 2020: what the manager of another’s affairs answers for, when it answers even for fortuitous event, and what the interested party who benefits owes it.

Managers of another’s affairs and interested parties whose affairs were managed, under the Puerto Rico Civil Code.

• The manager indemnifies the damage its fault or negligence causes to the one for whose benefit it should have acted.Verified against the official source
• It answers even for fortuitous event in the four situations of Article 1518, unless the management was useful to the interested party.Verified against the official source
• If the interested party takes advantage of the management’s benefits, even unratified, they must reimburse expenses, losses and damage without exceeding the benefit received.Verified against the official source
• That reimbursement is owed all the same where the management aimed to avoid imminent and manifest harm, even if no usefulness resulted.Verified against the official source

• The accounts of the manager’s expenses, losses and damage: they are the basis of the reimbursement in Article 1519(b).
• The record of the benefit received by the interested party: the reimbursement may not exceed it.
• The record of the interested party’s express prohibition, if any: it is the first of the four aggravated situations.

1. 1

   Step 1: The base rule: fault or negligence

   Article 1518, first sentence: the manager must indemnify the damage that, through its fault or negligence, is caused to the one for whose benefit it should have acted.

2. 2

   Step 2: An exemption the Code writes separately

   Second sentence: it is exempt from liability where it performs acts that, in keeping with the duty of assistance it has and given the circumstances, could foreseeably redound to a third party’s benefit. The Code does not define that duty of assistance here, and this guide does not define it for it.

3. 3

   Step 3: Four situations where you answer even for fortuitous event

   The article raises the bar and makes the manager answer for fortuitous event in four situations. It is a harsher liability than the ordinary one, and worth knowing before stepping in.

4. 4

   Step 4: Against the owner’s express prohibition

   Subsection (a): if it acts against the interested party’s express prohibition, unless that prohibition is contrary to law, morals or public order. The proviso matters: an unlawful prohibition does not protect whoever imposed it.

5. 5

   Step 5: Risky operations

   Subsection (b): if it carries out risky operations a prudent and reasonable person would not normally have carried out. The measure is the same prudent and reasonable person the chapter uses for diligence.

6. 6

   Step 6: Putting your own interest first

   Subsection (c): if it subordinates the interest it manages to its own. Managing another’s affair while tending to one’s own first aggravates the liability.

7. 7

   Step 7: Not being up to it, or displacing someone who was

   Subsection (d): if it lacks the aptitudes necessary for the business, or its intervention prevented that of a more suitable person. Two distinct situations in one subsection.

8. 8

   Step 8: The way out of all four: that it was useful

   The article says it before the list: it answers for fortuitous event, unless the management was useful to the interested party. If the management served, that aggravated liability does not kick in even where one of the four situations occurs.

9. 9

   Step 9: What the owner who benefits owes

   Article 1519, opening: if the interested party takes advantage of the management’s benefits, even without having ratified it. Benefiting suffices; ratification is not needed to become liable.

10. 10

    Step 10: First: what was contracted in their name

    Subsection (a): perform the obligations contracted in their name before third parties. The third parties the manager contracted with are not left hanging.

11. 11

    Step 11: Second: expenses, losses and damage, with a cap

    Subsection (b): reimburse the manager the expenses or losses it had and the damage it suffered in discharging its task, provided these do not exceed the benefit received. The cap is the benefit, not the expense.

12. 12

    Step 12: And the exception to the cap

    The same subsection: the same obligation applies where the management aimed to avoid some imminent and manifest harm, even if no usefulness resulted from it. Whoever acts to avert imminent harm recovers their expenses even if nothing was achieved.

13. 13

    Step 13: Third: remuneration, in two cases

    Subsection (c): remunerate the manager if the management corresponds to the exercise of its professional activity, or if the remuneration is equitable in the circumstances of the case. The Code does not say how that equitable remuneration is computed, and this guide does not fix it.

The Code names no agency for this chapter. Claims for reimbursement, remuneration or damages between manager and interested party are decided by the Court of First Instance.

• Managing against the interested party’s express prohibition and expecting ordinary liability.
• Forgetting that in the four situations of Article 1518 one answers even for fortuitous event.
• Overlooking the written way out: that the management was useful to the interested party.
• Undertaking risky operations a prudent and reasonable person would not have.
• Tending to your own interest first while managing another’s.
• Stepping into a business without the necessary aptitudes, or displacing someone more suitable.
• Believing that without ratification the owner owes nothing: benefiting from it suffices.
• Claiming beyond the benefit received, outside the imminent and manifest harm case.
• Not documenting the expenses, the losses or the benefit the management produced.
• Taking remuneration for granted: it is owed only if the management is of your professional activity or if it is equitable in the case.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Poder Judicial de Puerto Rico

  Poder Judicial

  bvirtualogp.pr.gov