They bought your debt mid-lawsuit: you can settle it for what they paid

They are Articles 1220 and 1221 of the Civil Code of 2020, closing the title on the transmission of obligations. They give the debtor of a credit in litigation the right to extinguish it by paying the buyer what it cost them, and set a short period to exercise it.

The debtor of a credit assigned while litigious, that is, after the complaint was answered. It does not apply to the three assignments Article 1221 excepts.

• That the credit was litigious when assigned: it is held litigious from the moment the complaint is answered.Verified against the official source
• Invoking the right within the caducidad period of thirty (30) days, counted from when the assignee claims payment from the debtor.Verified against the official source
• Reimbursing three items: what the assignee paid, the costs incurred, and the interest on the payment from the day it was made.Verified against the official source
• That the assignment not be any of the three Article 1221 excepts.Verified against the official source

• Evidence of what the assignee paid for the credit and of the costs incurred, which is what must be reimbursed.
• The record of the date the assignee claimed payment, because the thirty days run from it.

1. 1

   Step 1: The right, in one sentence

   Article 1220 grants it thus: if a litigious credit is assigned, the debtor has the right to extinguish it by reimbursing the assignee what the assignee paid, the costs incurred, and the interest on the payment from the day it was made. Note the measure: what the buyer paid, not what they are claiming.

2. 2

   Step 2: Three items, not one

   Returning the price is not enough. The article requires what was paid, the costs incurred and the interest on the payment from the day it was made. How much that interest is, this article does not say, and this guide does not invent it.

3. 3

   Step 3: When a credit is litigious

   The second paragraph fixes it without margin: a credit is held litigious from the moment the complaint is answered. Filing the complaint is not enough; the answer is needed. If the assignment happened before that moment, this right does not arise.

4. 4

   Step 4: Thirty days, and they are caducidad

   The third paragraph sets the clock: the debtor may invoke their right within the caducidad period of thirty days, counted from when the assignee claims payment from them. The Code calling it caducidad is not a detail: in its Articles 1206 to 1209, caducidad terms begin when the law determines and only the law may provide for their interruption or suspension; the parties’ acts do not affect their running.

5. 5

   Step 5: From when they are counted

   Not from the assignment nor from when you learned of it: from when the assignee claims payment from you. That is the fact that starts the thirty days, and it is worth having a record of its date.

6. 6

   Step 6: The three excepted assignments

   Article 1221 names them: excepted is the assignment made to a co-heir or co-owner of the assigned right; the one made to a creditor in payment of their credit; and the one made to the possessor of a property subject to the litigious right being assigned. In those three cases the debtor cannot extinguish the credit for the assignment price.

The right is invoked against the assignee claiming payment, and if there is a case, before the Court of First Instance hearing it. When a complaint is deemed answered and how costs are taxed is governed by the Rules of Civil Procedure, which we did not read for this guide. The Code names no agency here.

• Counting the thirty days from the assignment: they run from when the assignee claims payment.
• Believing the period can be interrupted by talking to the assignee: it is caducidad, and the parties’ acts do not affect its running.
• Reimbursing only the price: the costs incurred and the interest on the payment from the day it was made must be added.
• Invoking the right for a credit assigned before the complaint was answered: it was not yet litigious.
• Counting from the filing of the complaint instead of from its answer.
• Trying it against a co-heir or co-owner of the assigned right.
• Trying it where the assignment was made to a creditor in payment of their own credit.
• Trying it against the possessor of a property subject to the assigned litigious right.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Poder Judicial de Puerto Rico

  Poder Judicial

  bvirtualogp.pr.gov