When what is promised is conduct: doing, not doing, and undoing bad work

They are Subsections Two and Three of Section One of Chapter II of Title I of Book Four of the Civil Code of 2020, Articles 1077 to 1082. They cover obligations whose content is not handing over a thing but behaving in a certain way: doing something, or abstaining from it.

Anyone bound to perform an act or render a service, and anyone bound to abstain from something or to tolerate another’s activity, whether by contract or by any of the other sources of obligations.

• That the object be performing an act or rendering a service, for an obligation to do; or abstaining from something or tolerating another’s activity, for one not to do.Verified against the official source
• Rendering the activity with appropriate diligence where what is owed is the activity and not the success: subsection (a) of Article 1078.Verified against the official source
• Performing in person where the quality and circumstances of the debtor’s person were taken into account when the obligation was constituted.Verified against the official source

• The document or evidence of what was agreed, because whether the activity, the concrete result or the effective result was owed comes from it.
• Evidence of what was done or left undone, which grounds both performance at the debtor’s cost and the order to undo it.

1. 1

   Step 1: What an obligation to do is

   Article 1077 defines it plainly: it is one whose object consists in performing an act or in rendering a service. It covers both the one-off act and the service rendered over time.

2. 2

   Step 2: Three levels of commitment

   Article 1078 lists them. The performance may consist in carrying out a certain activity, with appropriate diligence, but independently of its success; in procuring the creditor a certain concrete result, independently of its effectiveness; or in procuring the creditor the effective result promised. Knowing which of the three the promise falls into decides what must be proven when something goes wrong.

3. 3

   Step 3: If what is done ends in a thing

   The same Article 1078 says it at the end: if the result of the debtor’s activity consists in a thing, the rules on obligations to give apply to its delivery. That is, preservation, accessories, expenses and risk come to be governed by Articles 1066 and following.

4. 4

   Step 4: When you hired that person and no other

   Article 1079 protects that expectation: if the quality and circumstances of the debtor’s person were taken into account when the obligation to do was constituted, the creditor cannot be compelled to receive the performance or service from a third party. It is not that a third party cannot perform; it is that the creditor cannot be forced to accept it.

5. 5

   Step 5: If they do not do it, or do it badly

   Article 1080 gives two remedies in a single sentence: if the person bound to do something does not do it or, on doing it, contravenes the tenor of the obligation, the performance is ordered carried out at the debtor’s cost; and the creditor may also demand that what was badly done be undone. The second is cumulative, not alternative: it says "also".

6. 6

   Step 6: What an obligation not to do is

   Article 1081 puts two distinct duties into the same figure: it imposes on the debtor the duty to abstain from doing something that, without the prohibition, they could freely do, or the duty to tolerate another person’s activity. Putting up with what someone else does is also not-doing.

7. 7

   Step 7: If the abstention is broken

   Article 1082 gives three things at once: the creditor has the right to request the appropriate provisional remedies to stop the breach from continuing, to demand that what was improperly done be undone, if it can be undone, and in both cases to demand the resulting damages. Note the condition on the second remedy: if it can be undone.

Performance at the debtor’s cost, the order to undo and the provisional remedies are granted by the Court of First Instance. The procedural rules for those remedies are not in the Civil Code and we did not read them for this guide.

• Demanding the result where what was promised was the activity with appropriate diligence, independently of its success.
• Carelessly accepting performance by a third party where that person was engaged for their quality and circumstances.
• Asking only for damages where Article 1080 also allows ordering performance at the debtor’s cost.
• Forgetting that bad work can be ordered undone, not merely paid for.
• Believing "not doing" is only abstaining: it is also the duty to tolerate another’s activity.
• Waiting for a not-to-do breach to end instead of requesting provisional remedies to stop it continuing.
• Asking that improper work be undone where it cannot be undone: the article conditions it.
• Ignoring that, where what is done ends in a thing, delivery is governed by the rules on obligations to give.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Poder Judicial de Puerto Rico

  Poder Judicial

  bvirtualogp.pr.gov