You received a payment not yours: good faith changes what you return

They are Articles 1522 to 1525 of the Civil Code of 2020: what a bad-faith recipient of an undue payment must return, what a good-faith one owes, how improvements and expenses are credited, and when error is presumed.

Whoever received a payment or a thing that did not correspond to them, and whoever delivered it, under the Puerto Rico Civil Code.

• In bad faith: pay the legal interest if it is capital, or the natural fruits received or that should have been received.Verified against the official source
• In bad faith: answer for the impairments the thing suffered for whatever cause and for the damage caused until it is recovered.Verified against the official source
• In good faith: answer for deterioration or losses only to the extent enriched by them; if the thing was alienated, restore the price or assign the action.Verified against the official source
• Error is presumed where a thing never owed is delivered, payment exceeds what is owed, or an already satisfied debt is paid; the recipient may prove liberality or another just cause.Verified against the official source

• The record of what was delivered and its condition: impairments and deterioration are measured from there.
• The record of the sale and its price, if the good-faith recipient alienated the thing.
• The improvements and expenses made on the thing, credited under the rules for the possessor in good or bad faith.

1. 1

   Step 1: It all turns on whether you knew

   The chapter splits in two depending on whether the recipient knew the payment was not theirs. Article 1522 writes the regime for the one who knew; 1523, for the one who did not.

2. 2

   Step 2: Bad faith: interest or fruits

   Article 1522: whoever has accepted or retained an undue payment, knowing it does not correspond to them, must pay the legal interest if it is capital, or the natural fruits received or that should have been received. Note "or that should have been received": not collecting them is no defence.

3. 3

   Step 3: And answers for nearly anything that happens to the thing

   Second paragraph: it answers for the impairments the thing has suffered for whatever cause and for the damage caused to the one who delivered it until they recover it. "For whatever cause" is a very broad liability, and the article writes it that way.

4. 4

   Step 4: With one written way out

   The same paragraph: it may be released from this liability if it proves the non-imputable cause would have affected the things in the same way had they been in the hands of the one who delivered them. The burden of that proof is on the recipient.

5. 5

   Step 5: Good faith: only as far as you were enriched

   Article 1523: the person who in good faith has accepted an undue payment of a certain and determined thing only answers for its deterioration or losses and those of its accessions, to the extent they have been enriched by them. The measure of the duty is one’s own enrichment, not the other’s loss.

6. 6

   Step 6: And if you already sold it in good faith

   The same article: if they have alienated the thing, they are only obliged to restore the price or to assign the action to make it effective. Two options, and neither is returning the real value if the price was different.

7. 7

   Step 7: Improvements and expenses run on other rules

   Article 1524: the crediting of improvements and expenses made by the person who unduly received the thing is governed by what this Code provides for the possessor in good or bad faith. The Code refers inside itself, to the possession rules, which have their own guide on this site.

8. 8

   Step 8: When error is presumed

   Article 1525, three situations: where a thing is delivered that was never owed, where payment is made in excess of what is owed, and where a debt already satisfied is paid. In all three, the presumption runs in favour of the payer.

9. 9

   Step 9: And how that presumption is rebutted

   The same article: but the person from whom the return is sought may prove that the delivery was made by way of liberality or for another just cause. Two routes: the gift, or any other just cause.

10. 10

    Step 10: Two rules of the same chapter that coexist unexplained

    The article opening the chapter says the restitution of the payment is not subject to its having been made by mistake; Article 1525 builds a presumption of error for three situations. The Code carries both and does not say how they fit. This guide prints both and reconciles neither.

11. 11

    Step 11: What these articles do not carry

    They do not fix the legal interest rate here, do not define good or bad faith, do not say who must prove bad faith, and set no period to claim. None of that is here.

The claim runs against whoever received the payment; the Code names no agency for this chapter. It is decided by the Court of First Instance. The crediting of improvements and expenses is governed by the possession rules, inside the same Code.

• Keeping a payment knowing it does not correspond: that triggers the bad-faith regime of Article 1522.
• Believing returning the capital is enough: in bad faith the legal interest or the fruits are owed too.
• Forgetting that the fruits that should have been received are owed, not only those received.
• Assuming bad faith only answers for what one caused: the article says "for whatever cause".
• Not attempting the one written way out: proving the non-imputable cause would have affected the thing the same in the deliverer’s hands.
• Believing the good-faith recipient answers for the full value: they answer to the extent enriched.
• Expecting the real value of a thing sold in good faith: the article requires restoring the price or assigning the action.
• Looking in these articles for the improvements and expenses rules: they run on the possession rules.
• Overlooking that the recipient may prove the delivery was made by way of liberality or for another just cause.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Poder Judicial de Puerto Rico

  Poder Judicial

  bvirtualogp.pr.gov