Of the Rules which govern several Obligations, and joint Obligations.

ART. 2079.-Several obligations, although created by one act, have no other effects than the same obligations would have had, if made by separate contracts; therefore they are governed by the rules which apply to all contracts in general,

ART. 2080.-In every suit on a joint contract, all the obligors must be made defendants, and no judgment can be obtained against any, unless it be proved that all joined in the obligation, or are by law presumed to have done so.

ART. 2081.—In a suit on a joint obligation, judgment must be rendered against each defendant separately, for his proportion of the debt or damages, if the suit resolves itself into damages. If the suit be for a specific performance, each defendant may be compelled to execute his proportion of the obligation, if the nature of the case permit and justice require it. The proportion, meant by this and the succeeding articles, is calculated by the number of the obligors, each one answering for an equal part,unless the parties have expressed a different intention.

ART. 2082.-If one of the obligors in a joint obligation has performed or discharged his part of the obligation, although he must be joined in the suit, on account of the eventual interest he has for the repetition of his payment, if the contract be disproved or annulled; yet, if the contract be affirmed, the defendant, who has paid his proportion or performed his part, shall have judgment. The judgment for the costs is in solido against all the defendants who have not paid or performed their parts.

S III.

Of the Rules which govern Obligations between
Creditors in solido."

ART. 2083. The obligation is in solido, or joint and several between several creditors, when the title expressly gives to each of them the right of demanding payment of the total of what is due, and when the payment made to any one of them discharges the debtor, although the benefit of the obligation be to be shared and divided among the different creditors.

ART. 2084.-It is at the option of the debtor to pay any one of the creditors in solido, as long as he has not been prevented by a suit instituted by one of them.

Yet if one the creditors in solido remits the debt, the debtor is hereby exonerated only as to the part coming to that individual creditor.

ART. 2085.-Every act, which interrupts prescription with regard to one of the creditors in solido, avails the other creditors.

S IV.

Of the Rules which govern Obligations with respect to Debtors in solido.

ART. 2086.-There is an obligation in solido on the part of the debtors, when they are all obliged to the same thing, so that each may be compelled for the whole, and when the payment which is made by one of them, exonerates the others towards the creditor.

ART. 2087.-The obligation may be in solido, although one of the debtors be obliged differently from the other to the payment of one and the same thing; for instance, if the one be but conditionally bound, whilst the engagement of the other is pure and simple, or

if the one is allowed a term which is not granted to the other.

ART. 2088.-An obligation in solido is not presumed; it must be expressly stipulated.

This rule ceases to prevail only in cases where an obligation in solido takes place of right by virtue of some provisions of the law.

ART. 2089.-The creditor of an obligation contracted in solido may apply to any one of the debtors he pleases, without the debtor's having a right to plead the benefit of division.

ART. 2090.—A suit brought against one of the debtors does not bar the creditors from bringing suits on the same account against the others.

ART. 2091.-If the thing due has perished through the fault of one or more debtors in solido, or while he or they delayed to deliver it, the other creditors are not discharged from the obligation of paying the value of the thing, but the latter are not liable for damages.

The creditor can claim damages only from the debtors by whose fault the thing was lost, and from those who delayed to deliver it.

ART. 2092.-A suit brought against one of the debtors in solido, interrupts prescription with regard to all.

ART. 2093.-A demand of interest made of one of the debtors in solido, makes interest run with respect to all.

ART. 2094.-A co-debtor in solido, being sued by the creditor, may plead all the exceptions resulting from the nature of the obligation, and all such as are personal to himself, as well as such as are common to all the creditors.

He cannot plead such exceptions as are merely personal to some of the other co-debtors.

ART. 2095.-When one of the debtors becomes sole heir of the creditor, or when the creditor becomes sole heir of one of the debtors, the confusion extinguishes

the debt in solido only for the part and portion of the debtor or of the creditor.

ART. 2096.-The creditor who consents to the division of the debt with regard to one of the co-debtors, still has an action in solido against the others, but under the deduction of the part of the debtor whom he has discharged from the debt in solido.

ART. 2097.-The creditor, who receives separately the part of one of the debtors, without reserving in the receipt the debt in solido or his right in general, renounces the debt in solido, only with regard to that debtor.

The creditor is not deemed to remit the debt in solido to the debtor, when he receives from him a sum equal to the portion due by him, unless the receipt specifies that it is for his part.

The same is to be observed of the mere demand made of one of the co-debtors, for his part, if the latter has not acquiesced in the demand, or if a judgment has not been given against him.

ART. 2098.-The creditor, who receives separately and without reservation the portion of one of the codebtors in the arrearages or interest of the debt, loses his claim in solido only as to the arrearages and interest due, and not as to those that may in future become due, nor as to the capital, unless the separate payment has been continued during ten successive years.

ART. 2099.-The obligation contracted in solido towards the creditor, is of right divided amongst the debtors, who, amongst themselves, are liable each only for his part and portion.

ART. 2100.-If one of the co-debtors in solido pays the whole debt, he can claim from the others no more than the part and portion of each.

If one of them be insolvent, the loss occasioned by his insolvency must be equally shared amongst all the

other solvent co-debtors and him who has made the

payment.

ART. 2101.-In case the creditor has renounced his action in solido against one of the debtors, and one or more of the other co-debtors become insolvent, the portion of the insolvent shall be made up, by equal contribution, by all the debtors, and even those precedently discharged from the debt by the creditor in solido, shall contribute their part.

ART. 2102.-If the affair, for which the debt has been contracted in solido, concern only one of the co-obligees in solido, that one is liable for the whole debt towards the other co-debtors, who, with regard to him, are considered only as his securities.

ART. 2103.-There are many contracts in which the obligation is declared by law to be in solido, without any express stipulation to that effect; these will be found in the different chapters which treat of such contracts.

SECTION VII.

Of Obligations Divisible and Indivisible.

ART. 2104.-An obligation is divisible or indivisible, according as it has for its object, either a thing which, in its delivery, or a fact which in its execution, is or is not susceptible of division, whether material or intellectual.

ART. 2105.-The obligation is indivisible, though the thing or the fact which is the object of it, be by its nature divisible, if the light, in which it is considered in the obligation, does not admit of its being partially executed.

ART. 2106.-The stipulation in solido does not give to the obligation the character of indivisibility.