Title First: Transfer of Creditor's Claim

Article 280

Article 280 - The creditor may assign his right to another person, unless the possibility of such assignment is excluded by the strictly personal nature of the legal relationship established between two determined persons once and for all.

Article 281

Article 281 - Rights affected by any modalities whatsoever can be assigned, even if they are purely potential. The assignment of a disputed right, in the context of which a lawsuit is pending on the merits, is valid but only if it takes place with the consent of the assignor-debtor. The effects of such an assignment remain governed by the competence point of view under Article 3 of Law No. 17 of February 1928 (Law No. 17 of February 1928, which was published in the Official Gazette No. 2142 of February 17, 1928, is no longer in force). However, it will not be possible to release the assignee when he is a legal claimant who allows him to enjoy the disputed rights, such as when he is the heir of the assignor, his partner or his creditor.

Article 282

Article 282 - The assignment is complete between the parties from the moment the agreement is reached among them; except in cases where the operation is done gratuitously, the application of special rules regarding form to gifts inter vivos.

Article 283

Article 283 - As regards third parties, and particularly as regards the transferred debtor, transmission exists only through notification of transfer made to the debtor or by the debtor's acceptance of the declared transfer in a dated instrument. As long as one of these formalities has not been fulfilled, the debtor is released validly from the hands of the assignor; and if the latter has consented to two successive assignments for the same claim, the assignee who first complied with the law takes precedence over the other, even if their acquisition title is the most recent.

Article 284

The transferor must deliver to the transferee his title of credit and invest it with all means at his disposal for proof and realization of the transferred right. He is liable towards the transferee, unless the transaction was gratuitous, as to the existence and validity of the transferred right at the time of transfer; but not as to the debtor's solvability; whereas if the agreement were to decide otherwise on this point, the scope of the clause should be limited, unless a contrary provision is made, to the current solvability, and liability would be limited to the sale price.

Article 285

Article 285 - The assignment transfers to the assignee the claim with all its accessories, such as the guarantee, privilege, pledge, and real immovable securities in accordance with the property code and real rights law, but also with the defects it had and the inherent particularities. The debtor may therefore oppose the assignee with the exceptions and defenses he could have used against the assignor. However, this is not the case when he has given his acceptance without reservations; he is then deemed to have waived, by that very act, the defenses he had until then.

Article 286

Article 286 - The preceding rules are applicable not only to assignments of claims, but also to assignments of any rights whatsoever, unless a contrary provision of the law or an impediment resulting from the nature of the right exists.

Article 287

Article 287 - The assumption of debt may be carried out either by a convention concluded between the creditor and the assuming party or by an agreement entered into between this latter and the debtor. In the latter case, its effectiveness is subject to the approval of the creditor; until then, the parties may modify the operation or even cancel it. If the creditor refuses his approval, the assumption of debt is annulled; if he gives it, it produces effect retroactively as from the day of the agreement entered into between the debtor and the assuming party. The approval cannot intervene unless after the parties have given notice to the creditor of the assumption of debt; it must intervene within a time limit set during said notification, or in a morally necessary period for taking a decision.

Article 288

Article 288 - Real securities survive the assumption of debt; but personal securities are extinguished, except for the consent given by the guarantors to the operation that occurred.

Article 289

Article 289 - The defenses inherent to the debt pass from the debtor to the assignee, but the personal defenses of the former debtor cannot be invoked by the new one, who may instead assert his own defenses and exceptions.