Title Third: Means Granted to the Creditor to Enforce the Obligation Due to Him (Right of Retention - Direct Action - Indirect Action - Paulian Action)
Article 268
Article 268 - The creditor has a general pledge right, not against the debtor's assets considered individually, but against the debtor's estate as a whole, in its generality. This right, which makes the creditor the universal owner of the debtor's property, does not confer on him, by itself, any right of succession or preferential right: all chirographary creditors are, in principle, placed on the same footing, without distinction based on the date of the emergence of their rights, and reserving legitimate causes of preference arising from law or convention.
Article 269
Article 269 - The right of pledge of creditors includes attributes that are as many means placed at their disposal to obtain the satisfaction to which they are entitled. Among these means, some are purely conservatory, while others directly aim at forced execution, and a third intermediate category between the two preceding ones constitutes the prelude and preliminary steps to this execution.
Article 270
Article 270 - Conserving measures, such as affixing seals or recording a mortgage or interrupting an ongoing prescription, can be taken by any creditor, even if their right is subject to a term or condition.
Article 271
Article 271 - Execution procedures can only be used by the creditor whose right is current and enforceable. These measures are primarily composed of executory seizures; they also include the procedure for distraints (Article 251) and the right of retention, namely the right that belongs to any person who is both a creditor and a debtor, in connection with the same transaction or situation, to refuse execution as long as the other party does not offer to fulfill its own obligations.
Article 272
Article 272 - The right of retention belongs not only to the creditor-debtor under any synallagmatic contract, but also whenever there is debitum cum re junctum, i.e., a connection between the claimed performance and the claim held by the retainer in relation to said performance; for example, it belongs to the possessor, usufructuary, or holder of a hypothecated property, without distinction being made between movable and immovable property, nor between a good faith retainer and a bad faith retainer. However, the right of retention is refused to the holder of lost or stolen goods or whose legitimate owner was deprived by violence.
Article 273
Article 273 - The right of retention, founded on detention, ceases with it; however, if the creditor has been victimized by a clandestine or violent relocation, he may claim restoration to the previous situation provided that he acts within 30 days from the time he became aware of the relocation.
Article 274
Article 274 - Under the benefit of this peculiarity, the right of retention does not confer upon its holder either a right of succession or even a right of preference; but it is opposable to all in that the retainer may refuse to relinquish the thing, regardless of the personality of their opponent.
Article 275
Article 275 - Intermediate measures that prepare the realization of the creditor's pledge without consummating it are indirect action, Paulian action, and benefit from the separation of assets.
Article 276
Article 276 - Creditors may exercise against their debtor all the rights or actions that belong to him, except those exclusively attached to his person and primarily those whose object remains outside of their pledge. They cannot rely on this prerogative to substitute themselves for the debtor in the management of his estate, despite the poor state of his affairs, as long as the debtor continues to have direction over it. They may immediately exercise indirect action without having to be previously subrogated into their debtor's rights and actions, even if they do not possess an executable title; however, they can only initiate this procedure if their claim is due. The results of the action are common to all creditors, without the creditor who took the initiative enjoying any advantage whatsoever relative to others.
Article 277
Article 277 - In the case where the law exceptionally grants direct action to creditors; the results will exclusively go to the plaintiff who does not have to share the benefit with other creditors. This procedure can only be initiated in cases where it is established by a formal text, which is subject to strict interpretation.
Article 278
Article 278 - Creditors whose claim is due may, in their personal capacity, request the revocation of acts that the debtor would have performed to the detriment of their rights and by which he would have determined or worsened his insolvency: those by which he would have only neglected to enrich himself are exempt from revocatory action. This action, known as the Paulian action, may reach persons with whom the debtor has fraudulently dealt; however, it succeeds against gratuitous assignees only if they are convicted of complicity with said debtor. The results of the Paulian action are realized exclusively to the benefit of the one or those who exercised it and in the strictly necessary measure to safeguard their rights: for the surplus, the act remains and continues to produce all its effects. This action prescribes within a period of ten years.