SECTION FIRST.-Conventional redemption.

ART. 1507. Conventional redemption shall take place when the vendor reserves to himself the right to recover the thing sold, with the obligation to comply with article 1518, and whatever more may have been agreed upon.

ART. 1508. The right referred to in the preceding article, in the absence of an express agreement, shall last four years counted from the date of the contract.

Should there be an agreement, the period shall not exceed ten years. ART. 1509. If the vendor should not comply with the provisions of article 1518, the vendee shall irrevocably acquire the ownership of the thing sold.

ART. 1510. The vendor may bring his action against every possessor whose right arises from that of the vendee, even though in the second contract no mention should have been made of the conventional redemption; without prejudice to the provisions of the mortgage law with regard to third persons.

ART. 1511. The vendee substitutes the vendor in all rights and actions.

ART. 1512. The creditors of the vendor can only make use of the conventional redemption against the vendee after having levied upon the property of the vendor.

ART. 1513. A vendee who has made an agreement of resale of a part of an undivided estate and who should acquire the whole estate, in the case of article 404, may oblige the vendor to redeem the whole estate, if the latter wishes to make use of the redemption.

ART. 1514. If several persons, jointly and in the same contract, should sell an undivided estate under condition of redemption, none of them can exercise this right for more than his respective share.

The same shall be observed if the person alone who has sold an estate has left several heirs, in which case each of the latter can only redeem the part which he may have acquired.

ART. 1515. In the cases of the foregoing article, the vendee may demand of all the vendors and coheirs that they come to an agreement with regard to the redemption of the whole of the thing sold; and should they not do so, the vendee can not be forced to a partial redemption.

ART. 1516. Each of the coowners of an undivided estate, who should have sold his share separately, may independently exercise the right of redemption for his respective share and the vendee can not force him to redeem the entire estate.

ART. 1517. Should the vendee leave several heirs, the action of redemption can not be exercised against each of them, except for his respective share, whether it be undivided, or whether it has been distributed among them.

But if the inheritance has been divided, and the thing sold has been awarded to one of the heirs, the action of redemption may be brought against him for the whole.

ART. 1518. The vendor can not exercise the right of redemption without returning to the vendee the price of the sale, and further

more:

1. The expenses of the contract and any other legitimate payment. made by reason of the sale.

2. The useful and necessary expenses incurred by the thing sold. ART. 1519. If, on the execution of the sale, there should be on the estate visible or grown fruits, no indemnity or payment pro rata shall be made for those existing at the time of the redemption.

Should there have been no fruits at the time of the sale, and some exist at the time of the redemption, they shall be divided pro rata between the redeemer and the vendee, giving to the latter the share corresponding to the time he possessed the estate during the last year, counted from the date of the sale.

ART. 1520. The vendor, who should recover the thing sold, shall receive it free of all charges and mortgages imposed by the vendee, but he shall be obliged to respect the lease contracts executed by the latter in good faith and according to the customs of the place where it is located.

SECTION SECOND.-Legal redemption.

ART. 1521. Legal redemption is the right to be subrogated, with the same conditions stipulated in the contract, in the place of the person who acquires a thing by purchase or in payment of a debt.

ART. 1522. A coowner of a thing held in common may exercise the redemption in case the shares of all the other coowners, or of any of them, are sold to a third party.

When two or more coowners wish to exercise the redemption, they shall only do so pro rata with regard to the share they have in the thing owned in common.

ART. 1523. The owners of the adjacent lands shall also have the right of redemption when the sale of a rural estate is involved the area of which does not exceed one hectare.

The right referred to in the preceding paragraph is not applicable to adjacent lands which are divided by brooks, drains, ravines, roads, and other apparent easements for the benefit of other estates.

If two or more adjacent owners should make use of the redemption at the same time, the one who is owner of the adjacent land of lesser area shall be preferred; and, should both be equal in area, the person who first requested it.

ART. 1524. The right of legal redemption can not be exercised except within nine days, counted from the entry in the registry, and in the absence thereof from the time the redeemer may have had knowledge of the sale.

The redemption of coowners excludes that of adjacent owners. ART. 1525. In legal redemptions the provisions of articles 1511 and 1518 shall be observed.

CHAPTER SEVENTH.-Assignments of credits and other incorporeal rights.

ART. 1526. The assignment of a credit, right, or action shall produce no effect against a third person but from the time the date is considered fixed, in accordance with articles 1218 and 1227.

If said assignment involves real property, from the date of its entry in the registry.

ART. 1527. A debtor who, before having knowledge of the assignment, should pay the creditor shall be released from the obligation.

ART. 1528. The sale or assignment of a credit includes that of all the accessory rights, such as the security, mortgage, pledge, or privilege.

ART. 1529. A vendor in good faith shall be liable for the existence and legitimacy of the credit at the time of the sale unless it should have been sold as doubtful, but he shall not be liable for the solvency of the debtor unless it has been expressly stipulated, or if the insolvency should be prior and public.

Even in these cases he shall only be liable for the price received and for the expenses mentioned in No. 1 of article 1518.

The vendor in bad faith shall always be liable for the payment of all the expenses, and for the losses and damages.

ART. 1530. If the assignor in good faith should have made himself liable for the solvency of the debtor, and the contracting parties should not have stipulated anything with regard to the duration of the liability, it shall last one year only, to be counted from the assignment of the credit if the period had already matured.

If the credit should be payable within a term or period which has not yet expired, the liability shall cease one year after its maturity. Should the credit consist of a perpetual income, the liability shall be extinguished after ten years, counted from the date of the assign

ment.

ART. 1531. A person who should sell an inheritance without enumerating the things of which it is composed shall only be obliged to prove that he is an heir.

ART. 1532. A person who sells for a total or lump sum certain rights, incomes, or products, as a whole, shall perform by answering for the legitimacy of the whole in general, but he shall not be obliged to warrant each of the parts of which it may be composed, unless in the case of eviction of the whole or of the greater part.

ART. 1533. Should the vendor have profited by some of the fruits, or should have received anything from the inheritance he should sell, he must pay the vendee therefor, should the contrary not have been agreed upon.

ART. 1534. The vendee must, on his part, pay to the vendor all that the latter may have paid for debts or charges on the estate and for the credits he may have against the same, unless there has been an agreement to the contrary.

ART. 1535. When a litigated credit is sold, the debtor shall have the right to extinguish the same by reimbursing the assignee for the price the latter paid for it, the judicial costs incurred by him, and the interest on the price from the day on which the same was paid.

A credit shall be considered as litigated from the day the suit relating to the same has been answered.

The debtor may make use of his right within nine days, counted from the day the assignee should demand payment of him.

ART. 1536. From the provisions of the foregoing article are ex

cepted the assignments or sales made

1. To a coheir or coowner of the right assigned.

2. To a creditor in payment of his credit.

3. To the possessor of an estate, subject to the right in litigation which has been assigned.

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CHAPTER EIGHTH.-General provision.

ART. 1537. All that is prescribed in this title is understood subject to the provisions of the mortgage law with regard to real property.

TITLE V.-EXCHANGE.

ART. 1538. Exchange is a contract by which each of the contracting parties binds himself to give a thing in order to receive another. ART. 1539. If one of the contracting parties should have received the thing promised to him in exchange, and should prove that it did not belong to the person who gave it, he can not be forced to deliver the one he offered in exchange, and he shall perform by returning the one he received.

ART. 1540. A person who loses by eviction the thing received in exchange may choose between recovering the one which he gave in exchange or demanding an indemnity for losses and damages; but he can only make use of the right to recover the thing which he delivered while said thing remains in the possession of the other party, and, without prejudice to the rights acquired thereto, in good faith in the meantime, by a third person.

ART. 1541. Exchange shall be governed by the provisions relating to sales in all that is not specially fixed in this title.

TITLE VI.-CONTRACTS OF LEASE.

CHAPTER FIRST.-General provisions.

ART. 1542. A lease may be of things, works, or services.

ART. 1543. In a lease of things, one of the parties thereto binds himself to give to the other the enjoyment or use of a thing for a specified time and a fixed price.

ART. 1544. In a lease of works or services, one of the parties binds himself to execute a work or to render a service to the other for a specified price.

ART. 1545. Perishable things, which are consumed by use, can not be the object of this contract.

CHAPTER SECOND.-Leases of rural and town property.

SECTION FIRST.-General provisions.

ART. 1546. A person who binds himself to grant the use of a thing, to execute a work, or to render a service is a lessor; and a person who acquires the use of the thing or a right to the work or service, for which he binds himself to pay, is a lessee.

ART. 1547. When the performance of a contract of verbal lease has begun and the evidence of the price agreed upon is lacking, the lessee shall return to the lessor the thing leased, paying him the price which for the time he has enjoyed such thing may be adjusted.

ART. 1548. The husband can not give in lease the property of the wife, the father and guardian, that of the son or minor, and the administrator of property, not having a special power, for a period exceeding six years.

ART. 1549. With regard to third persons, leases of real property, which are not duly recorded in the registry of property, shall be of no effect.

ART. 1550. Should it not be expressly forbidden in the contract of lease of things, the lessee may sublet the whole or a part of the things. leased without prejudice to his liability for the fulfillment of the contract executed with the lessor.

ART. 1551. A subtenant, without prejudice to his obligation with regard to the sublessor, shall remain bound to the lessor for all the acts which refer to the use and preservation of the thing leased, in the manner agreed upon between the lessor and the lessee.

ART. 1552. The subtenant shall also be bound with regard to the lessor for the amount of the price agreed upon in the sublease, which is due at the time of the summons, considering the payments made in advance as not made, unless he has paid them according to custom.

ART. 1553. The provisions relating to warranty, contained in the title of purchase and sale, are applicable to lease contracts.

In the cases in which the return of the price is proper, a reduction in the price shall be made proportional to the time for which the lessee may have enjoyed the thing.

SECTION SECOND.-Rights and obligations of the lessor and lessee.

ART. 1554. The lessor is obliged:

1. To deliver to the lessee the thing which is the object of the contract.

2. To make thereon, during the lease, all the necessary repairs in order to preserve it in condition to serve for the purpose to which it was destined.

3. To maintain the lessee in the peaceful enjoyment of the lease during all the time of the contract.

ART. 1555. The lessee is obliged:

1. To pay the price of the lease in the manner agreed upon.

2. To use the thing leased as a diligent father of a family would, applying the same to the use agreed upon; and, in the absence of an agreement, to the use which may be inferred from the nature of the thing leased according to the custom of the land.

3. To pay the expenses arising from the instrument constituting the contract.

ART. 1556. If the lessor or lessee should not comply with the obligations mentioned in the preceding articles, they may request the rescission of the contract and indemnity for losses and damages, or only the latter, leaving the contract in force.

ART. 1557. The lessor can not change the form of the thing leased. ART. 1558. If, during the lease, it be necessary to make any urgent repairs in the thing leased which can not be postponed until the expiration thereof, the lessee shall be obliged to permit the work, even though it be very annoying to him, and even if during such repairs he may be deprived of a part of the estate.

If the repairs should last more then forty days, the price of the lease shall be reduced in proportion to the time and to the part of the estate of which the lessee is deprived.