If the work should be of such nature that the part which the lessee and his family require for a dwelling becomes uninhabitable, he may rescind the contract.

ART. 1559. The lessee is obliged to give notice to the owner with the least possible delay of any usurpation or injurious alterations which any other person may have made or openly is preparing to make to the thing leased.

He is also obliged to give notice with the same urgency to the owner of the necessity of all the repairs included in No. 2 of article 1554. In either case the lessee shall be liable for the losses and damages which, by reason of his negligence, may be caused to the owner.

ART. 1560. The lessor shall not be obliged to answer for the mere fact of a trespass made by a third person in the use of the estate leased, but the lessee shall have a direct action against the trespasser. The fact of trespass does not exist if the third person, whether it be the administration or a private person, has acted by virtue of a right belonging to him.

ART. 1561. The lessee must return the estate at the expiration of the lease in the same condition in which he received it, except what may have been destroyed or impaired by time or by unavoidable reasons.

ART. 1562. If, at the time of the lease of the estate, the condition of the same was not mentioned, the law presumes that the lessee received it in good condition, unless there be proof to the contrary.

ART. 1563. The lessee is liable for the deterioration or loss suffered by the thing leased, unless he proves that it took place without his fault.

ART. 1564. A lessee is liable for the impairment caused by the members of his household.

ART. 1565. If the lease has been made for a specified time, it expires on the day previously fixed, without the necessity of any notice.

ART. 1566. If, on the expiration of the contract, the lessee continues enjoying the thing leased for fifteen days with the acquiescence of the lessor, it shall be understood that there is an implied new lease for the time mentioned in articles 1577 and 1581, unless a notice has previously been given.

ART. 1567. In the case of an implied renewal the obligations contracted by a third person for the security of the principal contract shall cease with regard thereto.

ART. 1568. If the thing leased is lost or any of the contracting parties do not comply with what has been stipulated, the provisions of articles 1182, 1183, 1101, and 1124 shall be respectively observed. ART. 1569. The lessor may judicially dispossess the lessee for any of the following causes:

1. Upon the expiration of the conventional period or the one fixed for the duration of leases in articles 1577 and 1581.

2. Default of payment of the price agreed upon.

3. Infraction of any of the conditions stipulated in the contract. 4. When the lessee employs the thing leased in uses or services not stipulated and which cause the same to be impaired, or when he does not comply, with regard to its use, with the provisions of No. 2 of article 1555.

ART. 1570. With the exception of the cases mentioned in the preceding article, the lessee shall have the right to make use of the periods fixed in articles 1577 and 1581.

ART. 1571. The purchaser of a leased estate has a right to terminate the lease in force at the time of making the sale, unless the contrary is stipulated, and the provisions of the mortgage law.

If the purchaser should make use of this right, the lessee may demand that he be permitted to gather the fruits of the crop corresponding to the current agricultural year and that he be indemnified by the vendor for the losses and damages he may have suffered.

ART. 1572. A purchaser with an agreement of redemption can not use the right of dispossessing the lessee until the term for the use of the right of redemption has expired.

ART. 1573. A lessee shall have, with regard to the useful and voluntary improvements, the same rights which are granted a usufructuary. ART. 1574. Should there be no stipulation with regard to the place and time of the payment of rent, the provisions of article 1171 shall govern as to place, and the customs of the land as to time.

SECTION THIRD.-Special provision for leases of rural property.

ART. 1575. A lessee shall not have the right to a reduction of the rent on account of the sterility of the land leased or on account of the loss of the fruits through ordinary fortuitous events, but he shall have said right in case of loss of more than half of the fruits through extraordinary and unforseen fortuitous events unless there is a special agreement to the contrary.

By extraordinary fortuitous events shall be understood fire, war, pestilence, extraordinary inundations, locusts, earthquakes, or any other equally unfrequent events, and which the contracting parties could not have reasonably foreseen.

ART. 1576. Neither shall a lessee have a right to a reduction of the rent, when the fruits have been lost, after having been separated from their roots or trunks.

ART. 1577. The lease of a rural estate, when its duration is not fixed, shall be understood as executed for the full time required for the gathering of the fruits which the whole estate leased might produce in one year, or all it could produce at one time, even though two or more years may be necessary to obtain them.

That of arable lands, divided into two or more crops, shall be considered as executed for as many years as there are crops.

ART. 1578. The outgoing lessee must permit the incoming one the use of the place and of all other necessary means for the preparatory labor for the following year, and, mutually, the latter is obliged to permit the outgoing one all that may be necessary for the gathering and enjoyment of the fruits, all in accordance with the customs of the place.

ART. 1579. Leases for partnerships of arable lands, breeding cattle, and for industrial or manufacturing establishments shall be governed by the provisions relating to articles of copartnership and by the agreements of the contracting parties, and, in their absence, by the customs of the country.

SECTION FOURTH.-Special provisions for the lease of town property.

ART. 1580. In the absence of a special agreement for the repairs of town property, which should be borne by the owner, the customs of

the place shall be observed. In case of doubt, they shall be understood as for the account of the owner.

ART. 1581. Should a term not have been fixed for the lease, it is understood for years, when an annual rent has been fixed, for months, when the rent is monthly, and for days, when it is daily.

In every case the lease ceases without the necessity of a special notice upon the expiration of the term.

ART. 1582. If the lessor of a house, or of a part thereof, destined for a dwelling for a family, or of a store or warehouse or industrial establishment, leases the furniture also, the lease of the latter shall be understood as executed for a time equal to that of the house leased.

CHAPTER THIRD.-Hiring of work and services.

SECTION FIRST.-Services of paid servants and laborers.

ART. 1583. This class of services may be contracted without a fixed period, for a fixed period, or for a specific work. A hiring for life is void.

ART. 1584. A domestic servant hired for a fixed time and to be employed in the personal service of his master, or of the family of the latter, may leave the service or be dismissed before the expiration of the term; but if the master dismisses the servant without sufficient cause, he shall indemnify him by paying him the wages due and those for fifteen additional days.

The master shall be believed, unless there is proof to the contrary1. With regard to the amount of the wages of the domestic servant. 2. With regard to the payment of the wages earned during the current year.

ART. 1585. Besides what is prescribed in the preceding articles with regard to masters and servants, the provisions of special laws and ordinances shall be observed.

ART. 1586. Field hands, mechanics, artisans, and other laborers hired for a certain time and for a certain work can not leave nor be dismissed, without sufficient cause, before the fulfillment of the contract.

ART. 1587. The dismissal of the servants, mechanics, artisans, and other hired laborers to which the preceding articles refer gives the right to dispossess them of the implements and of the buildings which they may occupy by reason fo their duties.

SECTION SECOND.-Works at a price agreed upon or for a lump sum.

ART. 1588. The execution of a work may be contracted for by agreeing that the person who is to execute the same shall give his labor or industry only, or that he furnish the materials also.

ART. 1589. If the person who contracted for the work bound himself to furnish the materials, he shall suffer the loss in case of the destruction of the work before it it delivered, unless there has been delay in receiving it.

ART. 1590. A person who has bound himself to give his labor or industry only can not demand any payment if the work is destroyed before it is delivered, unless there should have been delay in receiving

the same, or if the destruction should have been due to the bad quality of the materials, provided that he may have given due notice of this circumstance to the owner.

ART. 1591. The contractor of a building which may have been destroyed by reason of defects in the construction shall be liable for the losses and damages if said building should collapse within ten years, to be counted from the completion of the construction; and during the same time the same liability shall be incurred by the architect who may have directed the work if the collapse is due to defects in the ground or in the direction.

If the cause should be the noncompliance of the contractor with the conditions of the contract, the action for indemnity may be brought within fifteen years.

ART. 1592. A person who binds himself to do a work by piece or by measure may demand of the owner that he receive it in installments, and that he pay therefor in proportion. The part paid for shall be presumed as approved and received.

ART. 1593. An architect or contractor who, for a lump sum, takes charge of the construction of a building, or of any other work in view of a plan agreed upon with the owner of the ground, can not demand an increase in the price, even if that of the materials or wages has increased, but he may do so when any change increasing the work should be made in the plans, provided the owner has given his

authorization.

ART. 1594. The owner may desist, by his own will, from the construction of the work, even when it has been begun, indemnifying the contractor for all the expenses, labor, and profits which he may have obtained from the same.

ART. 1595. When a certain work has been entrusted to a person by reason of his personal qualifications, the contract is rescinded by the death of said person.

In such case, the owner must pay to the heirs of the constructor, in proportion to the price agreed upon, the value of the part of the work executed, and that of the prepared materials, provided he may obtain any benefit from such materials.

The same shall be understood if the person who contracted for the work can not finish it by reason of any cause independent of his will. ART. 1596. A contractor is responsible for the work done by the persons he employs thereon.

ART. 1597. Those who furnish their labor and materials in a work agreed upon for a lump sum by a contractor have no action against the owner, except for the amount the latter may owe the former when the action is brought.

ART. 1598. When it should be agreed that the work is to be done to the satisfaction of the owner, in the absence of his acceptance the approval is understood as reserved for the proper expert judgment. If the person who has to approve the work is a third person, his

decision shall be final.

ART. 1599. Should there be no agreement or custom to the contrary, the price for the work must be paid upon delivery.

ART. 1600. A person who has executed a work on personal property has the right to retain the same as a pledge until he is paid therfor.

SECTION THIRD.—Transportation by water and land of persons as well as of things.

ART. 1601. Carriers of goods by land or by water shall be subject with regard to the keeping and preservation of the things entrusted to them, to the same obligations as determined for innkeepers by articles 1783 and 1784.

The provisions of this article shall be understood without prejudice to what is prescribed by the Code of Commerce with regard to transportation by sea and land.

ART. 1602. Carriers are also liable for the loss of and damage to the things which they receive, unless they prove that the loss or damage arose from a fortuitous event or force majeure.

ART. 1603. The provisions of these articles are understood without prejudice to the provisions of special laws and regulations.

TITLE VII.-ANNUITIES (CENSOS)."

CHAPTER FIRST.-General provisions.

ART. 1604. An annuity (censo) is constituted when any real property is subjected to the payment of a pension or annual income in compensation for a capital which is received in cash, or for the full or partial ownership of the property which is conveyed.

ART. 1605. An annuity is called emphyteutic (censo enfiteutico) when a person transfers to another the beneficial ownership of an estate reserving to himself the legal ownership and a right to receive from the emphyteuticary an annual income in recognition of such ownership.

ART. 1606. An annuity is transferable or consignative (censo consignativo) when the owner of land imposes upon an estate belonging to him the charge of an income or pension which he binds himself to pay to the lender for a sum in cash which he has received from the

latter.

ART. 1607. An annuity is reservative or set apart (censo reservativo) when a person transfers to another the full ownership of an estate, reserving to himself the right to receive from said estate an annual pension which is to be paid by the owner of the land.

ART. 1608. The nature of the annuity requires that the transfer of the principal or of the estate should be perpetual or for an unlimited time; however, the person paying the annuity may redeem it at his will, even though the contrary should be stipulated, this provision being applicable to annuities actually existing.

It may, however, be stipulated that the redemption of the annuity can not be made during the life of the annuitant or of a specified person, or that it may not be redeemed within a certain number of years, which can not exceed twenty in consignative annuities, nor sixty years in reservative and in emphyteutic annuities.

ART. 1609. In order to carry out the redemption, the person paying the annuity must give notice thereof one year in advance to the annuitant or must pay to him, in advance, the amount of one year's income.

• Censo=Not technically a rent charge, but an annuity charged directly on real estate, and also involving personal liability. (See Art. 1623.)