ART. 1816. A subsurety, in case of the insolvency of the surety for whom he bound himself, remains liable to the cosureties in the same terms as the surety was bound.

CHAPTER THIRD.-Extinguishment of security.

ART. 1847. The obligation of the surety shall expire at the same time as that of the debtor, and for the same causes as all other obligations.

ART. 1848. A merger which takes place in the person of the debtor and of the surety when one of them inherits from the other does not extinguish the obligation of the subsurety.

ART. 1849. If the creditor voluntarily accepts real estate or any other goods in payment of the debt, even should he afterwards lose them on account of eviction, the surety shall be released.

ART. 1850. Liberation, made by a creditor of one of the sureties without the consent of the others, shall benefit all the others to the extent of the portion of the surety to whom it has been granted.

ART. 1851. The extension granted to the debtor by the creditor, without the consent of the surety, extinguishes the security.

ART. 1852. The sureties, even when they are joint, shall be released from their obligation whenever by any act of the creditor they can not be subrogated to the rights, mortgages, and privileges of the same. ART. 1853. A surety may set up against the creditor all the exceptions which pertain to the principal debtor and which may be inherent to the debt; but not those which may be purely personal to the debtor.

CHAPTER FOURTH.-Legal and judicial security.

ART. 1854. Sureties, who must act by provision of law or by a judicial decree, shall possess the qualifications prescribed in article 1828. ART. 1855. If the person who is bound to give security, in the cases of the preceding article, should not obtain it, a pledge or mortgage which may be considered sufficient to cover his obligation shall be admitted in place thereof.

ART. 1856. A judicial surety can not demand a levy on the property of the principal debtor.

A subsurety who offers security for a surety, in the same case, can not demand either a levy on the property of the debtor nor on that of the surety.

TITLE XV.-CONTRACTS OF PLEDGE, MORTGAGE, AND ANTICHRESIS.

CHAPTER FIRST.-Provisions common to pledge and mortgage.

ART. 1857. The following are essential requisites of the contracts of pledge and of mortgage:

1. That they be constituted to secure the fulfillment of a principal obligation.

2. That the thing pledged or mortgaged is owned by the person who pledges or mortgages it.

3. That the persons who constitute the pledge or mortgage have the free disposition of their property, and, should they not have it, that they are legally authorized for the purpose.

Third persons, strangers to the principal obligation, may secure the latter by pledging or mortgaging their own property.

ART. 1858. It is also essential in these contracts that when the principal obligation is due, the things of which the pledge or mortgage consists may be alienated to pay the creditor.

ART. 1859. A creditor can not appropriate to himself the things given in pledge or mortgage, nor dispose of them.

ART. 1860. The pledge and the mortgage are indivisible, even if the debt should be divided among the legal representatives of the debtor or of the creditor.

Therefore, an heir of the debtor who may have paid a part of the debt can not request that the pledge or mortgage be proportionally extinguished as long as the debt has not been paid in full.

Neither can the heir of the creditor, who received his part of the debt, return the pledge nor cancel the mortgage to the prejudice of the other heirs who have not been paid.

From these provisions is excepted the case in which there are several things given in mortgage or pledge and each of them secures only a specified part of the credit.

The debtor in such case shall be entitled to have the pledge or mortgage extinguished in proportion as he pays the part of the debt for which each thing is specially liable.

ART. 1861. Contracts of pledge and mortgage may secure all kinds of obligations, either pure or subject to conditions precedent or subsequent.

ART. 1862. A promise to constitute a pledge or mortgage gives rise only to a personal action among the contracting parties, without prejudice to the criminal liability which a person incurs who defrauds another, offering in pledge or mortgage as unincumbered things which he knew were incumbered, or pretending to be the owner of things which do not belong to him.

CHAPTER SECOND.-Pledge.

ART. 1863. Besides the requisites mentioned in article 1857 it is necessary, in order to constitute the contract of pledge, that the pledge should be placed in possession of the creditor or of a third person by common consent.

ART. 1864. All personal property which is the object of commerce may be given as a pledge, provided it be capable of being possessed. ART. 1865. A pledge shall not be effective against a third person, when evidence of its date does not appear in a public instrument. ART. 1866. A contract of pledge gives a right to the creditor to retain the thing in his possession or in that of the third person to whom it may have been delivered until his credit is paid.

If, while the creditor retains the pledge, the debtor should contract with him another debt demandable before the first one has been paid, the former may extend the retention until both credits are paid him, even should it not have been stipulated that the pledge should be subject to the security for the second debt.

ART. 1867. The creditor must take care of the thing given in pledge with the diligence of a good father of a family; he has a right to recover the expenses incurred for its preservation and is liable for its loss or deterioration, in accordance with the provisions of this code.

ART. 1868. If the pledge produces interest, the creditor shall set off that collected by him against that due him, and if none is due him, or to the extent that it exceeds that legally due, he shall charge it to the principal.

ART. 1869. As long as the thing given in pledge is not taken by eminent domain, the debtor continues to be the owner thereof.

Nevertheless, the creditor may exercise the actions which pertain to the owner of the thing pledged, in order to reclaim or defend it against a third person.

ART. 1870. The creditor can not make use of a thing given in pledge without the authorization of the owner, and should he do so, or misuse said thing in any other manner, the latter may demand that it be made a depositum.

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ART. 1871. The debtor can not demand the restitution of the thing pledged, against the will of the creditor, until he has paid the debt and its interest, with the expenses, in a proper case.

ART. 1872. A creditor to whom the debt has not been paid at the proper time may proceed, before a notary, to alienate the pledge. This alienation must necessarily take place at public auction, and with the citation of the debtor and of the owner of the pledge, in a proper case. If the pledge should not have been alienated at the first auction a second one, with the same formalities, may be held; and should no result be attained the creditor may become the owner of the pledge. In such case he shall be obliged to give a discharge for the full amount of his credit.

If the pledge should consist of securities quoted on exchange, they shall be sold in the manner prescribed in the code of commerce.

ART. 1873. With regard to pawnshops and other public institutions which by their character or special purpose loan money on pledge, the special laws and regulations relating thereto, and subsidiarily the provisions of this title, shall be observed.

CHAPTER THIRD.-Mortgage.

ART. 1874. The following property only can be the subject of a mortgage contract:

1. Real property.

2. Property rights in real estate which can be alienated in accordance with law.

ART. 1875. Besides the requisites mentioned in article 1857, it is indispensable, in order that the mortgage may be validly constituted, that the instrument in which it is created be entered in the registry of property.

The persons in whose favor the law creates a mortgage shall have no other right than to demand the execution and entry of the instrument in which the mortgage may be constituted, without prejudice to the provisions of the mortgage law in favor of the State, provinces, and towns for the amount of the last year's taxes, and in favor of the underwriters for the premium of the insurance.

ART. 1876. A mortgage directly and immediately subjects the property on which it is imposed, whoever its possessor may be, to the fulfillment of the obligation for the security of which it was created.

ART. 1877. A mortgage includes the natural accessions, improvements, growing fruits, and rents not collected when the obligation is due, and the amount of the indemnities granted or due the owner by the underwriters of the property mortgaged or by virtue of the exercise of eminent domain by reason of public utility, with the declarations, amplifications, and limitations established by law, in case the estate continues in the possession of the person who mortgaged it, as well as when it passes into the hands of a third person.

ART. 1878. A mortgage credit may be alienated or assigned to a third person, wholly or partially, with the formalities required by law.

ART. 1879. A creditor may demand from the third possessor of the property mortgaged the payment of the part of the credit secured with what the latter may possess, in the terms and with the formalities established by law.

ART. 1880. The form, extension, and effects of the mortgage, as well as all that relating to its creation, modification, and extinction, and all that which may not have been included in this chapter, shall be subject to the provisions of the mortgage law, which continues in force.

CHAPTER FOURTH.-Antichresis.

ART. 1881. By antichresis a creditor acquires a right to receive the fruits of real property of his debtor, with the obligation to apply them to the payment of interest, if due, and afterwards to the principal of his credit.

ART. 1882. A creditor is obliged to pay the taxes and charges which burden the estate, unless there is an agreement to the contrary. He shall also be obliged to pay the expenses necessary for its preservation and repair.

From the fruits there shall be deducted the sums which he may employ for both purposes.

ART. 1883. The debtor can not recover the enjoyment of the real property without previously paying in full what he owes to his creditor.

But the latter, in order to free himself from the obligations imposed on him by the preceding article, may always compel the debtor to reenter upon the enjoyment of the estate, unless there be an agreement to the contrary.

ART. 1884. The creditor does not acquire the ownership of the real property by nonpayment of the debt within the term agreed upon.

Any stipulation to the contrary shall be void. But in this case the creditor may demand, in the manner prescribed in the law of civil procedure, the payment of the debt or the sale of the realty.

ART. 1885. The contracting parties may stipulate that the interest of the debt be set off against the fruits of the estate given in antichresis.

ART. 1886. The last paragraph of article 1857, the second paragraph of article 1866, and articles 1860 and 1861 are applicable to this contract.

TITLE XVI.-OBLIGATIONS CONTRACTED WITHOUT AGREEMENT.

CHAPTER FIRST.-Quasi contracts.

ART. 1887. Quasi contracts are licit and purely voluntary acts by which the author thereof becomes obligated with regard to a third person, and, sometimes, by which there results a reciprocal obligation between the parties concerned.

SECTION FIRST.-Management of another's business.

ART. 1888. A person who voluntarily takes charge of the agency or administration of the business of another, without authorization, is obliged to continue managing the same until the end of the business and its incidents, or to notify the interested person in order that the latter may come to substitute him in his management, should he be in a condition to do so for himself.

ART. 1889. An officious manager must fulfill his charge with all the diligence of a good father of a family and indemnify for injuries which, through his fault or negligence, may be caused to the owner of the property or business he may be managing.

Nevertheless. the courts may reduce the amount of the indemnity, according to the circumstances of the case.

ART. 1890. If the manager should delegate all or some of the duties of his charge to another person, he shall answer for the acts of the delegate, without prejudice to the direct obligation of the latter to the owner of the business.

The liability of the managers, should there be two or more, shall be joint.

ART. 1891. The manager of a business shall be liable for a fortuitous event, should he undertake risky transactions, which the owner was not in the habit of undertaking, or should he have relegated the interests of the latter in favor of his own business.

ART. 1892. The ratification of the management by the owner of the business produces the effects of an express authorization.

ART. 1893. The owner of property or a business who avails himself of the advantages of the administration of another, even when he has not expressly ratified it, shall be liable for the obligations contracted for his benefit, and he shall indemnify the administrator for the necessary and useful expenses which he may have incurred and for the losses he may have suffered in the discharge of his duties.

The same obligation shall pertain to said owner when the object of said administration should have been to avoid any imminent or manifest damage, even when no profit results therefrom.

ART. 1894. When, without knowledge of the person who is bound to give support, a stranger supplies it, the latter shall have the right to demand the same from the former, unless it appears that he gave it out of charity, and without the intention of recovering it.

The funeral expenses, in proportion to the status of the person and to the customs of the locality, must be paid by those who during life would have had the obligation to support him, even though the deceased should have left no property.