A personal bond shall be accepted only when it is impossible to give one of the above bonds. The security given by the bondsmen shall not prevent the adoption of any decisions advisable for the preservation of the property of the minor or incapacitated person.

ART. 254. The bond shall secure:

1. The value of the personal property which may come into the possession of the guardian.

2. The income or profits which the property of the minor or incapacitated person may produce during one year.

3. The profits which the minor may receive from any commercial or industrial enterprise during one year.

ART. 255. The guardian may appeal to the courts from the resolutions of the family council fixing the amount or qualifying the bond, but he shall not take possession of his office without having given the bond required of him.

ART. 256. Until the bond is executed the protutor shall discharge the administrative functions which the family council may consider indispensable for the safe-keeping of the property and the collection of its proceeds.

ART. 257. The mortgage bond shall be recorded in the Registry of Property. The pledge bond shall be constituted by the deposit of securities or bonds in the public institutions authorized for this pur

pose.

ART. 258. The record or deposit shall be demanded:

1. By the guardian.

2. By the protutor.

3. By any of the members of the family council.

Those not doing so shall be liable for the loss and damage by reason thereof.

ART. 259. The bond may be increased or reduced, during the exercise of the guardianship, according to the fluctuations suffered by the capital of the minor or incapacitated person and by the securities of which the bond is constituted.

The bond can not be totally canceled until after the accounts of the guardianship are approved and the guardian has extinguished all the liabilities of his management.

ART. 260. The following are exempted from giving bond for guardianship:

1. The father, the mother, and the grandparents, in the cases in which they are designated to the guardianship of their descendants.

2. The testamentary guardian, released by the father, or by the mother in a proper case, from this obligation. This exception shall cease when, subsequently to his appointment, causes not considered by the testator should arise which make the bond necessary, in the opinion of the family council.

3. A guardian appointed, without requiring bond, by a stranger who may have made the minor or incapacitated person his heir or left him an important legacy. In such case the exemption shall be limited to the property or income of which the inheritance or legacy consists.

CHAPTER NINTH.-Exercise of the guardianship.

ART. 261. The family council shall give possession to the guardians and protutors.

ART. 262. The guardian represents the minor or incapacitated person in all civil acts, with the exception of those which the latter may execute personally by express provision of law.

ART. 263. Minors and incapacitated persons subject to guardianship owe respect and obedience to the guardian. He may punish them in moderation.

ART. 264. The guardian is obliged

1. To support and educate the minor or incapacitated person in accordance with his condition and with strict subjection to the orders of his or her parents, or, in the absence of the latter, to those which the family council may have adopted.

2. To endeavor, in any manner whatsoever possible, with the means of the insane, demented, or deaf and dumb to acquire or recover their capacity.

3. To make an inventory of the property which the guardianship may cover within the period fixed for this purpose by the family council.

4. To administer the estate of the minor or incapacitated person with the diligence of a good father of a family.

5. To ask at the proper time the authorization of the family council for all that he can not do without it.

6. To request the assistance of the protutor in all the cases in which the law requires it.

ART. 265. The inventory shall be made with the assistance of the protutor and in the presence of two witnesses selected by the family council. The latter shall decide, according to the importance of the estate, if the inventory is, in addition, to be authorized by a notary.

ART. 266. The jewelry, valuable personal property, public securities, and commercial and industrial securities, which, in the judgment of the family council should not be in the possession of the guardian, shall be deposited in an institution established for this purpose.

The other personal property and chattels, if not appraised, shall be appraised by experts appointed by the family council.

ART. 267. The guardian, who, having been summoned for this purpose through a notary by the protutor or by the witnesses, should not enter in the inventory the credits he holds against the minor, shall be understood as renouncing them.

ART. 268. When the will of the person who appointed the guardian should make no mention of the allowance for support of the minor or incapacitated person, the family council, in view of the inventory, shall decide the part of the income or profit which shall be inverted therein.

This resolution may be modified in proportion to the increase or decrease of the inheritance of the minor or incapacitated person or when the condition of the latter changes.

ART. 209. The guardian requires the authority of the family council1. To impose on the minor the punishments referred to in number 2 of article 155, and in article 156.

2. To give to the minor a particular profession or trade when this has not been decided by the parents, and to modify the provisions they may have adopted.

3. To place the incapacitated person in a sanatorium, unless the guardianship is exercised by the father, the mother, or by a son.

4. To continue the commerce or industry in which the incapacitated person or his ascendants or those of the minor may have been engaged.

5. To alienate or encumber the property constituting the capital of minors or incapacitated persons, or to make contracts or execute instruments subject to record.

6. To invest any money remaining each year, after meeting the obligations of the guardianship.

7. To proceed with the distribution of the inheritance or of any other thing which the minor or incapacitated person may possess in

common.

8. To withdraw from deposit any sum producing interest.

9. To loan and borrow money.

10. To accept without the benefit of inventory any inheritance or to repudiate the latter or the gifts.

11. To incur extraordinary expenses in connection with the estates, the administration of which is included in the guardianship.

12. To compromise and submit to arbitration the questions in which the minor or incapacitated person may be interested.

13. To institute suits in the name of persons subject to guardianship, and to have recourse by appeal and cassation against the judgments in which they may have been rendered.

Complaints and recourses in verbal suits are excepted.

ART. 270. The family council can not authorize the guardian to alienate or encumber the property of the minor or incapacitated person unless it be for reasons of necessity or utility, which the guardian shall duly prove.

This authority shall be exercised in regard to specified things.

ART. 271. The family council, before granting authorization to encumber real property or constitute property rights in favor of third persons, may previously hear the opinion of experts with regard to the conditions of the encumbrance and possibilities of bettering it.

ART. 272. If real property, rights subject to record, jewelry, or personal property the value of which is over 4,000 pesetas, is in question, the alienation thereof shall be made at public auction with the intervention of the guardian or protutor.

Securities quoted on exchange, public as well as commercial or industrial, shall be sold by an exchange agent or by a commercial

broker.

ART. 273. The guardian is liable for the legal interest on the capital of the minor, if by his omission or negligence it should remain unproductive or without investment.

ART. 274. The authorization to settle or compromise through arbitration must be requested in writing, the guardian stating all the conditions and advantages of the transaction.

The family council may receive the report of one or more lawyers, according to the importance of the matter, and shall grant or refuse such authorization. In case of granting it, it shall be stated in the instrument.

ART. 275. Guardians are forbidden

1. To give or renounce things or rights belonging to the minor or incapacitated person.

Gifts made by reason of marriage by minors, with the approval of the persons who are to give their consent to the marriage, shall be valid, provided they do not exceed the limits fixed by law.

2. To collect from the debtors of the minor or incapacitated person, without the intervention of the protutor, amounts over 5,000 pesetas, unless they consist of interests, profits, or income.

Payments made without this requisite shall be valid with regard to the debtors, only when they prove that the amount received was invested for the benefit of the minor or incapacitated person.

3. To pay, without the intervention of the protutor, any sums due themselves.

4. To buy themselves, or through another person, the property of the minor or incapacitated person, unless they have been expressly authorized thereto by the family council.

ART. 276. The guardian is entitled to compensation from the property of the minor or incapacitated person

When it has not been fixed by those who appointed the testamentary guardian; or when the guardians are legitimate or appointed by the court, the family council shall fix it, taking into consideration the amount of the property and the labor entailed in its administration.

In no case shall the compensation be less than 4 per cent nor more than 10 per cent of the net income or proceeds of the property.

The guardian may appeal to the courts from the decision fixing his compensation.

ART. 277. Should the family council maintain its decision, it shall litigate at the expense of the minor or incapacitated person.

ART. 278. The guardianship terminates

1. When the minor attains the age of twenty-three years, by qualification as to age, and by adoption.

2. By the cessation of the causes giving rise thereto, when incapacitated persons subject to interdiction or prodigals are in question.

CHAPTER TENTH.-Accounts of the guardianship.

ART. 279. Collateral relatives of the minor or incapacitated person, and strangers who have not obtained the appointment of guardian, with the assignment of proceeds for support, shall render to the family council annual accounts of their administration.

These accounts, after being examined by the protutor and audited by the council, shall be deposited in the office of the clerk of the court where the guardianship has been registered.

If the guardian does not agree to the decision of the council, he may apply to the courts in which the interests of the minor or incapacitated person shall be defended by the protutor.

ART. 280. The guardian, who may be replaced by another, shall, as well as his heirs, be obliged to render a general account of his guardianship to the one taking his place, which shall be examined and audited in the manner prescribed in the preceding article. The new guardian shall be liable to the minor for any losses and damages, should he not demand and examine the accounts of his predecessor. ART. 281. When the guardianship terminates, the guardian or his heirs are obliged to render an account of the administration to the

person who may have been subject thereto or to his personal or legal representatives.

ART. 282. The general accounts of the guardianship shall be audited and passed upon by the family council within a period not exceeding six months.

ART. 283. The accounts shall be accompanied by the proper vouchers. The only expenses which need not be proved are the minor ones. for which a diligent father of a family does not generally ask a receipt.

ART. 284. The expenses of rendering the accounts shall be borne by the minor or incapacitated person.

ART. 285. The legal representatives of the minor, or the latter if of age, can not enter into any agreement with the guardian relating to the administration of the guardianship until fifteen days have elapsed since the accounts duly proven were rendered.

The family council, without prejudice to the agreements the interested parties may come to after the expiration of this period, shall complain to the courts of any wrong which may have been committed by the guardian in the exercise of the guardianship.

ART. 286. The balance appearing from the general accounts in favor of or against the guardian shall earn legal interest.

In the first case, from the time payment is requested of the minor, after the delivery of his property.

In the second case, from the date of rendering the accounts, if they were rendered within the legal period, and, if not, from the expiration thereof.

ART. 287. The actions, which may mutually be brought by the guardian and the minor by reason of the exercise of the guardianship, are extinguished five years after the termination of the latter.

CHAPTER ELEVENTH.-Registration of guardianships.

ART. 288. In the courts of first instance there shall be one or more books in which there shall be entered the guardianships constituted during the year within their respective territories.

ART. 289. These books shall be in charge of a judicial clerk, who shall make the entries gratuitously.

ART. 290. The record of each guardianship shall contain

1. The name, surname, age, and domicile of the minor or incapacitated person, and the extent and limit of the guardianship when the incapacity has been judicially declared.

2. The name, surname, profession, and domicile of the guardian, and a statement as to whether he is a testamentary or legitimate guardian or was appointed by the court.

3. The date on which the guardianship was conferred, and the day on which the bond required of the guardian was given, stating, in a proper case, the kind of property in which it was constituted.

4. The allowance for support which may have been assigned the minor or incapacitated person or the statement that proceeds for support have been allowed.

ART. 291. At the foot of each record there shall be entered at the beginning of the judicial year whether the guardian has rendered an account of his administration, in case he is obliged to do so.