OBLIGATION (from Lat. oblige, ligo, to bind). A duty.
A tie which binds us to pay or do some thing agreeably to the laws and customs of the country in which the obligation is made. Inst. 3, 14.
"The relation which exists between two persons of whom one has a private and peculiar right (that is not a mere public or official right, or a right incidental to owner ship or a family relation) to control the other's action by calling upon him to do or forbear some particular thing." Poll., Contr. 4.
The obligation is the bond or chain with which the law joins together persons or groups of persons in consequence of certain voluntary acts. The acts which have the ef fect of attracting an obligation are chiefly those classed under, the heads of Contract and Delict, of agreement and crime. Maine, Anc. Law 323.
A bond containing a penalty, with a con dition annexed, for the payment of money, performance of covenants, or the like, and which differs from a bill, which is generally without a penalty or condition, though it may be obligatory. Co. Litt. 172.
A deed whereby a man binds himself un der a penalty to do a thing. Com. Dig. Ob ligation (A) ; Taylor v. Glaser, 2 S. & R. (Pa.) 502; Denton v. Adams, 6 Vt. 40; Dem ing v. Bullitt, 1 Blackf. (Ind.) 241; Cantey v. Duren, Harp. (S. C.) 434; Harman ‘. Harman, Baldw. 129, Fed. Cas. No. 6,071. The word has a very broad and comprehen sive legal signification and embraces all in struments of writing, however informal, whereby one party contracts with another for the payment of money or the delivery of specific articles. State v. Campbell, 103 N. C. 344, 9 S. E. 410; Morrison v. Lovejoy, 6 Minn. 353 (Gil. 224) ; Sinton v. Carter Co., 23 Fed. 535.
An absolute obligation is one which gives no alternative to the obligor, but requires fulfilment according to the engagement.
An accessory obligation is one which is dependent on the principal obligation ; for example, if I sell you a house and lot of ground, the principal obligation on my part is to make you a title for it; the accessory obligation is to deliver you all the title papers which I have relating to it, to take care of the estate till it is delivered to you, and the like.
An alternative obligation is where a per son engages to do or to give several things in such a manner that the payment of one will acquit him of all.
Thus, if A agrees to give B, upon a suffi cient consideration, a horse, or one hundred dollars, it is an alternative obligation. Poth ier, Obl. pt. 2, c. 3, art. 6, no. 245.
In order to constitute an•alternative obli gation it is .necessary that two or more things should be promised disjunctively ; where they are promised conjunctively, there are as many obligations as the things which are enumerated ; but where they are in the alternative, though they are all due, there is but one obligation, which may be discharged by the payment of any of them.
The choice of performing one of the obliga tions belongs to the obligor, unless it is ex pressly agreed that it shall belong to the creditor ; Dougl. 14; 1 Ld. Raym. 279; Gal loway v. Legan, 4 Mart. N. S. (La.) 167. If one of the acts is prevented by the obligee or the act of God, the obligor is discharged from both. See 2 Evans, Pothie•, Obl. 52; Viner, Abr. Condition (S b) ; CONJUNCTIVE; DISJUNCTIVE ; ELECTION.
A civil obligation is one which has a bind ing operation in law, and which gives to the obligee the right of enforcing it in a court of justice ; in other words, it is an engagement binding on the obligor. Sturges v. Crownin shield, 4 Wheat. (U. S.) 197, 4 L. Ed. 529; Ogden v. Saunders, 12 Wheat. (U. S.) 318, 337, 6 L. Ed. 606.
Civil obligations are divided into express and implied, pure and conditional, primitive and secondary, principal and accessory, ab solute and alternative, determinate and in determinate, divisible and indivisible, single and penal, and joint and several. They are also purely personal, purely real, or mixed.
A conditional obligation is• one the execu tion of which is suspended by a condition which has not been accomplished, and sub ject to which It has been contracted.
A contractual obligation is one which arises from a contract or agreement. See that title.
A determinate obligation is one which has for its object a certain thing: as, an obliga tion to deliver a certain horse named Bucep halus. In this case the obligation can only be discharged by delivering the identical horse.
A divisible obligation is one which, being a unit, may nevertheless be lawfully divided, with or /without the consent of the parties.
It is clear that it may be divided by con sent, as those who made it may modify or change it as they please. But some obliga tions may be divided without the consent of the obligor : as where a tenant is bound to pay two hundred dollars a year rent to his landlord, the obligation is entire; yet, if his landlord dies and leaves two sons, each will be entitled to one hundred dollars ; or if the landlord sells one undivided half of the estate yielding the rent, the purchaser will be entitled to receive one hundred dollars and the seller the other hundred. See AP