Short answer. Yes. Article 1964 recognizes two ways a deposit can arise: judicially, when a court orders property placed in a custodian's care during a pending case, or extrajudicially, when the parties agree to it or circumstances force it. Which path applies determines whether the custodian answers to the court or to the depositor under the Code's deposit rules.
What the law says
A deposit may be constituted judicially or extrajudicially.
Civil Code, Article 1964 — Judicial or Extrajudicial Deposit. Read the full provision →
The two ways a deposit can arise
A deposit is the delivery of a thing to another person mainly for safekeeping, with an obligation to return it. Article 1964 opens the title's discussion of how that arrangement can come about by naming its two sources. One route runs through the courts, the other runs through the ordinary dealings of private parties or the pressure of an emergency. Every later provision on deposit builds on this basic split, since the rules that follow are grouped according to which of the two branches a given deposit falls under.
What a judicial deposit looks like
A judicial deposit is one a court orders, most often to preserve property that is the subject of a pending case so it is not lost, sold, or dissipated before the dispute is resolved. The person holding the property under such an order acts under the court's supervision and follows the procedure the court sets, rather than a contract the parties negotiated. This form of deposit protects the integrity of litigation itself, keeping the disputed property intact until the court can decide who is entitled to it.
What an extrajudicial deposit looks like
An extrajudicial deposit, by contrast, does not involve a court order at all. It is created either by the free agreement of a depositor and a depositary, or by necessity, such as when a person must leave belongings with someone during a fire, flood, or other emergency and has no real chance to negotiate terms. The following articles in the Code divide this branch further into voluntary and necessary deposits, each carrying its own rules on the depositary's diligence and liability.
Why the source of the deposit matters
Knowing which branch a deposit falls under matters because the source of the deposit shapes the remedies available if something goes wrong. A judicial deposit is enforced and supervised through the case in which it was ordered, so complaints about the custodian's conduct are generally raised in that same proceeding. An extrajudicial deposit, on the other hand, is governed by the Civil Code's own provisions on deposit, so a depositor with a complaint against a depositary ordinarily pursues an ordinary civil action based on those provisions rather than returning to a court that never issued the order in the first place.
Related provisions
- Civil Code, Article 1964 — Judicial or Extrajudicial Deposit
- Civil Code, Article 1963 — Deposit Perfected by Delivery
- Civil Code, Article 1965 — Deposit Generally Gratuitous