Short answer. No. Under Article 1811, your right in specific partnership property is not subject to attachment or execution except on a claim against the partnership itself. A creditor chasing your personal debt cannot seize the firm's trucks, equipment or land, because that property is not yours alone to give up.
What the law says
A partner's right in specific partnership property is not subject to attachment or execution, except on a claim against the partnership.
Civil Code, Article 1811 — Co-Ownership of Specific Property. Read the full provision →
You co-own the property with your partners
Article 1811 begins by saying a partner is co-owner with his partners of specific partnership property. This is a special kind of co-ownership, not the ordinary sort where each owner can freely deal with his slice. Its whole point is to keep partnership assets dedicated to the partnership's business. You have an equal right with your partners to possess that property, but only for partnership purposes; you cannot use it for anything else without their consent. Because the property belongs to the firm's venture rather than to you as an individual, your private affairs — including a personal debt — cannot be paid out of it.
Personal creditors are locked out of firm assets
The key protection is in the third incident of that co-ownership: a partner's right in specific partnership property is not subject to attachment or execution, except on a claim against the partnership. So a creditor with a judgment against you personally cannot attach the firm's delivery van or its inventory to collect. Only a claim against the partnership itself reaches partnership property. The article adds that when partnership property is attached for a genuine partnership debt, the partners cannot hide behind the homestead or exemption laws. The line is clear: firm property answers for firm debts, not for the private debts of one partner.
What your creditor can reach instead
This does not leave your personal creditor empty-handed; it just points him elsewhere. Article 1811 also says your right in specific partnership property is not assignable except in connection with the assignment of rights of all the partners in the same property, and it cannot be reached to satisfy a partner's separate obligation of legal support. What a personal creditor can pursue is your separate interest in the partnership — your share of the profits and surplus — through the remedies the Code provides for that, rather than by grabbing individual assets off the firm's floor. The distinction protects the business and the other partners from being disrupted by one partner's private troubles.
Cases citing this provision
These Supreme Court decisions cite the provision above. We list them so you can read them yourself; the summaries of what each decided are not ours to give.
- Roger V. Navarro vs. Hon. Jose L. Escobido, Presiding Judge, RTC, Branch 37, Cagayan de Oro City, and Karen T. Go, doing business under the name Kargo Enterprises, G.R. No. 153788, November 27, 2009 — read the decision on LawPhil →
- Arcadio and Maria Luisa Carandang vs. Heirs of Quirino A. De Guzman, et al, G.R. No. 160347, November 29, 2006 — read the decision on LawPhil →