Short answer. Yes. Article 1276 provides that merger which takes place in the person of the principal debtor or creditor benefits the guarantors. Once the principal obligation is extinguished there is nothing left to guarantee, so the accessory undertaking falls with it and your guarantor is out.
What the law says
Merger which takes place in the person of the principal debtor or creditor benefits the guarantors.
Civil Code, Article 1276 — Confusion and Guarantors. Read the full provision →
What the law says
Confusion which takes place in the person of any of the latter does not extinguish the obligation.
Civil Code, Article 1276 — Confusion and Guarantors. Read the full provision →
The guarantor rides on the principal obligation
Article 1276 of the Civil Code begins where the merger does: Merger which takes place in the person of the principal debtor or creditor benefits the guarantors. Inheriting from your creditor puts both characters in you, and Article 1275 extinguishes the obligation from that moment. A guaranty is accessory — it answers for a debt, and it cannot outlive the debt it answers for. So the release of your guarantor is not an act of grace by anyone; it follows automatically, and the creditor's heirs cannot proceed against him for something that no longer exists.
The rule does not work in reverse
The article's second sentence forecloses the mirror argument: Confusion which takes place in the person of any of the latter does not extinguish the obligation. If the guarantor is the one who inherits from the creditor, or otherwise ends up holding both characters in the accessory relation, the principal debt is untouched and the debtor still owes it. Only the guaranty is affected. The direction of travel is always the same — what happens to the principal obligation reaches the accessory, and what happens to the accessory stays there.
Partial merger releases him only in part
Complete merger is uncommon, because inheritance is usually shared. Article 1277 provides that confusion does not extinguish a joint obligation except as regards the share corresponding to the creditor or debtor in whom the two characters concur. If you are one of several heirs of your creditor, only your corresponding share of the debt is extinguished, and the guaranty survives for the balance that is still owed to the other heirs. Work out that fraction before telling anyone he is off the hook, because a guarantor who is released for a quarter is still exposed for three.
What the guarantor should get in writing
Automatic in law is not the same as settled in fact, and a guaranty tends to resurface years later when an account is sold or an estate is closed. Whoever guaranteed the loan should hold documentary proof of the merger — the death certificate, the settlement or the instrument showing the credit passed to the debtor — together with a written confirmation from those now standing in the creditor's place that the balance is nil. If security was registered against his property, ask for its cancellation rather than relying on the extinguishment alone.
Related provisions
- Civil Code, Article 1276 — Confusion and Guarantors
- Civil Code, Article 1275 — Confusion or Merger
- Civil Code, Article 1277 — Confusion in Joint Obligations
- Civil Code, Article 1273 — Remission of Principal vs. Accessory