Short answer. No. Article 1233 provides that a debt is not understood to have been paid unless the thing or service in which the obligation consists has been completely delivered or rendered. Partial payment discharges nothing on its own, and you cannot be compelled to receive it as a settlement.

What the law says

A debt shall not be understood to have been paid unless the thing or service in which the obligation consists has been completely delivered or rendered, as the case may be.

Civil Code, Article 1233 — Payment Must Be Complete. Read the full provision →

Payment means the whole of it

Article 1233 of the Civil Code sets the standard: A debt shall not be understood to have been paid unless the thing or service in which the obligation consists has been completely delivered or rendered, as the case may be. Payment as the Code understands it is complete performance, not a gesture toward it. A debtor who tenders sixty per cent has not paid the debt; he has reduced it. He cannot label the cheque as full settlement and treat your banking of it as the end of the matter, because the character of the payment is fixed by what the obligation required, not by what he wrote on the voucher.

You cannot be compelled to take instalments

Article 1248 is the companion rule and the one to cite when a debtor insists. Unless there is an express stipulation to that effect, the creditor cannot be compelled partially to receive the prestations in which the obligation consists, and neither may the debtor be required to make partial payments. The article does carry one qualification worth knowing: where the debt is in part liquidated and in part unliquidated, the creditor may demand and the debtor may effect payment of the liquidated part without waiting for the rest to be worked out. Outside that situation, a schedule of instalments is something you agree to, not something imposed on you.

The trap is in how you accept it

Declining the money is rarely what a creditor actually wants, and taking it is safe enough if you take it correctly. The danger is Article 1235, under which an obligee who accepts performance knowing its incompleteness or irregularity, and without expressing any protest or objection, is treated as having been fully complied with. So the acceptance has to carry your objection with it. Receive the amount expressly on account and without prejudice to the balance, say so in writing at the time rather than weeks later, and make sure the receipt you issue describes it as partial payment.

Watch the wording he puts on the payment

Full-settlement language is usually the whole point of the offer, and it appears in the covering letter, on the face of the cheque, or in a quitclaim sent along for signature. Do not sign a release for a sum smaller than the debt unless you mean to compromise, and reply in writing to any letter describing the tender as final. If the parties genuinely intend to settle for less, that is a compromise and belongs in a properly drawn agreement stating the balance being given up. Silence in the face of a full-settlement letter is the risk worth eliminating today.

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.

Related provisions

Note. Statute text quoted on this page is reproduced from the official enactment and is linked to the full provision. The explanation around it is general legal information from Vivas & Nobles Law Office, not legal advice. Whether it applies to your situation depends on facts only a lawyer reviewing them can assess.