Short answer. Yes. Under Article 1382, payments made by an insolvent debtor for obligations that were not yet enforceable at the time of payment are rescissible. The law treats this as a form of fraud on the other creditors, since the debtor had no legal compulsion to pay early and did so while unable to meet all obligations.
What the law says
Payments made in a state of insolvency for obligations to whose fulfillment the debtor could not be compelled at the time they were effected, are also rescissible.
Civil Code, Article 1382 — Rescissible Payments in Insolvency. Read the full provision →
Why premature payment by an insolvent debtor is rescissible
When a debtor is insolvent, every payment to one creditor reduces what is available for the rest. The law ordinarily allows a debtor to choose which debts to pay first among those that are already due and demandable. But paying a debt that is not yet due — when the creditor cannot legally compel payment — is different. The debtor is voluntarily giving away assets, ahead of schedule, to one creditor at the expense of others. Article 1382 treats that as a rescissible act, giving creditors the ability to undo it and recover those assets for fair distribution.
Two conditions that must both be met
For Article 1382 to apply, two things must be true at the moment of payment. First, the debtor must have been in a state of insolvency — unable to pay all debts as they fall due. Second, the obligation paid must have been one the debtor could not be compelled to fulfill at that time — meaning it was not yet due, was subject to a condition that had not occurred, or was otherwise premature. A payment of a legitimately overdue debt by an insolvent debtor does not fall under this article.
What rescission accomplishes
Rescinding the payment under Article 1382 unwinds the transaction: the money or property paid is returned to the debtor's estate where it becomes available to satisfy the claims of all creditors in an orderly and equitable manner. The creditor who received the early payment does not necessarily lose the underlying debt — they simply lose the advantage gained by being paid ahead of time. Their claim returns to the pool and they share with the other creditors according to whatever priority rules apply.
Who can bring the action and why it matters
The rescission action is available to creditors who are prejudiced by the premature payment — those who are now left with less because one creditor was favored ahead of schedule. In practice, this often arises in insolvency or liquidation proceedings, where a trustee or administrator reviews recent payments and identifies those that can be recovered. If you are a creditor of an insolvent debtor who you believe made such a payment to another party, a lawyer can advise you on whether the facts support a rescission claim and how to pursue it within the available legal framework.