Short answer. Yes. Under Article 1844, a limited partnership is formed if there has been substantial compliance in good faith with the requirements for signing, swearing to, and filing the certificate. Minor slips in the certificate do not defeat the partnership, provided the organisers honestly tried to meet the law's demands and did so in substance.
What the law says
A limited partnership is formed if there has been substantial compliance in good faith with the foregoing requirements.
Civil Code, Article 1844 — Formation of a Limited Partnership. Read the full provision →
The standard is substantial, not perfect, compliance
Article 1844 sets out a detailed list of what a limited partnership's certificate must contain and requires that it be signed, sworn to, and filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. But the closing line softens the demand: A limited partnership is formed if there has been substantial compliance in good faith with the foregoing requirements. The law does not insist on flawless, letter-perfect paperwork. If the organisers have met the requirements in their essentials and acted honestly, the limited partnership comes into being. A trivial defect or omission that does not mislead anyone will not, by itself, prevent formation, because the test is substance and good faith, not technical perfection.
Two conditions: substance and good faith
The forgiveness in the article has two linked parts. There must be substantial compliance — the certificate must hit the important marks, such as identifying the partnership as limited, its business, the members and their status, and the contributions. And there must be good faith — an honest effort to comply, not a deliberate evasion dressed up as a minor slip. A group that genuinely tried to follow the requirements but made a small error is protected. A group that knowingly left out or misstated material information cannot shelter under substantial compliance, because bad faith defeats the very condition the article sets.
Why the requirements matter to outsiders
The certificate requirements are not busywork. They exist so that people dealing with the firm can learn who the general partners are, who the limited partners are, and what stands behind the business. The limited partner's shield from full liability is a privilege the law grants in exchange for this public disclosure. That is why formation turns on real, if imperfect, compliance: the point is that the essential information reached the record. A defect that hides something material from creditors is not the kind of harmless slip the article overlooks, since it undercuts the disclosure that justifies limited liability in the first place.
The risk of falling short
Where compliance is not even substantial, or where good faith is missing, the intended limited partnership may fail to form as such. The consequence can be serious for the would-be limited partners: without a validly formed limited partnership, a person who meant to be a limited partner may find himself treated like a general partner, exposed to the firm's obligations beyond his contribution. So the article is both a safety net and a warning. It rescues honest, essentially complete filings, but it does not license careless or dishonest ones. The safest course remains to complete the certificate properly and file it as the law directs.