Short answer. Yes. Article 1975 makes a depositary who holds interest-bearing certificates, bonds or securities bound to collect the interest when it falls due and to take the steps needed to preserve the instruments' value and attached rights — but this duty does not apply to a rented safety deposit box.
What the law says
The depositary holding certificates, bonds, securities or instruments which earn interest shall be bound to collect the latter when it becomes due, and to take such steps as may be necessary in order that the securities may preserve their value and the rights corresponding to them according to law.
Civil Code, Article 1975 — Interest-Bearing Instruments Deposited. Read the full provision →
What the law says
The above provision shall not apply to contracts for the rent of safety deposit boxes.
Civil Code, Article 1975 — Interest-Bearing Instruments Deposited. Read the full provision →
Safekeeping paper that earns money is more than storage
Depositing income-producing paper is not like leaving a suitcase. Certificates, bonds and interest-bearing instruments generate money and carry rights — coupons that mature, interest that falls due, corporate actions that must be answered by a date. If the person holding them simply locks them away and does nothing, value is lost that no amount of careful storage recovers: an uncollected coupon can lapse, and a right exercisable only within a window disappears when the window closes. So the law treats a depositary of this kind of property as having an active duty, not merely a passive one, because passivity here is itself a form of loss.
The duty to collect and to preserve value
Article 1975 states it directly: The depositary holding certificates, bonds, securities or instruments which earn interest shall be bound to collect the latter when it becomes due, and to take such steps as may be necessary in order that the securities may preserve their value and the rights corresponding to them according to law. Two obligations sit inside that sentence. The first is to collect interest as it matures. The second is broader — to do what is necessary to keep the instruments and their rights intact. A holder who lets interest go uncollected, or who ignores a step needed to preserve value, has fallen short of the standard the article sets.
Why a rented safety deposit box is carved out
There is a deliberate limit. The article's final sentence provides: The above provision shall not apply to contracts for the rent of safety deposit boxes. A safety deposit box is a different arrangement. The bank rents you a sealed compartment, but it does not know or control what you place inside and has no access to act on it. It cannot collect a coupon it never sees. So the collection-and-preservation duty attaches to true safekeeping of identified securities handed over for the purpose, not to the rental of a private space whose contents remain entirely yours to watch over and manage.
What this means for someone leaving securities
In practice the distinction decides who was responsible when income is lost. If you handed specific bonds or certificates to someone for safekeeping and interest went uncollected or a right lapsed, Article 1975 gives you a footing to hold that holder answerable, because collecting and preserving were part of what the deposit obliged. If the instruments sat in a box you rented, the loss is ordinarily yours, since the arrangement never asked the bank to act. Either way, what settles it is the document that created the relationship — the deposit agreement or the box lease — so keep it, and note the maturity dates that matter.