Short answer. Yes. Article 1788 makes a partner who undertook to contribute money, and failed to do so, a debtor for interest and damages from the time he should have complied with the obligation. Your liability for interest and damages runs from the date you were supposed to pay, not from any later demand.
What the law says
A partner who has undertaken to contribute a sum of money and fails to do so becomes a debtor for the interest and damages from the time he should have complied with his obligation.
Civil Code, Article 1788 — Failure to Contribute Money. Read the full provision →
The debt for interest and damages starts on the due date
Article 1788 provides that a partner who has undertaken to contribute a sum of money and fails to do so becomes a debtor for the interest and damages from the time he should have complied with his obligation. This means the clock does not wait for the other partners to send a demand letter or file a case; it starts running automatically from the date you committed to contribute the money. Since you already know you missed that date, your exposure for interest and damages has been accruing from that point regardless of whether anyone formally called it to your attention.
Why the promised contribution is treated as a debt
A promise to contribute money to a partnership is not a loose aspiration; once made, it becomes an obligation owed to the partnership in the same way a debt is owed to a creditor. The partnership and the other partners typically plan the business around the expectation that each partner's committed contribution will actually arrive on schedule, and a shortfall can disrupt operations, financing, or obligations the partnership has taken on relying on that money. Treating the failure as generating interest and damages from the due date reflects how real that reliance is.
What 'interest and damages' can include
Interest here compensates the partnership for not having the use of the money it was promised during the period of delay, while damages can cover further losses the partnership actually suffered because the contribution did not arrive on time, such as costs incurred to cover the shortfall or opportunities the partnership missed as a result. The exact amount depends on the specifics of your partnership agreement and what losses can genuinely be traced to your delay, rather than being an automatically fixed penalty regardless of the actual impact.
What to do now that the contribution is overdue
Because liability already began accruing from the due date, the most direct way to limit further exposure is to make the contribution as soon as possible and address the interest and damages that accrued during the delay with your co-partners. Reviewing the partnership agreement for anything it specifically says about late contributions is also worthwhile, since any such stipulation would work alongside, rather than replace, the default rule Article 1788 sets for a partner who fails to contribute money as promised.