Short answer. No, unless it was otherwise agreed. Article 2115 provides that the debtor is not entitled to the excess if the price of the sale exceeds the debt, interest and expenses. The same article works the other way too: a shortfall is the creditor's loss, and no stipulation can change that.

What the law says

If the price of the sale is more than said amount, the debtor shall not be entitled to the excess, unless it is otherwise agreed. If the price of the sale is less, neither shall the creditor be entitled to recover the deficiency, notwithstanding any stipulation to the contrary.

Civil Code, Article 2115 — Sale Extinguishes the Obligation (No Deficiency). Read the full provision →

The auction closes the account both ways

Article 2115 begins by stating that the sale of the thing pledged extinguishes the principal obligation whether or not the proceeds equal the debt, interest and expenses. Everything else follows from that. Once the item is sold, the account is settled by operation of law — there is no remaining balance to refund and none to collect. The surplus stays with the creditor and the shortfall stays with him too. It is a rough trade, and the roughness is deliberate: a pledge is a small, quick, security-based transaction that the law does not want turning into an accounting dispute.

The two halves are not equally rigid

Read the wording closely, because the article treats the parties differently. The excess belongs to the creditor unless it is otherwise agreed, so a debtor who negotiated a right to the surplus keeps it. The deficiency, by contrast, cannot be recovered notwithstanding any stipulation to the contrary — that side is not open to bargaining at all. The law leaves the borrower free to improve his position by contract while refusing to let the lender improve his. That asymmetry is the article's whole point.

It only applies to a real pledge, properly sold

Two conditions sit behind the result. There must be a pledge, which under Article 2093 requires the thing to have been placed in the possession of the creditor or of a third person by common agreement — the ordinary pawnshop arrangement. And the sale must be the one Article 2112 describes: before a Notary Public, at public auction, with notification to the debtor and the owner stating the amount for which the sale is to be held. A disposal that ignored those formalities is not the sale the article is talking about, and that is where a grievance about the price usually has to start.

Where the money really goes

If the item was worth far more than the loan, the loss happened at the auction, not in the article. So look at how the auction ran. Article 2113 lets the owner bid and gives him a better right if he matches the highest bidder, and it invalidates the creditor's own bid where he is the only bidder. Article 2116 requires the pledgee promptly to advise the owner of the result. If you were never told the auction was happening, the complaint is about the sale itself rather than about who keeps the surplus.

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.