Short answer. No, not after the demand. Article 1214 lets a debtor pay any one of the solidary creditors - but it adds that if any demand, judicial or extrajudicial, has been made by one of them, payment should be made to him. Once that creditor demanded, paying a different creditor will not discharge you as against the one who demanded.
What the law says
The debtor may pay any one of the solidary creditors; but if any demand, judicial or extrajudicial, has been made by one of them, payment should be made to him.
Civil Code, Article 1214 — Payment to a Solidary Creditor. Read the full provision →
The default: pay any solidary creditor
When several creditors are solidary, each of them can collect the whole debt, so ordinarily you have a choice. Article 1214 begins with that freedom: The debtor may pay any one of the solidary creditors. Paying whichever one is convenient discharges the debt, because each is entitled to receive full payment on behalf of them all. The one who collects then owes the others their shares among themselves — but that internal accounting is their concern, not yours. Absent anything more, then, your instinct is right: any of the solidary creditors is a proper person to pay.
The demand changes the rule
But the article does not stop there. It continues: but if any demand, judicial or extrajudicial, has been made by one of them, payment should be made to him. A demand by one solidary creditor locks in the proper recipient. The demand may be a lawsuit or a simple out-of-court demand — both count. Once it is made, your freedom to choose ends: payment should go to the creditor who demanded. In your situation, one creditor has already demanded, so that is the creditor you must pay to be safely discharged. Paying another after the demand is not the payment the law directs.
Why the demand controls
The rule prevents a debtor from sidestepping a creditor who has actively asserted the claim. When a creditor takes the step of demanding, the law treats him as the one entitled to receive, so the debtor cannot quietly pay a friendlier co-creditor and defeat the demanding one's move. It also protects you, so long as you follow it: pay the creditor who demanded, and you are discharged, leaving the creditors to settle shares among themselves. The demand simply fixes who, among equals, must now be paid.
What happens if you pay the wrong one
If, after a demand, you pay a different solidary creditor, you risk not being discharged toward the one who demanded — you may be exposed to paying again to the proper creditor. That is the danger the article warns against. To be safe once a demand has been made, direct your payment to the demanding creditor and keep proof of it. The provision does not punish you for the ordinary freedom to choose before any demand; it only redirects that choice the moment a solidary creditor demands, so that payment lands where the law says it should.
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.
- Bank of the Philippine Islands vs. Tacila Fernandez, G.R. No. 173134, September 2, 2015 — read the decision on LawPhil →