Short answer. Yes. Article 1598 lets the court shape a specific-performance decree either unconditionally or with terms and conditions on damages, payment of the price, and other matters it considers just. A buyer who wins specific delivery can therefore still be ordered to pay the price, cover certain damages, or meet other conditions as part of the same decree.
What the law says
Where the seller has broken a contract to deliver specific or ascertained goods, a court may, on the application of the buyer, direct that the contract shall be performed specifically, without giving the seller the option of retaining the goods on payment of damages.
Civil Code, Article 1598 — Buyer's Right to Specific Performance. Read the full provision →
What the law says
The judgment or decree may be unconditional, or upon such terms and conditions as to damages, payment of the price and otherwise, as the court may deem just.
Civil Code, Article 1598 — Buyer's Right to Specific Performance. Read the full provision →
Why the court needs this flexibility
Ordering a seller to hand over specific goods rarely resolves everything else about the transaction — the buyer may still owe part of the price, the seller may still be entitled to some damages for the delay, and practical questions like where and when delivery happens still need an answer. Article 1598 gives the court room to fold all of that into a single decree rather than forcing separate proceedings.
What an unconditional decree looks like
Where nothing else needs sorting out — the price is fully paid and no offsetting damages are in play — the court can simply order delivery outright, without attaching any conditions. This is the simplest form the decree can take and reflects a case where specific performance is the only outstanding issue between the parties. A defendant facing this simplest form of decree cannot ask the court to reopen settled facts about payment or damages at this stage, since those matters are already resolved by the time delivery is ordered outright.
What a conditional decree can require of the buyer
More often, the court's order comes with strings attached. It may direct delivery on the condition that the buyer simultaneously pays the remaining price, or that damages the seller is entitled to for some other reason are deducted or separately satisfied. The statute expressly allows the court to condition delivery on payment of the price and on damages, so the buyer's own obligations do not simply disappear because the seller lost the case.
The limit on the seller's side
What the seller cannot get, even through a conditional decree, is the option of keeping the goods and simply paying damages instead of delivering — that escape route is exactly what this article closes off once a court orders specific performance. Any conditions the court imposes run toward making the exchange fair and complete, not toward letting the seller buy his way out of delivering.
When this remedy is actually available
Specific performance under this article is tied to specific or ascertained goods — a particular car, a numbered parcel of equipment, a named quantity already set aside for the buyer — rather than to goods that are still generic or interchangeable. For ordinary fungible goods still to be sourced from stock, damages typically remain the buyer's practical remedy instead. This distinction binds the remedy itself, not the underlying sale, which remains valid and enforceable for damages either way.
Related provisions
- Civil Code, Article 1598 — Buyer's Right to Specific Performance
- Civil Code, Article 1597 — Seller's Rescission for Buyer's Breach
- Civil Code, Article 1600 — How Sales Are Extinguished