Short answer. There is no contract unless three requisites concur: consent of the contracting parties, an object certain which is the subject matter of the contract, and a cause of the obligation which is established. Missing any one of these means no valid contract has come into existence.
What the law says
There is no contract unless the following requisites concur: (1) Consent of the contracting parties; (2) Object certain which is the subject matter of the contract; (3) Cause of the obligation which is established.
Civil Code, Article 1318 — Essential Requisites of a Contract. Read the full provision →
Consent: the parties actually agreed
The first requisite is consent — a genuine meeting of minds between the contracting parties on the terms of the agreement. Without real consent, freely given by parties capable of giving it, there is no contract regardless of what a written document might otherwise say. Consent obtained through defects such as mistake, violence, intimidation, undue influence, or fraud does not satisfy this requirement in the way the law intends, since the agreement it produces is not the genuine assent the law requires.
Object: a certain subject matter
The second requisite is an object certain which is the subject matter of the contract. The thing, service, or right the contract is about must be identifiable — determinate or at least determinable — rather than so vague that neither party can say with any certainty what is actually being contracted for. A supposed agreement with no ascertainable subject matter fails this requirement.
Cause: the reason the obligation is undertaken
The third requisite is a cause of the obligation which is established — the underlying reason or consideration for each party's undertaking. In a sale, for instance, the cause for the seller is the price, and the cause for the buyer is the thing sold. A contract without a real, lawful cause, or with a cause that turns out to be false or fictitious, does not meet this third requirement, and a purported agreement lacking any legitimate cause fails at this step even if consent and a subject matter otherwise appear present.
All three must concur — none is optional
The statute's wording is unambiguous: there is no contract unless these three requisites concur, meaning all three must be present together. The absence of any single one — consent, a certain object, or an established cause — means no valid contract exists at all, not merely a defective or voidable one. This is the foundational test every agreement must pass before the more specific rules governing particular kinds of contracts even come into play.
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.
- Belinda Alexander vs. Spouses Jorge and Hilaria Escalona and Reygan Escalona, G.R. No. 256141, July 19, 2022 — read the decision on LawPhil →
- Vicente Manzano, Jr. vs. Marcelino Garcia, G.R. No. 179323, November 28, 2011 — read the decision on LawPhil →
- First Philippine Holding Corporation vs. Trans Middle East (Phils.) Equities Inc, G.R. No. 179505, December 4, 2009 — read the decision on LawPhil →
- Reyes, et al. vs. Calumpang. et al, G.R. No. 138463, October 30, 2006 — read the decision on LawPhil →