Short answer. A deposit is necessary, rather than voluntary, when the depositor has no real freedom to choose the depositary or negotiate the terms, typically due to an emergency such as fire, earthquake, or calamity leaving no time to bargain. Article 1967 places both types under the extrajudicial deposit, with separate rules in the articles that follow.
What the law says
An extrajudicial deposit is either voluntary or necessary.
Civil Code, Article 1967 — Voluntary or Necessary. Read the full provision →
How Article 1967 splits the extrajudicial deposit
Article 1967 draws the extrajudicial deposit, the branch established by Article 1964 as running outside the courts, into two further categories. The dividing line is not the nature of the object deposited but the circumstances under which the depositor handed it over. That single distinction then determines which set of rules in the Code applies to the arrangement, since the provisions that follow are organized around this split.
What makes a deposit voluntary
A voluntary deposit is entered into freely: the depositor chooses the depositary, and both sides agree to the arrangement without any external pressure forcing the decision. This is the ordinary case most people picture when they think of leaving valuables with someone for safekeeping, such as asking a relative or a business to hold an item for a period of time. Because the depositor had the opportunity to choose carefully, the Code generally expects an ordinary standard of diligence from the depositary.
What makes a deposit necessary
A necessary deposit arises instead where the depositor is left with little or no choice, most commonly during a calamity such as fire, flood, earthquake, or a similar event where property has to be entrusted to whoever is available in order to save it. The law also treats certain deposits made by travelers with hotel keepers, and deposits made by minors or persons without full capacity to contract, as necessary deposits, since neither situation allows for the ordinary bargaining that a voluntary deposit assumes.
Why the classification matters
The classification affects the depositary's obligations and the depositor's remedies if the property is lost or damaged. Because a necessary deposit is imposed by circumstance rather than choice, the law tends to hold the depositary to standards that protect a depositor who had no real opportunity to select someone trustworthy or negotiate protective terms. Anyone forced to leave belongings with a stranger during an emergency, or a guest leaving valuables at a hotel, is dealing with a necessary rather than a voluntary deposit, with the corresponding protections that follow from that classification. The classification does not, by itself, decide who is liable if the item is lost; that still turns on whether the depositary exercised the diligence the law demands of that type of deposit, and a depositary who breaches that duty remains answerable in damages regardless of which category applies.
Related provisions
- Civil Code, Article 1967 — Voluntary or Necessary
- Civil Code, Article 1966 — Only Movables
- Civil Code, Article 1968 — Voluntary Deposit