Text of the provision
Art. 2158. When the property delivered or money paid belongs to a third person, the payee shall comply with the provisions of article 1984.
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Civil Code of the Philippines, Republic Act No. 386, approved June 18, 1949, effective August 30, 1950. Reproduced in full; verified verbatim against the LawPhil and ChanRobles official-text renderings.
What this article means
Where the property paid belongs to a third person, the payee follows Art. 1984 (the stolen-thing/true-owner rules).
Ordinary solutio indebiti assumes the person who paid by mistake was returning his own money or property, so restitution simply runs back to him. This article addresses the different situation where what was mistakenly delivered actually belonged to someone else — a third person, not the payer. In that case the payee cannot simply treat the matter as a private affair between payer and payee; instead, Article 1984 governs, redirecting the payee's obligations so that the true owner's rights over the thing are protected rather than bypassed by the payer's own mistake.
Questions about this provision
Related provisions
- Article 2157 — Solidary Liability of Payees.
- Article 2159 — Bad-Faith Payee.
Cases interpreting this article
- Authorities on this article will be added here as each is verified against primary sources.