Article 1459.
The thing must be licit and the vendor must have a right to transfer the ownership
thereof at the time it is delivered.
Object of Contracts
Article 1347. All things which are not outside the commerce of men, including future things, may be
the object of a contract. All rights which are not intransmissible may also be the object of contracts.
No contract may be entered into upon future inheritance except in cases expressly authorized by law.
All services which are not contrary to law, morals, good customs, public order or public policy may
likewise be the object of a contract. (1271a)
Article 1348. Impossible things or services cannot be the object of contracts. (1272)
Article 1349. The object of every contract must be determinate as to its kind. The fact that the
quantity is not determinate shall not be an obstacle to the existence of the contract, provided it is
possible to determine the same, without the need of a new contract between the parties.
Article 1434. When a person who is not the owner of a thing sells or alienates and delivers it, and later
the seller or grantor acquires title thereto, such title passes by operation of law to the buyer or
grantee.
Nature and Form of the Contract
Article 1458. By the contract of sale one of the contracting parties obligates himself to transfer the
ownership and to deliver a determinate thing, and the other to pay therefor a price certain in money
or its equivalent.
A contract of sale may be absolute or conditional. (1445a)
Article 1459. The thing must be licit and the vendor must have a right to transfer the ownership
thereof at the time it is delivered. (n)
Article 1460. A thing is determinate when it is particularly designated or physical segregated from all
others of the same class.
The requisite that a thing be determinate is satisfied if at the time the contract is entered into, the
thing is capable of being made determinate without the necessity of a new or further agreement
between the parties. (n)
Article 1461. Things having a potential existence may be the object of the contract of sale.
The efficacy of the sale of a mere hope or expectancy is deemed subject to the condition that the
thing will come into existence.
The sale of a vain hope or expectancy is void. (n)
Article 1462. The goods which form the subject of a contract of sale may be either existing goods,
owned or possessed by the seller, or goods to be manufactured, raised, or acquired by the seller after
the perfection of the contract of sale, in this Title called "future goods."
There may be a contract of sale of goods, whose acquisition by the seller depends upon a contingency
which may or may not happen. (n)
Article 1463. The sole owner of a thing may sell an undivided interest therein. (n)
Article 1464. In the case of fungible goods, there may be a sale of an undivided share of a specific
mass, though the seller purports to sell and the buyer to buy a definite number, weight or measure of
the goods in the mass, and though the number, weight or measure of the goods in the mass, and
though the number, weight or measure of the goods in the mass is undetermined. By such a sale the
buyer becomes owner in common of such a share of the mass as the number, weight or measure
bought bears to the number, weight or measure of the mass. If the mass contains less than the
number, weight or measure bought, the buyer becomes the owner of the whole mass and the seller is
bound to make good the deficiency from goods of the same kind and quality, unless a contrary intent
appears. (n)
Article 1465. Things subject to a resolutory condition may be the object of the contract of sale. (n)
Article 1505. Subject to the provisions of this Title, where goods are sold by a person who is not the
owner thereof, and who does not sell them under authority or with the consent of the owner, the
buyer acquires no better title to the goods than the seller had, unless the owner of the goods is by his
conduct precluded from denying the seller's authority to sell.
Nothing in this Title, however, shall affect:
(1) The provisions of any factors' act, recording laws, or any other provision of law enabling the
apparent owner of goods to dispose of them as if he were the true owner thereof;
(2) The validity of any contract of sale under statutory power of sale or under the order of a court of
competent jurisdiction;
(3) Purchases made in a merchant's store, or in fairs, or markets, in accordance with the Code of
Commerce and special laws. (n)
Article 1506. Where the seller of goods has a voidable title thereto, but his title has not been avoided
at the time of the sale, the buyer acquires a good title to the goods, provided he buys them in good
faith, for value, and without notice of the seller's defect of title.
Article 559. The possession of movable property acquired in good faith is equivalent to a title.
Nevertheless, one who has lost any movable or has been unlawfully deprived thereof, may recover it
from the person in possession of the same.
If the possessor of a movable lost or which the owner has been unlawfully deprived, has acquired it in
good faith at a public sale, the owner cannot obtain its return without reimbursing the price paid
therefor.
