Essential Requisites of Contracts General Provisions Art. 1318.

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. Classes of elements of a contract. They are: (1) Essential elements or those without which no contract can validly exist. They are also known as requisites of a contract. They may be subdivided into: (a) those common to all contracts, namely, consent, object, and cause (Art. 1318); and (b) those not common to all contracts or those which must be present only in certain specified contracts, and such peculiarity may be: i) as regards to form, as for example, public instrument in donation of immovable property (Art. 749), delivery in real contracts (Art. 1316), registration in real estate mortgage (Art. 2125) and chattel mortgage (Art. 2140), etc.; or ii) as regards the subject-matter, as for example, real property in antichresis (Art. 2132), personal property in pledge (Art. 2094), etc. or iii) as regards the consideration or cause, as for example, price in sale. (Art. 1458) and in lease (Arts. 1643,1644), liberality in commodatum (Art. 1935) etc. (2) Natural elements or those that are presumed to exist in certain contracts unless the contrary is expressly stipulated by the parties, like warranty against eviction (Art. 1548) or warranty against hidden defects in sale (Art. 1561); and (3) Accidental elements or the particular stipulations, clauses, terms, or conditions established by the parties in their contract (Art. 1306), like conditions, period, interest, penalty, etc. Consent Art. 1319. Consent is manifested by the meeting of the offer and the acceptance upon the thing and the cause which are to constitute the contract. The offer must be certain and the acceptance absolute. A qualified acceptance constitutes a counter-offer. Acceptance made by letter or telegram does not bind the offerer except from the time it came to his knowledge. The contract, in such a case, is presumed to have been entered into in the place wher the offer was made. Offer must be certain. The offer must be certain or definite so that the liability (or the rights) of the parties may be exactly fixed

because it is necessary that the acceptance be identical with the offer to create a contract. Acceptance of offer must be absolute. The acceptance of an offer must be absolute and unqualified, that is, it must be identical in all respects with that of the offer so as to produce consent or meeting of the minds. If the acceptance is qualified, as when it is subject to a condition, it merely constitutes a counter-offer which, in law, is considered a rejection of the original offer and an attempt by the parties to enter into a contract on a different basis. A qualified acceptance must, in turn, be accepted absolutely in order that there will be a contract. Art. 1320. An acceptance may be express or implied. Form of acceptance of offer. An express acceptance may be oral or written. An implied acceptance is one that is inferred from act or conduct. It has been held that where a person accepts the services of another, whether solicited or not, he has the obligation to pay the reasonable value of the services thus rendered upon the implied contract of lease of service unless it is shown that the service was rendered gratuitously or without any expectation that he would pay for the same. Art. 1321. The person making the offer may fix the time, place, and the manner of acceptance, all of which must be complied with. Matters that may be fixed by the offerer. The person making the offer may prescribe the time, the place, and the manner of acceptance, all of which must be complied with. An acceptance departing from the terms of the offer constitutes a counter-offer. Take note that a counter-offer has the effect of extinguishing the offer.