COMMUTATIVE CONTRACT: CHARACTERISTICS AND EXAMPLE - ARTE - 2025

A commutative contract is a civil legal convention where each of the contracting parties grants and receives an equivalent and reciprocal value. After carrying out a thorough examination of the contracts, it can be concluded that it is of the utmost importance for those who study legal sciences to be able to know in a deep and complete way everything related to commutative contracts.

A sales contract is of this type, because the seller delivers the thing he sells and receives the amount of the price, which is the equivalent. The buyer delivers the amount of the price and receives the thing sold, being equivalent.

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This contract is of great importance among contracts of its kind, since it is a contract that transfers a domain. In addition, it is the first current way in which wealth is acquired. Therefore, it should deserve a special study both in its economic and legal function.

Each contracting party knows before the end of the contract what is the scope and benefits of the same. This is the case in the sale, in the exchange and in many other contracts where the benefits are usually made in the present and for a single time.

Characteristics of the commutative contract

Commutative contracts have as main characteristic that at the time the agreement is concluded, both parties have the possibility of measuring and assessing the relationship of losses and advantages that said contract will generate.

Therefore, the contracting parties may establish the reciprocity relationship, the measure of the exchange and the balance of the contract that is being concluded.

In the doctrine, it is considered that only onerous and bilateral contracts can be commutative contracts, provided that the mutual obligations are equivalent.

Just right for the parties

Although it is always found that there is a normal range of fluctuation that increases or decreases the losses or advantages in the contract, and that is understood as the risk that every contractor assumes when entering into a legal business, this fluctuation does not alter the commutative contract.

It is maintained that these contracts turn out to be much more fair to the parties. This justice is based on the commutation or direct exchange of something based on the equality of what is being exchanged, based on this class of agreements.

Prepared by the contracting parties

The commutative contract, although it is an exchange of obligations, is prepared internally and only by the contracting parties, on a voluntary basis, excluding any intermediary and any third party. In general, to any non-voluntary external instance.

It is established as a method of private law related to commutative justice, unlike distributive justice, where it depends on an external or vertical instance, in addition to coercive to the contracting parties.

Difference with random contract

What fundamentally differentiates the commutative from the random contract is that only in the commutative contract the parties can assess or estimate the economic result that it will bring to them, both in the preliminary deals and at the time of termination of the contract.

Only in the commutative contract are the contracting parties in a position to predict whether the convention will be beneficial to them, why and by how much. It is clear that this calculation will have to be verified later, after complying with the obligations and exhausting the contractual agreement.

When comparing the forecast with the specific results achieved, the forecast will be ratified, denied or corrected.

This is how optimistic assumptions can be knocked down, when checked against the benefits obviously achieved, resulting in the contract in a bad deal. This does not strip the onerous contract of its commutative profile.

On the contrary, in the random contract it is not feasible to carry out any rational calculation in relation to the economic results that the operation will produce. The fate of the random contract is subject to luck, to chance, to total uncertainty.

When the random contract is formed it is impossible to predict, with any intellectual rigor, the practical consequences of what it will become.

Relationship between benefits and sacrifices

The commutative contract is one in which the relationship between the sacrifices and benefits that the contracting parties assume is determined from the beginning. This is the case in leasing and buying and selling.

This is not contested by the fact that market fluctuations and the freedom of prices may allow a good price to have been agreed upon, with a satisfactory balance between the provision that each party meets and the provision that it receives.

Nor because the next day the benefit received and / or agreed is worth much less or much more.

On the other hand, the random contract is one in which said relationship is not determined, since it depends on some unforeseeable or unknown circumstance by the parties: life annuity, insurance, bet, gambling. This type of contract is essentially relevant within an onerous contract.

Commutative contract example

A commutative contract is considered to be one in which the economic losses or advantages agreed upon by the contracting parties are known when it is concluded.

An example of this would be the contract of sale, in which the seller knows whether the established price constitutes a loss or an economic advantage for him and the buyer fully knows the economic effect that the price represents.

Purchase contract

Suppose that Andrés sells a wooden trunk to Ramón. Ramón buys it from him for a price of $ 350, signing the contract at a notary's office. They are both of legal age.

The parties involved are the seller Andrés, who is the natural person who is going to transfer the possession, and the buyer Ramón, who is the one who obtains it. The object of the contract is a wooden trunk, where Andrés promises to sell his product and Ramón promises to pay for it.

The contract is concluded with the full capacity of Ramón and Andrés to satisfy, since both are subjects of law and can fend for themselves, without there being any impediment to its conclusion. The two accept the agreement to conclude the contract.

This contract is bilateral, because it generates obligations and rights for both contractors, since Andrés must deliver the trunk and Ramón must pay the agreed price. In addition, it is onerous for conferring liens and reciprocal benefits; that of paying and that of granting.

Seller's obligations

- Keep the trunk object of the sale until delivery.

- Convey the title or ownership of the right.

- Guarantee a peaceful possession to the buyer.

- Deliver the trunk.

- Respond for the defects and hidden defects that the trunk has.

Obligations of the buyer

- Receive the trunk purchased.

- Pay the agreed price.

- Receive it in good condition.

References

1. Law Dictionary (2020). Commutative Contract. Taken from: law-dictionary.org.
2. Civil Law (2020). Commutative contracts and random contracts. Taken from: infoderechocivil.es.
3. Wikipedia (2020). Commutative contract. Taken from: es.wikipedia.org.
4. Parthenon (2020). Commutative contracts. Taken from: parthenon.pe.
5. The Contracts (2020). Examples of contracts. Taken from: loscontratos.blogspot.com.