Dear Atty. Angela,

My close friend persuaded me to join a business venture to open up a milk tea store. She told me I only need to shell out P200,000 and she will assume the remaining P300,000. Since both of us do not have the capital needed, we took out a loan from a lending company. In the Agreement and as discussed, I loaned the P200,000 and she loaned the P300,000 needed. However, when the loan became overdue, my friend could no longer pay and the lending company was demanding me to pay the full loan amount of P500,000. Is this legal and can they compel me to pay??

Mae

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Dear Mae,

No, you cannot be made to pay for the entire P500,000 obligation when it was clear in the signed Agreement that your participation in the loan was as a joint debtor under the obligation to pay only P200,000.

Article 1207 of the Civil Code states that the presence of multiple creditors or debtors in an obligation does not mean that each one has the right to demand or is obligated to fulfill the entire obligation.

In the case of In Spouses Berot v. Siapno, G.R. No. 188944 (9 July 2014), the Court defined solidary obligation as one in which each of the debtors is liable for the entire obligation, and each of the creditors is entitled to demand the satisfaction of the whole obligation from any or all of the debtors. On the other hand, a joint obligation is one in which each debtor is liable only for a proportionate part of the debt, and the creditor is entitled to demand only a proportionate part of the credit from each debtor.

The well-entrenched rule is that solidary obligations cannot be inferred lightly. They must be positively and clearly expressed. A liability is solidary “only when the obligation expressly so states, when the law so provides or when the nature of the obligation so requires.”

As can be gleaned therefrom, Article 1207 does not presume solidary liability unless: 1) the obligation expressly so states; or 2) the law or nature requires solidarity. Therefore, since there was no condition for solidary obligation in the Agreement, the lending company cannot demand that you pay the full amount.

Atty. Angela Antonio