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Section II   Payment

Revised Laws of Saint Lucia (2022)

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Section II   Payment

§ 1. General Provisions

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    1070.   The term payment does not necessarily refer to money, but means any fulfilment of obligation.

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    1071.   Every payment presupposes a debt; what has been paid where there is no debt may be recovered.

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    What has been paid in voluntary discharge of a natural obligation is deemed as payment of a debt.

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    1072.   Payment may be made by any person, although he is a stranger to the obligation, and the creditor may be put in default by the offer of a stranger to fulfil the obligation without the debtor's knowledge, but the offer must be for the advantage of the debtor, and not merely for having the effect of changing the creditor.

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    1073.   If the obligation be to do something which the creditor has an interest in having done by the debtor himself or herself, the obligation cannot be fulfilled by a stranger to it without the consent of the creditor.

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    1074.   Payment to be valid must be made by one having a legal right in the thing paid which entitles him or her to give it in payment.

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    Nevertheless if a sum of money or other thing of a nature to be consumed by use be given in payment, it cannot be reclaimed from the creditor who has consumed it in good faith, although the payment have been made by one who was not the owner nor capable of alienating it.

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    1075.   Payment must be made to the creditor or to some one having his authority, or authorised by a court of justice or by law to receive it for him or her.

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    Payment made to a person who has no authority to receive it is valid, if the creditor have ratified the payment or profited by it.

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    1076.   Payment made in good faith to the ostensible creditor is valid, although it be afterwards established that he or she is not the rightful creditor.

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    1077.   Payment is not valid if made to a creditor who is incapable by law of receiving it, unless the debtor proves that the creditor has benefited by it.

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    1078.   Payment made by a debtor to his creditor to the prejudice of a seizure or attachment is not valid against the seizing or attaching creditors. They may, according to their rights, constrain the debtor to pay a second time; in which case he or she has his or her remedy against the creditor so paid.

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    1079.   A creditor can be compelled to receive only that which is due to him or her, although that which is offered be of greater value.

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    1080.   A debtor cannot compel his or her creditor to receive payment of his or her debt in parts, even if the debt be divisible.

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    1081.   The debtor of a certain specific thing is discharged by the delivery of the thing in the condition in which it is at the time of delivery, provided that the deterioration in the thing has not been caused by any act or fault for which he or she is responsible, and that he or she was not in default before the deterioration.

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    1082.   Where a thing to be delivered is specified in kind only, without mention of quality, the debtor cannot be required to give the best quality, nor can he or she offer the worst.

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    The thing must be of a merchantable quality.

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    1083.   Payment must be made in the place expressly or impliedly indicated in the obligation. (Amended by Act 34 of 1956).

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    If no place be so indicated, the payment, when it is of a certain specific thing, must be made at the place where the thing was at the time of contract.

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    In other cases payment must be made at the domicile of the creditor; subject, nevertheless, to the rules provided respecting particular contracts.

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    1084.   The debtor is liable for the expenses attending payment.

§ 2. Payment with Subrogation

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    1085.   Subrogation in the rights of a creditor in favour of a third person who pays him or her, is either conventional or legal.

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    1086.   Subrogation is conventional:

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      1.     When the creditor, on receiving payment from a third person, subrogates him or her in all his or her rights against the debtor. This subrogation must be express and made at the same time as the payment.

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      2.     When the debtor borrows a sum for the purpose of paying his or her debt, and of subrogating the lender in the rights of the creditor. It is necessary to the validity of the subrogation in this case, that the act of loan and the acquittance be notarial, or be executed before 2 subscribing witnesses; that in the act of loan it be declared that the sum has been borrowed for the purpose of paying the debt, and that in the acquittance it be declared that the payment has been made with the monies furnished by the new creditor for the purpose. This subrogation takes effect without the consent of the creditor.

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    If the act of loan and the acquittance be executed before witnesses, the subrogation takes effect against third persons only from the date of registration, which is to be made in the manner and according to the rules provided by law for the registration of hypothecs.

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    1087.   Subrogation takes place by the mere operation of law:

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      1.     In favour of a creditor who pays a privileged creditor;

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      2.     In favour of the purchaser of immovable property who pays a creditor to whom the property is hypothecated;

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      3.     In favour of one who pays a debt for which he or she is liable with others or for others, and has an interest in paying it;

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      4.     When a rent or debt due by one spouse alone has been redeemed or paid with the monies of the community. In this case the other spouse is subrogated in the rights of the creditor according to the share of such spouse in the community.

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    1088.   The subrogation mentioned in the preceding articles takes effect as well against sureties as against principal debtors. It cannot prejudice the rights of the creditor when he or she has been paid in part only; in such case he may enforce his or her rights for whatever remains due, in preference to him or her from whom he or she has received payment in part.

§ 3. The Application of Payments

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    1089.   A debtor of several debts has the right of declaring, when he or she pays, what debt he or she means to discharge.

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    1090.   A debtor of a debt which bears interest or produces rent, cannot require the application of a payment to the discharge of capital in preference to the arrears of interest or rent. Any payment which is not in full satisfaction of the capital and interest due is applied first to the interest.

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    1091.   When a debtor of several debts has accepted a receipt by which the creditor has applied a payment to one of the debts, the debtor cannot afterwards require its application to a different debt, except upon grounds for which contracts may be avoided.

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    1092.   When the receipt mentions no special application, the payment must be applied to the debt which the debtor has the greater interest in paying at the time. If of several debts one alone be payable, the payment must be applied to it although it be less burdensome than those which are not yet payable.

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    If the debts are of like nature and equally burdensome, the application is made on the oldest.

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    All things being equal, it is made proportionally on each.

§ 4. Tender and Deposit

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    1093.   When a creditor refuses to receive payment, the debtor may make an actual tender of what is due; and in any action afterwards brought for its recovery he may plead and renew the tender, and if that which is due be a sum of money, may deposit the amount in Court; and such tender, or such tender and deposit, if that which is due be a sum of money, are equivalent with respect to the debtor to a payment made at the date of the first tender; provided that from the date of the first tender the debtor continue always ready and willing to make the payment.

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    1094.   A tender to be valid must:—

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      1.     Be made to a creditor legally capable of receiving payment or to some one having authority to receive for him or her;

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      2.     Be made on the part of a person legally capable of paying;

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      3.     Be of the whole sum of money or other thing due, and of all arrears of rent and interest, and all liquidated costs, with a sum for costs not liquidated, saving the right to make up any deficiency in the same;

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      4.     If of money, be made in coin that is legal tender;

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      5.     Be made after the term of payment has expired if stipulated in favour of the creditor;

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      6.     And after the fulfilment of the condition under which the debt has been contracted;

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      7.     And at the place where, according to the terms of the obligation or by law, payment should be made.

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    1095.   If, by the terms of the obligation or by law, payment is to be made at the domicile of the debtor, a notification in writing by him to the creditor that he is ready to make payment, has the same effect as an actual tender, provided that in any action afterwards brought the debtor prove his power and readiness to pay what was due at the time when and the place where it was payable.

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    When a creditor is absent from Saint Lucia and the debtor has no notice of the appointment of an attorney to receive the debt, the notification may be made in the Gazette.

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    1096.   If a certain specific thing be deliverable on the spot where it is, the debtor must by his or her tender require the creditor to come and take it there.

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    If the thing be not so deliverable and be from its nature difficult of transportation, the debtor must indicate by his or her tender the place where it is and the day and hour when he or she is ready to deliver it at the place where payment ought to be made.

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    If the creditor fail in the former case to take the thing away, or in the latter to signify his willingness to accept, the debtor may, if he or she think fit, remove the thing to any other place for safe-keeping at the risk of the creditor.

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    1097.   So long as the tender and deposit have not been accepted by the creditor, the debtor may withdraw them by leave of the Court, in the manner provided in the Code of Civil Procedure, and if he or she does so his or her co-debtors or sureties are not discharged.

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    1098.   When the tender and deposit have been declared valid by the Court, the debtor cannot, even with the consent of the creditor, withdraw them to the prejudice of his or her co-debtors or sureties or other third persons.

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    1099.   The mode in which tenders and deposits must be made is provided in the Code of Civil Procedure.

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