Maintenance Contract - Updates in the new Civil Code

AuthorNicolae, I.
PositionTransilvania University of Brasov
Pages65-68
Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov
Series VII: Social Sciences • Law • Vol. 6 (55) No. 2 - 2013
MAINTENANCE CONTRACT – UPDATES
IN THE NEW CIVIL CODE
Ioana NICOLAE
Abstract: The paper herein submits the evolution in time of the
maintenance contract, which is frequently clinched in our country. This type
of contract is defined and analyzed from various perspectives, such as in
terms of involved parties, juridical character, duration and termination. It is
differentiated from other judicially similar contracts, such as the annuity
contract, its distinct and independent character being emphasized.
Key words: Civil Code, maintenance contract, debtor.
Transilvania University of Braşov.
1. Introduction
The contract whereby the persons
transmit various assets or their entire
wealth, most often to a relative, under the
obligation undertaken by the beneficiary to
maintain and care for this one throughout
their lives, is frequently encountered in our
country.
This contract, creation of the parties, was
characterized for the first time in Romania,
during 1923, as unnamed contract, by the
High Court of Cassation, in accordance
with Profess or Dimitrie Alexandresco’s
opinion – founder of the science of civil law
in Romania – after, previously, the same
Supreme Court had decided otherwise.
Subsequently to its jurisprudential
enforcement, the maintenance contract
found its first legislative enforcement in
art. 1665 and the following of the Civil
Code, in 1940, which regulation remained
however without effect, as on the 31st of
December 1940, its implementation was
postponed sine die.
Once with the adoption by the Senate, on
the 13th of September 2004, of the draft for
the new Civil Code, the legislative
enforcement of the maintenance contract
entered a new stage, materialized in the
implementation, on the 1st of October
2011, of the new Civil Code; this contract
leaving therefore the category of unnamed
contracts and becoming thus a named
contract, stipulated and regulated as
distinct type of contract in Title IX
“Various Special Contracts”.
If, in the draft of the new Civil Code, this
contract was called “Lifetime Maintenance
Contract”, the Commission for Amending
the 2004-Code Draft proposed for the
name of this contract to be “maintenance
contract”, the lifelong character pertaining
only to the nature and not to the essence of
the con tract, the parties being able to agree
on another term.
Once with its jurisprudential recognition
as unnamed contract, the High Court of
Cassation, in its decision no. 444, on the
4th of May 1923, likewise defined it this
way: “contract whereby a person disposes

To continue reading

Request your trial

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT