SET-OFF OF TIME-BARRED OBLIGATIONS AND THE RELEVANCE OF THE TEMPORAL DIMENSION

Abstract

This teaching case addresses the legal institute of debt offsetting, provided for in art. 368 of the Civil Code, and which represents one of the means of indirect fulfillment of obligations. This institute occurs frequently in the interaction of parties that have more than one legal relationship with each other. The case addressed in this paper describes the situation in which two people are, simultaneously, creditor and debtor of each other and have credits and debts constituted on different occasions and originating from different legal natures. The objective of this teaching case is to lead students to reflect on the temporal aspects related to the prescription of credits and debts for purposes of offsetting, as well as on the procedural aspect of alleging offsetting in a collection action. Finally, the aim is to establish whether the debts were offset and, if so, whether totally or partially, depending on the time of origin of the debts and the procedural occasion of the allegation.