Article 391

What it means when you sign

This article covers the effect of a court judgment on jointly and severally liable debtors. If a judgment is given in the creditor's favour against one of the debtors, it cannot be invoked against the others. If a judgment is given in favour of a debtor, the others benefit from it, unless the judgment rests on a ground that is personal to that debtor.

For a contract about to be signed, this article is relevant when several parties are bound together for one debt. It means a judgment against one of them does not, by itself, bind the rest, while a judgment in one debtor's favour can help the others unless it depends on something specific to that debtor. A clause saying that any judgment, award or decision against one party binds all the joint parties may run into this article. It is also worth looking at how the contract describes the position of each co-debtor when a dispute is brought against only one of them.