Chapter III. On Commodatum and Precarium

Commodatum is a contract by which a thing is granted gratuitously for use alone for a certain time, with the burden of restoring the same individual thing. But precarium is a contract by which the use of some thing is granted to someone asking, yet revocable at the will of the one granting. - Wherefore the object of commodatum or precarium can be any things whatever, whether movable or immovable, placed in civil commerce, provided they are not consumable by the first use to which they are destined.

Commodatum differs: 1st, from hiring, by which the use of a thing is indeed granted but not gratuitously; 2nd, from deposit, by which a thing is handed over not for use but for custody; 3rd, from mutuum, by which the thing must be restored only in the same species. But precarium differs from commodatum only in this, that it is revocable at the discretion of the one granting.

As regards the obligations of the borrower for use and of the lender for use, these few things are to be held:

I. The borrower for use generally ought to use the thing lent to him as a good father of a family; but specifically: 1st, he cannot use the thing lent except for the use either granted to him, or to which he prudently judges the lender for use to consent, or to which the thing by its nature is destined; otherwise he abuses another's thing and will be held to repair all damages proceeding therefrom; 2nd, he must undergo the expenses necessary for the preservation of the thing, for example, to feed a horse lent for use; but he is not held to extraordinary expenses, for example, for curing a horse laboring under grave disease without his fault; 3rd, he must return the thing lent for use at the prefixed time and at his own expense, even if it is not asked for, because the appointed day makes demand on behalf of the owner. If the time of restitution has not been prefixed, the thing lent for use must be restored as soon as it has furnished the requested use.

II. The lender for use is held: 1st, not to ask back the thing lent before the prefixed time, or at least, if this was not prefixed, before the borrower for use is able to use it; otherwise he will be held for the damage which the other has experienced from his untimely revocation, since he has thus violated another's right acquired by pact, unless the thing was lent for the favor of the borrower for use alone, who dies before the prefixed time; or unless the lender for use himself immediately needs his thing because of an unforeseen case; 2nd, he is held to restore extraordinary expenses which the borrower for use underwent as urgent and necessary for preserving the thing, while otherwise he could not easily warn the lender for use; 3rd, if he knows any harmful defects of the thing lent, he is held to disclose them to the borrower for use; otherwise he will have to compensate the damage proceeding therefrom; 4th, finally, he is held to sustain the perils and detriments of the thing arising from a fortuitous case, excluding delay, fault, pact, and particular law, because according to the axiom: A thing perishes to its owner.