Morals of the Church
Library › Wouters, Manual of Moral Theology › Volume I › Book II. On the Exercise of the Christian Life, or on the Cultivation of the Virtues › Treatise II. On the Cultivation of the Moral Virtues › Dissertation I. On the Precepts of the Decalogue › Part VII. On the Seventh and Tenth Precepts of the Decalogue › Section I. On Commutative Justice Itself › Chapter II. On Commutative Justice in Contracts › Article II. On Contracts in Species › § VII. On Letting-Hiring

point — Wouters, Manual of Moral Theology

Point I. On the Letting-Hiring of Things

907.

I. Object. The object of the contract is especially constituted by the use of houses and fields, although the use of other things also can be let and hired.

Leases

908.

II. Form. With attention paid to natural law, it can be entered into both orally and in writing; as to what, with attention paid to civil law, is required for the form, and likewise for the proof of the contract, see the law of one's country.

Leases

909.

III. Obligations of the lessor. 1. The lessor should not ask a price which does not correspond to what he himself grants to the lessee; almost as was said concerning the price to be observed in a thing to be sold (p. 601).

  1. The lessor should manifest defects which impede or diminish the use of the thing, according to what was said concerning the manifestation of defects which adhere to a thing to be sold (n. 898).

  2. If a tenant farmer, that is, a lessee of fields, has suffered a great loss of fruits either by a fortuitous event or because of storms, the lessor should from equity remit part of the rent, unless either the lessee expressly took the risk upon himself, or the sterility can be compensated by the abundance of the preceding or subsequent year1 (St. Alphonsus, III, 860).

1 Thus formerly from law 8, Code de locato, and from chapter Propter sterilitatem, same title.

Leases

910.

IV. Obligations of the lessee. It is sufficient - for many things are clear - to note these things:

  1. He is bound to use the thing only for that end for which it was let.

  2. To what extent he ought to bear the expenses of repairs is to be gathered from the contract, civil law, or custom; the same is to be said about subletting the thing to another.

  3. He is held for damages inflicted on the thing by his fault, but not for others. If merely juridical fault was present, he is not held before the sentence of a judge.

Leases

Within this division