Section 1: Conditions required for the validity of the contract.

A life annuity may be constituted for a sum of money, or for an appreciable movable thing, or for an immovable.

It may also be set up, purely gratuitously, by donation inter vivos or by will. In this case, it must comply with the formalities required by law.

In the case of the preceding article, the life annuity is reducible if it exceeds what it is permitted to dispose of; it is void if it is for the benefit of a person incapable of receiving.

The life annuity may be constituted either on the life of the person who provides the price, or on the life of a third party, who has no right to enjoy it.

It can be formed on one or more heads.

It may be constituted for the benefit of a third party, although the price is provided by another person. In the latter case, although it has the characteristics of a liberality, it is not subject to the forms required for gifts; except for the cases of reduction and nullity set out in Article 1970. When the annuity is set up by one or both spouses and is stipulated to be…

Any life annuity contract created on the life of a person who was dead on the day of the contract has no effect.

The same applies to a contract under which the annuity was created on the life of a person suffering from the illness from which he died within twenty days of the date of the contract.

The life annuity may be constituted at such rate as the contracting parties may determine.