Section 2: Validity of the contract

Larceny is also constituted if it emanates from the contracting party’s representative, business manager, servant or surety. It is also constituted when it emanates from a third party in collusion.

An error resulting from fraud is always excusable; it is a cause of nullity even if it relates to the value of the service or to a simple reason in the contract.

Violence occurs when a party enters into a commitment under the pressure of a constraint which inspires him with the fear of exposing his person, his fortune or those of his relatives to considerable harm.

The threat of legal action does not constitute violence. The situation is different where the legal remedy is diverted from its purpose or where it is invoked or exercised to obtain a manifestly excessive advantage.

Violence is a ground for nullity whether it is perpetrated by a party or by a third party.

Violence also exists when a party, abusing the state of dependence in which his co-contractor finds himself towards him, obtains from him a commitment which he would not have entered into in the absence of such coercion and derives a manifestly excessive advantage.

The time limit for an action for nullity shall run, in the case of error or fraud, only from the day on which they were discovered and, in the case of violence, only from the day on which it ceased.