Book2 Chapter07 Title11

GERMAN CIVIL CODE OF 1896

• Based on the English Translation by: Wang, Chung Hui (1907). The German Civil Code, translated and annotated with historical introduction and appendices. London: Stevens and Sons. [available on Archive.org]

BOOK II. Law of Obligations.

Chapter VII. Particular Kinds of Obligations.

Title XI. Management of Affairs without Mandate.

Section 677.

• A person who takes charge of an affair for another without having received a mandate from him or being otherwise entitled to do so in respect of him, shall manage the affair in such manner as the interest of the principal requires, having regard to his actual or presumptive wishes.

Section 678.

• If the undertaking of the management of the affair is opposed to the actual or presumptive wishes of the principal, and if the agent must have recognised this, he is bound to compensate the principal for any damage arising from his management of the affair, even if no fault is otherwise imputable to him.

Section 679.

• The fact that the management of the affair is opposed to the wishes of the principal is not taken into consideration if, without the management of the affair, a duty of the principal the fulfilment of which is of public interest or a statutory duty to furnish maintenance to others by the principal would not be fulfilled in due time.

Section 680.

• If the management of the affair has for its object the averting of an imminent danger which threatens the principal, the agent is responsible only for wilful default and gross negligence.

Section 681.

• The agent shall notify to the principal, as soon as practicable, the undertaking of the management of the affair, and await his decision, unless there is danger in delay. For the rest the provisions of 666 to 668 applicable to a mandatary apply mutatis mutandis to the obligations of the agent.

Section 682.

• If the agent is incapable of disposing, or limited in disposing capacity, he is responsible only under the provisions relating to compensation for unlawful acts, and to the return of unjustified benefits.

Section 683.

• If the undertaking of the management of the affair is in accordance with the interest and the actual or presumptive wishes of the principal, the agent may demand reimbursement of his outlay as a mandatary. In the cases provided for by 679 this claim belongs to the agent even if the undertaking of the management of the affair is opposed to the wishes of the principal.

Section 684.

• If the conditions of 683 do not exist, the principal is bound to return to the agent all that he acquires through the management of the affair under the provisions relating to the return of unjustified benefits. If the principal ratifies the management of the affair, the claim specified in 683 belongs to the agent.

Section 685.

• [I] The agent does not have any claim if he had not the intention to demand reimbursement from the principal.
• [II] If parents or grandparents furnish maintenance to their descendants, or vice versa, it is to be presumed, in case of doubt, that there is no intention to demand reimbursement from the recipient.

Section 686.

• If the agent is under a mistake as to the identity of the principal, the actual principal acquires the rights and obligations arising from the management of the affair.

Section 687.

• [I] The provisions of 677 to 686 do not apply, if a person takes charge of the affair of another in the belief that it is his own.
• [II] If a person treats the affair of another as his own, although knowing that he is not entitled to do so, the principal may enforce the claims based on 677, 678, 681, 682. If he does enforce them, he is liable to the agent as provided for in 684, sentence 1.