Opinion ID: 1758555
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: obligations concept

Text: Answering the obvious question, we generally conclude that our holding may be reconciled with the civil code authorities on obligations. An obligation may arise from either or both a contract and also directly from the law. C.C. Art. 1757. An obligation, of course, may be a suspensive obligation conditioned upon the occurrence of an uncertain event. Art. 1767. An obligation which binds one obligor to more than one obligee may be several, joint or solidary. Art. 1786. The obligation is solidary for the obligees when each obligee has the right to demand performance from the common obligor. Art. 1790. The uncertain event in the context of this case is whether the insured-payee of a check that Blue Cross has issued in payment of a policy obligation will fail to claim his or her rights and present that check for payment within the five-year period after the check is issued, after which time the insured-payee's exercise of that right or claim would be barred by the five-year liberative prescription. If that uncertain event [failure] occurs, the condition which suspended Blue Cross's statutory obligation to the State is removed and the State may enforce its cause of action under the statute. The passage of the five-year liberative prescription as against an insured-payee's action does not discharge or extinguish Blue Cross's solidary obligation that was created by the statute simultaneously with the obligation to the insured-payee that was conventionally or contractually created by the issuance of the check. The statute clearly allows the State 10 years to bring its action to enforce the statutory obligations of Blue Cross from the time the statutory obligations arose, that is, upon the occurrence of the failure of the insured-payee's failure to assert the claim or present the check for payment within five years after its issuance. § 180B. If the check Blue Cross issued remains unclaimed for more than five years after it was payable, Blue Cross becomes statutorily obligated to report and to pay or deliver that presumed abandoned intangible personal property to the State. § 153; § 168. The Uniform Disposition of Unclaimed Property Act, Act 829 of 1986, creates procedural and substantive rights for two obligees, the conventional obligee who is the insured-payee, and the State, the statutory obligee. Blue Cross owes the one obligation to both, although the obligation to the State is initially subject to the suspensive condition. Moreover, Blue Cross's obligation is monetary, to report [the amount] and to pay or deliver to the State. The owner's conventional right to payment remains under the statutory scheme. Before the five years from the date of issue expires, the owner may exercise his claim or action against Blue Cross, the statutory holder and custodial obligor to the owner. After the five years expires without the claim being exercised against Blue Cross, the State may exercise its claim and thus becomes the custodian of the money and the monetary obligation to pay the owner or apparent owner of the monetary obligation. If the State fails to exercise its action for 10 years after Blue Cross is obligated to report the matter to the State, the State's action, procedurally, may be barred by § 180B.