Some Assessments of the Maintenance Contract Free of Charge

Traditionally, the free maintenance contact is qualified as a donation, the solution being based mainly on the similarities between it and the life annuity contract. That solution, formulated before the entry into force of the current Civil Code, when the maintenance contract did not enjoy its own rules, remained optimal after 2011, even though, at present, in addition to the fact that there are special rules applicable to it, no essential elements such as legal differences between the services arising from the life annuity contract and those having their source in the maintenance one, but also those resulting from the conclusion of a donation. In addition, since its nature as an act with the title free of charge is unequivocal, it is also necessary to clarify its belonging to the subcategory of liberalities or disinterested acts. This is because, under the law of other States, the maintenance contract is configured as one for consideration, and for the situations in which the conventional maintenance claim is free of charge, the opinions are much more diversified. Analyzing these aspects and identifying sufficient arguments, we support the sui generis character of the maintenance contract free of charge, an act that is on the border between liberalities and disinterested contracts.