Payment of Other People’s Debts or a Provision of Other Benefits at the Expense of the Impoverished Person in the Hypothesis of Article 59, paragraph 1 of the Bulgarian Obligations and Contracts Act

Abstract

This study examines the hypotheses of payment of another’s obligation, which arise as one of the main manifestations of the general claim for unjust enrichment within the meaning of Article 59 of the Bulgarian Obligations and Contracts Act. The work aims to distinguish the application of actio de in rem verso in the indicated sense from similar legal figures: subrogation under Article 73, paragraph 1 of the Bulgarian Obligations and Contracts Act, in conjunction with Article 74, paragraph 1 of the Bulgarian Obligations and Contracts Act., as well as the payment of another’s obligation due to an error in the hypothesis of Article 56, paragraph 1 of the Bulgarian Obligations and Contracts Act. In order to be systematic and comprehensive, this study will also pay attention to the provision of another benefit at the expense of the impoverished person as a hypothesis that is traditionally included in the aforementioned systematics. In addition, the study also involves examining the issues concerning the possibility of the existence of both direct and indirect unjust enrichment at someone else’s expense within the meaning of Article 59, paragraph 1 of the Bulgarian Obligations and Contracts Act. Complementing the analysis of the above-mentioned manifestations of the general claim for unjust enrichment, a critical analysis of the available case law will be made, as well as a review of the currently published works on this subject-matter in domestic and foreign literature.