Contract nullity and invalidity in Spain: absolute nullity, voidability and rescission

Spain's three invalidity doctrines

The Spanish Civil Code has three distinct invalidity regimes, often confused in practice:

1. Absolute nullity (Art. 6.3 CC): void ab initio, no judicial declaration required, imprescriptible, any interested party may invoke it, confirmation impossible.
2. Voidability (Arts. 1300-1314 CC): valid until challenged, 4-year caducidad (Art. 1301 CC), only the protected party may invoke it, confirmation possible.
3. Rescission (Arts. 1290-1299 CC): subsidiary remedy for specific enumerated cases (creditor fraud, lesion > 25%), 4-year caducidad, ineffective against good-faith third-party purchasers for value.

Absolute nullity grounds

Missing essential element (total consent absence, unlawful/impossible object, false/illegal cause); breach of mandatory rule (including unfair non-negotiated consumer terms; Art. 8 TRLGDCU; CJEU floor clause case law); object outside commerce. Mutual restitution (Art. 1303 CC); in pari causa turpitudinis exception for criminally-motivated parties.

Voidability grounds

Consent defects: error (substantial + excusable, not mere motive error), fraud/dolo (incidental dolo = damages only, not nullity), violence, intimidation. Contractual incapacity (minors, natural incapacity). Confirmation (express or implied conduct) cures retroactively.

Rescission

Subsidiary (Art. 1294 CC): fraudulent disposal harming creditors (consilium fraudis + eventus damni); incapacitated persons' representative causing >25% loss; inheritance partition harming forced heirs. Not enforceable against good-faith purchasers for value.

Lexiel helps civil lawyers identify the correct invalidity doctrine, calculate caducidad deadlines, find Supreme Court First Chamber case law on consent defects and unfair terms, and draft the appropriate legal claims.