Kuwait Court of Cassation principle number 104

Summary: - The cause of an obligation. Contracting must rest on a cause, and that cause must be lawful. Failure thereof. Its effect: nullity of the contract for lack of one of its constituent elements. Article 176/1, Civil Code. - The cause of an obligation. It includes the inducing motive if it was taken into account in the contract, in that the other contracting party knew it or was presumed to know it; the existence and lawfulness of this cause are considered at the time the contract is concluded. It is not confined to the immediate purpose that the contracting party seeks to achieve by agreeing to assume the obligation. Article 176/2, Civil Code. Rule: The provision in Article (176) of the Civil Code that “1- A contract is void if a contracting party undertakes an obligation without a cause or for an unlawful cause, and account shall be taken, in the cause, of the inducing motive that drives the contracting party to contract if the other contracting party knows it or ought to have known it. Its import is that the legislature requires the contracting party’s obligation to rest on a cause and that this cause be lawful; otherwise, the contract lacks one of the constituent elements upon which it must rest and is void. The legislature does not confine the cause of the obligation to the first immediate purpose that the contracting party seeks to achieve by agreeing to assume the obligation. Rather, it also includes the inducing motive if it was taken into account in the contract, in that the other contracting party knew it or was presumed to know it. The existence and lawfulness of this cause are considered at the time the contract is concluded.