Explanation of Article 574
The article clarifies the ruling in cases where the contracting parties have not specified the duration of the contract in agricultural partnerships, or if the specified duration does not allow for the harvest of the crop or the picking of the fruit. For example, if they enter into a farming contract for four months for an agricultural crop with a six-month cycle, or a watering contract for nine months for trees whose fruit is not ready for picking until after a year; in such cases, the contract is not void. This is because the subject of the obligation and the time are part of it, and even if not specified, they are determinable. In this case, the duration in farming is determined by one agricultural cycle, and by a period that allows for the first yield to be ready for picking in watering, i.e., six months in the first example and a year in the second.
It is worth noting that the scope of the article's ruling is limited to cases where the duration is not specified, or the specified duration does not allow for the harvest or picking. It does not include cases where the specified duration allows for the harvest or picking, yet the duration ends before it appears; the latter is governed by Article (576).
The specification of the contract duration by the contracting parties may be explicit by agreement at the time of contracting, or implicit, inferred from the circumstances of the transaction. If custom or practice between the contracting parties establishes a duration for farming or watering different from what the article stipulates, and the parties remain silent about specifying it, relying on custom or their practice; what is considered is the custom or practice, as it is deemed an agreed-upon condition, in accordance with the general rule in Article (720): "What is known by custom is like a stipulated condition"; because it reflects the will of the contracting parties, where their silence on specifying the duration, if there is an existing custom or practice, is interpreted as their intention to refer to it in what they have remained silent about.
If the specified duration of the agricultural partnership contract expires and the contracting parties continue to fulfill their obligations; with the owner continuing to enable the worker to work and the worker continuing to work, this constitutes an implicit renewal of the partnership contract between them under the original terms, and the provisions of this article apply to the duration of the renewed contract.
Related To
Article 574
If the term of the agricultural partnership contract is not specified or if the specified term expires prior to the harvest or picking time, the term of a sharecropping contract shall be for a single agricultural cycle and the term of an irrigation contract shall extend until the first harvest is made.