Recent Jurisprudence – Promissory Note with Successive and Accelerated Maturity

Recently, the First Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN, for its acronym in Spanish)published the legal decision, pursuant to conflicting court opinions, number 1a./J. 85/2011 (9a.) titled,“Promissory note with successive and accelerated maturity. Payable as of the business day following the date ofthe payment installment that was not covered by the obligor” in the Weekly Federal Court Gazette. In suchopinion, the First Chamber of the SCJN held that promissory notes with successive maturities may not be heldpayable on demand. Thus, the provisions of article 79 of the General Law on Negotiable Instruments and CreditTransactions (LGTOC, for its acronym in Spanish), which establish that documents with successive maturitydates shall be payable on demand, do not apply. The SCJN established that this would violate the literal meaningof promissory notes, based on the principle that the parties to the promissory note have already agreed that suchnote would be payable at a certain time. Additionally, the SCJN determined that the terms for computing penaltyinterest (based on accelerated maturity of promissory notes due to default with respect to an installment paymentpreviously agreed to) shall be computed as of the business day following the due date of the installment paymentindicated in the promissory note.. The above is in accordance with the provisions of article 81 of the LGTOC,which establishes that in order to compute the legal terms, the day on which the document was executed shall notbe considered.