Section 321: Discharge by substituted performance (datio in solutum)
Statutory text (Thai original)
ถ้าเจ้าหนี้ยอมรับการชำระหนี้อย่างอื่นแทนการชำระหนี้ที่ได้ตกลงกันไว้ ท่านว่าหนี้นั้นก็เป็นอันระงับสิ้นไป ถ้าเพื่อที่จะทำให้พอแก่ใจเจ้าหนี้นั้น ลูกหนี้รับภาระเป็นหนี้อย่างใดอย่างหนึ่งขึ้นใหม่ต่อเจ้าหนี้ไซร้ เมื่อกรณีเป็นที่สงสัย ท่านมิให้สันนิษฐานว่าลูกหนี้ได้ก่อหนี้นั้นขึ้นแทนการชำระหนี้ ถ้าชำระหนี้ด้วยออก-ด้วยโอน-หรือด้วยสลักหลังตั๋วเงินหรือประทวนสินค้า ท่านว่าหนี้นั้นจะระงับสิ้นไปต่อเมื่อตั๋วเงินหรือประทวนสินค้านั้นได้ใช้เงินแล้ว
Verbatim from the Royal Gazette / Office of the Council of State
English translation
An obligation is extinguished if the creditor accepts in lieu of performance another performance than agreed upon. If the debtor, for the purpose of satisfying the creditor, assumes a new obligation towards him, is not to be presumed, in case of doubt, that he assumes the obligation in lieu of performance. If performance is made by making, transferring, or endorsing a bull or warrant, the obligation is extinguished only if such bill or warrant is paid.
This English translation is provided for reference only and has not yet been firm-verified. Always rely on the Thai original.
Firm annotation
Section 321 is part of Book 2 (Obligations) of the Thai Civil and Commercial Code. This entry is awaiting firm-authored commentary; the statutory text above is verbatim from the Office of the Council of State (OCS Krisdika) Thai source, with the English translation from the FAO/UN FAOLEX repository. Always rely on the Thai original for legal proceedings.
Why this matters in practice
For lawyers: when a debtor transfers property instead of paying cash, confirm in writing that this is accepted as full satisfaction; ambiguity defaults to the new transfer being security only. For laypersons: handing over goods instead of money discharges a debt only if the creditor expressly agrees it is in full settlement.
Legislative history
Part of the original Civil and Commercial Code codification; no major subsequent amendment.
Supreme Court decisions interpreting this section
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Supreme Court Judgment No. 13678/2558 (2015)
A substituted performance discharges the original obligation only if the creditor expressly accepts it as such.
Section 321 paragraph 1 extinguishes an obligation only when the creditor accepts a performance that differs from the agreed one; a transfer of debt without the creditor's consent to treat it as substitute performance does not extinguish the original obligation.
Curated decisions with case numbers verified against the Supreme Court database. English renderings are the firm's editorial translation for study.
Cited in 92 Supreme Court decisions (1943 to 2024)
Selected citing decisions
- Decision 6964/2567 (2024)
- Decision 2960/2566 (2023)
- Decision 3096/2565 (2022)
- Decision 13678/2558 (2015)
- Decision 18801/2557 (2014)
- Decision 10227/2551 (2008)
- Decision 6823/2551 (2008)
- Decision 4895/2551 (2008)
This list is selected automatically, weighted towards judgments that turn on this section rather than ones that merely recite it when passing sentence. It has not yet been reviewed by the firm.
Most often cited alongside
Sections that appear in the same judgments as this one most often. The figure is the number of decisions.
Counted across the firm's corpus of 83,652 Supreme Court decisions, 1921 to 2026. The count is complete; the stated year range trims rare outliers so it describes where the citations actually sit. These figures are computed by us and are not official court statistics. How we count these, and what we measured
Cite this section
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Plain citation
Civil and Commercial Code, s. 321 (Thailand) -
Academic citation
Civil and Commercial Code (Thailand), s. 321. ThaiLawOnline, https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-civil-code/section-321/ (accessed 8 August 2026). -
Thai citation
ป.พ.พ. มาตรา 321 -
Permalink
https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-civil-code/section-321/ -
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<blockquote cite="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-civil-code/section-321/"><p>An obligation is extinguished if the creditor accepts in lieu of performance another performance than agreed upon. If the debtor, for the purpose of satisfying the creditor, assumes a new obligation towards him, is not to be presumed, in case of doubt, that he assumes…</p><footer>Civil and Commercial Code, s. 321 (Thailand) — <a href="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-civil-code/section-321/">ThaiLawOnline</a></footer></blockquote>
The Thai text is authoritative. The English is an unofficial translation by ThaiLawOnline, free to reuse with attribution.