In the decision of the Court of Appeals dated 27 January 2010, the argument was whether or not it is possible for a court to make a rent deduction for agricultural land to lower than the original price agreed to by the parties in the rental contracts due to loss incurred by the lessee because of acts of god (drought in this case), irrespective of a term in such contracts stating “acts of god do not entitle the lessee to a discount”.  

In this case it was decided to reduce the contracted rental price of the land in question due to drought, regardless of the pacta sund servanda (agreements must be kept) principle, which applies to private contracts. The ratio decidendi (principles of law applied upon which the decision is based) of the court was Article 282 of the Code of Civil Obligations entitled “Discount in the case of Extraordinary Circumstances,” which envisages that if a lessee incurs a loss of income accumulated from agricultural land due to acts of god, then he/she shall be entitled to a reduction over the contracted rental price.