Multi-party creditor relationships, Quasi-co-ownership of claims, Joint deposit accounts

This paper examines the basic rules of multi-party creditor relationships, particularly indivisible claims and quasi-co-ownership of claims, and applies the resulting insights to the interpretation of joint deposit accounts. The key conclusions are as follows: 1. The Korean Civil Code stipulates divided claims and indivisible claims as forms of multi-party creditor relationships. However, parties may establish alternative forms through mutual agreement. Such alternative arrangements include: “joint claims”(PICC), “communal claims”(PECL), and solidary claims. 2. Quasi-co-ownership of claims is possible even in multi-party creditor relationships. In principle, the Korean Civil Code's Article 408 and the following articles govern the creditors' relationship to their debtor, while the rules concerning co-ownership apply to the internal relationships among creditors. Nevertheless, parties may agree to a joint claim, thereby excluding the application of the Korean Civil Code's articles on multi-party relationships and establishing quasi-co-ownership of a claim. 3. A joint deposit account should be understood as quasi-co-owned by joint account holders. Accordingly, an individual joint account holder may, in the absence of an agreement prohibiting division, demand partition and withdraw the deposited money corresponding to their share. However, the joint deposit claim itself does not belong to the general assets (gage général) of any single joint account holder.