Landlord's Right of Retention in Fixed-Term Lease with Third-Party Claims

The court addressed the applicability of a landlord's right of retention under Article 268a of the Code of Obligations in a fixed-term lease, where the landlord retained the vehicles of a debtor based on rent arrears and third parties claimed ownership. The court reasoned that although the relevant legal provision explicitly addresses indefinite leases by requiring termination at the earliest possible date to maintain retention upon learning of third-party ownership, there is no objective reason to disadvantage the landlord in a fixed-term agreement compared to an indefinite one. Therefore, for a fixed-term lease, the requirement to terminate is logically replaced by the end of the contract term, and the retention was deemed valid until the originally agreed end date of the fixed term.