Obligations and Contracts Title V Prescription Chapter 3 Prescription of Actions Prescription of Action - Or limitation of actions - Time within which

an act may be brought, or some act done, to preserve a right - A LEGAL, not a natural cause of the EXTINGUISHMENT of obligations Statutes of limitation - Acts limiting the time within which actions shall be brought - Do not confer any right of action enacted to restrict the period within which the right, otherwise unlimited, might be asserted - Not matters of substantive right; available only as defenses - Claims that are valid are not usually allowed to remain neglected, and that the lapse of years without any attempt to enforce a demand creates a presumption against its original validity or that it has ceased to exist. - Purpose: to protect the diligent and vigilant not those who sleep on their rights; are statutes of repose to suppress fraudulent and stale claims from springing up at great distances of time and surprising parties or their reps when all the proper vouchers and evidences are lost or the defective memory or death or removal of witnesses. - Contemplates only civil actions, not criminal Prescription and Laches - Defense of laches applies separately from prescription PRESCRIPTION LACHES 1. Concerned with fact of 1. Concerned with the effect of delay delay 2. A matter of time 2. A question of inequity, of permitting a claim to be enforced; which equity is based on some change of condition of the property or the relation of the parties

3. Statutory, applies to law 4. Based on a fixed time

3. Not statutory, applies to equity 4. No fixed time

Article 1136 Actions prescribe by the mere lapse of time fixed by law Leap year in period Feb28 and 29 are counted as separate days, not as one day. LAPSE of the period has the effect of extinguishing action. There is no extinctive prescription unless the period provided by law expires. Mere DELAY in enforcement does not result in reduction or loss of right, unless FULL period required by law for prescription has EXPIRED. Prescription can be asserted as a DEFENSE only if it is PLEADED in the answer and PROVEN with same degree of certainty that any essential allegation in the pleadings is established. o Prescription is a defense that the debtor alone can plead and the obligation subsists until he avails himself thereof o Error for courts of justice to permit proof of prescription if it has not been defensively pleaded Right to prescription may be waived or renounced; considered WAIVED if not timely raised or pleaded before or during the hearing, with the exception of those which are apparent of the face of the complaint Article 1140 Actions to recover movables shall prescribe eight years from the time of possession thereof is lost, unless the possessor has acquired the ownership by prescription for a less period, according to articles 1132, and without prejudice to the provisions of articles 559, 1505 and 1133. 1132 movables acquired with GF, prescribe in 4 yrs; personal property 8 yrs without any other condition

559 lost or unlawfully deprived movable property may be recovered from the person in possession of the property but if the possessor obtained the same in GF then owner cannot recover without first reimbursing the price paid therefor 1505 When goods are sold by someone not the owner or without authority to do so, the buyer requires NO BETTER TITLE than the SELLER had, unless owner of goods, by his own conduct, is prevented from denying the authority to sell 1133 movables possessed through a crime can never be acquired through prescription by the offender Article 1141 Real actions over immovables prescribe after 30 years. This provision is without prejudice to what is established for the acquisition of ownership and other real rights by prescription Actions affecting Realty does not involve actions to recover real property like merely seeking to reassert ones title of ownership Article 1142 A mortgage action prescribes after 10 yrs The fact that a mortgage is registered does not make the action to foreclose it imprescriptible. If the action to recover the mortgage debt has prescribed, the action to recover interest has also prescribed, since it is impossible to LEGALLY SEPARATE the interest or any part thereof from the principal. Article 1143 The following rights, among others specified elsewhere in this Code, are not extinguished by prescription: 1. To demand a right of way, regulated in article 649 2. To bring an action to abate a public or private nuisance 649 under section 3 Easement of right of way Example of other rights specified elsewhere in Civil code:

1. No prescription shall run in favor of a co-owner or coheir against his co-owners or co-heirs as long as he recognized the co-ownership (express or implied); their possession is in the NATURE of a SUBSISTING TRUST and considered in the name of the others. o In this case, imprescriptibility applies only when it is ADMITTED or PRESUMED that co-ownership exists but not when one of the co-owners or coheirs has possessed the property exclusively for a period sufficient to acquire the property by prescription 2. Action by the government or govt entity 3. Action for mandamus 4. Action to enforce an express trust, as long as trustee does not repudiate the trust 5. Action to quite title to property in ones possession 6. Action or defense to declare a contract or judgment void ab initio 7. Action of registered owner to recover his land Article 1144 The following actions must be brought within 10 yrs from the time the right of action accrues: 1. Upon a written contract 2. Upon an obligation created by law 3. Upon a judgment When property is registered in anothers name, an IMPLIED or CONSTRUCTIVE TRUST is created by law in favor of the true owner . Action for reconveyance of the title to the rightful owner prescribes in 10 yrs from issuance of the title, unless FRAUD has been committed and such fraud is also the basis of the action, in which case, action will prescribe after 4 yrs Article 1145 The following actions must be commenced within 6 yrs: 1. Upon an oral contract 2. Upon a quasi-contract Article 1146 The following actions must be instituted within 4 yrs:

1. Upon an injury to the rights of the plaintiff 2. Upon a quasi-delict Injury when someone was separated from employment by unjustifiable causes, the 1-yr period to file a petition for quo warranto is lengthened to 4 years; 4yrs from discovery of fraud Quasi-delict an act when a person not by malice but by fault, negligence and imprudence not legally excusable causes injury to another Article 1147 The following actions must be filed within one year: 1. For forcible entry and detainer 2. For defamation Article 1148 The limitations of action mentioned in articles 1140 to 1142 and 1144 to 1147 are without prejudice to those specified in other parts of this Code, in the Code of Commerce, and in special laws 1140 1141 1142 1144 10 yrs 1145 oral contract and quasi-contract within 6 yrs 1146 injury to rights and quasi-delict within 4 yrs 1147 forcible entry and detainer and defamation within 1 yr Article 1149 All other actions whose periods are not fixed in this Code or in other laws must be brought within 5 yrs from the time the right of action accrues Not included: right of government to assess and collect taxes is imprescriptible when the govt has not by express statutory provision provided a limitation Article 1150 action to recover movables 4 yrs immovables 30 yrs mortgage after 10 yrs written contract, obli from law, judgment within

The time for prescription for all kinds of actions, when there is no special provision which ordains otherwise, shall be counted from the day they may be brought. Time from which we are to compute the period fixed by law for the extinguishment of the abandoned right of action, when there is no special provision for such computation, rule is that period must be counted from the day on which the corresponding action could have been instituted. o Starting point for computation of period is determined by the legal possibility of bringing the action o Period should not be made to retroact to the date of execution of the contract A cause of action arises when what should have been done is not done what should not have been done is done. Elements of a good cause of action: 1. Existence of a legal right in the plaintiff, With corresponding legal duty in the defendant 2. Violation or breach of that right or duty with consequential injury or damage to the plaintiff 3. Plaintiff may maintain an action for appropriate relief for that injury or damage cause by the violation or breach The moment breach of right or duty occurs, then right of action accrues and the action can be legally instituted o From this moment, period of prescription of action begins to run o When the obligation is subject to a suspensive condition, prescription runs only from the beginning of the condition o When obligation is without date of maturity or is payable on demand, prescription begins to run from date of note or obligation, NOT from demand EXCEPT when liability is for the unpaid balance of a subscription to shares of a corp, in which case, liability of subscriber does not arise until call or demand for

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payment from board of directors. Prescription runs only from such demand Option to extend is not tacit renewal, prescription will run from end of timeline Fraud or deceit, prescription will run from date of discovery Quasi delict, date when quasi-delict occurred or was committed Action for partition and reconveyance based on implied or constructive trusts, time for prescription begins from date of issuance of original cert of title since registration of an instrument in office of Register of Deeds constitutes constructive notice to the whole world and the period begins to run from the time possessor was made aware of a claim adverse to his own Intestate heir to question the validity of a purported will or donation mortis causa made by decedent commences when a third person claims a right under such instrument where in the meantime, the intestate heir has been in possession and there was no occasion to question judicial annulment of the instrument Mortis causa donation in the prospect of death Prescriptive period within which to bring action to set aside a simulated written deed of pacto de retro sale starts only when the alleged vendees made known their intention by overt acts not to abide by the true agreement, NOT from date of execution of contract

payment of interest at stipulated intervals does not cause the running of the period of prescription o Period of prescription will commence only after the maturity of the debt. o Where past due mortgage was recognized by payments of interest, prescription ran only from the past payment of interest Article 1152 The period for prescription of actions to demand the fulfillment of obligations declared by a judgment commences from the time the judgment became final Trial court Judgment becomes final upon the expiration of the period for appeal. Thereafter, prescription begins to run SC or CA period of prescription runs from date judgment is entered since true judgment is that entered by the clerk of Court pursuant to the dispositive part of its decision (10 yrs under Art1144) Article 1153 The period for prescription of actions to demand accounting runs from the day the persons who should render the same cease in their functions. The period for the action arising from the result of the accounting runs from the date when said result was recognized by agreement of the interested parties Period of prescription of an action to compel an accounting by a joint account partner begins to run from the date of the retirement of the members from whom accounting is demanded. When the accounting is done, period of prescription begins to run from the dissolution of a partnership For current accounts: 1. Mutual current accounts implies that they have mutually consented that each item shall not constitute an independent debt due immediately to be paid or enforced at once. The items occurring from time to time operate as mutual set-offs and that the shifting balance shall be the debt, when either or both call for it

Article 1151 The time for the prescription of actions which have for their object the enforcement of obligations to pay principal with interest or annuity runs from the last payment of the annuity or of the interest Rule is applicable only to cases where the principal debt is already due. When the principal is not yet due,

prescription begins to run on the date of the last item, no matter how far back the account commenced 2. Simple current open accounts o prescription begins to run from the date of each particular item 3. When accounting has been made between the parties in their current account dealings, period of prescription begins to run on date when last balance was struck, NOT when business was terminated o Article 1154 The period during which the obligee was prevented by a fortuitous event from enforcing his right is not reckoned against him Prescription is suspended : 1. by war, rebellion or insurrection ONLY when the regular course of justice is interrupted to such an extent that courts cannot be kept open and not within reach of people 2. all terms or periods fixed by law or regulations shall CEASE TO RUN from the DATE OF DESTRUCTION of the records of the case and shall only begin to run again on the date when the parties or counsel shall have received notice to the effect that the records have been reconstituted Article 1155 Prescription of actions is interrupted when they are filed before the court, when there is written extra-judicial demand by the creditors, and when there is any written acknowledgment of the debt by the debtor Filing of an action interrupts extinctive prescription which lasts during pendency of the action. Prescriptive period runs anew after the dismissal of the first action to revive judgment. o Filing a motion for reconsideration continues suspension of period of prescription which runs again after the court proceedings have been fully terminated

o o

Necessary for action to be filed before the expiration or lapse of the period of prescription fixed by law When prescription is interrupted by JUDICIAL DEMAND, the full period for prescription must be RECKONED from the cessation of the interruption

When plaintiff desists or judgment is unconditionally stayed for one reason or another, no suspension even though an action is started within the prescriptive period An amendment to the complaint, introducing a new or different cause of action, making a new or different demand, is equivalent to a fresh suit. Prescription continues until amendment is filed. New or additional defendants prescription continues to run until date of their inclusion Reminder: extinctive prescription is based on presumed abandonment of right. Extinctive prescription is interrupted when a creditor makes a demand upon the debtor. Since law requires that the demand be in writing, a verbal demand is not sufficient In extinctive prescription, interruption through acknowledgment of creditors right takes place only when acknowledgment is in writing wherein acknowledgement may be expressed or implied therein. Law does not require express acknowledgment, only that it be done in writing and is made to apply to a particular and specific debt. Acknowledgment of debt may be made by a legal representative Acknowledgment of debt after it has already prescribed is NOT sufficient to renew the period of prescription. When prescription expires, there must be a renunciation of the prescription already acquired in order that the action may be revived

Effect of Acknowledgement renews the obligation and interrupts the prescription, so as to make it run only from the date of the acknowledgment Section 50 of Act No. 190 when payment has been made upon any demand founded upon contract, or a written acknowledgment or a promise to pay the same has been made and signed by the party sought to be charged, action may be brought thereon within the time herein limited, after such payment, acknowledgment or promise. o This has been repealed by Art 1155 of NCC o Part payment of a debt therefore cannot interrupt the period of prescription because NCC requires that acknowledgment of debt be WRITTEN Other causes that do not interrupt prescription: 1. Death of debtor since creditor has other means for prosecution to enforce collection of his claim 2. Transfer of the right to another person because prescription does not stop until legally interrupted 3. Order to say execution of judgment 4. Confinement in jail 5. Extinction of debt and acknowledgment of debt of one of the various joint debtors does not necessarily affect the debt of the debt of the others