Prescription

Eden G. Tadifa
Art. 1106. By prescription, one
acquires ownership and other
real rights through the lapse of
time in the manner and under
the conditions laid down by law.
In the same way, rights and
conditions are lost by
prescription. (1930a)
Art. 1107. Persons who are capable of
acquiring property or rights by the other legal
modes may acquire the same by means of
prescription.

Minors and other incapacitated persons may

acquire property or rights by prescription,
either personally or through their parents,
guardians or legal representatives. (1931a)
Art. 1108. Prescription, both acquisitive and extinctive, runs against:

(1) Minors and other incapacitated persons who have parents,

guardians or other legal representatives;
(2) Absentees who have administrators, either appointed by them
before their disappearance, or appointed by the courts;

(3) Persons living abroad, who have managers or administrators;

(4) Juridical persons, except the State and its subdivisions.

Persons who are disqualified from administering their property have

a right to claim damages from their legal representatives whose
negligence has been the cause of prescription. (1932a)
Art. 1109. Prescription does not run
between husband and wife, even though
there be a separation of property agreed
upon in the marriage settlements or by
judicial decree.
Neither does prescription run between
parents and children, during the minority
or insanity of the latter, and between
guardian and ward during the continuance
of the guardianship. (n)
Art. 1110. Prescription, acquisitive and
extinctive, runs in favor of, or against a married
woman. (n)
Art. 1111. Prescription obtained by a co-
proprietor or a co-owner shall benefit the
others. (1933)
Art. 1112. Persons with capacity to alienate
property may renounce prescription
already obtained, but not the right to
prescribe in the future.

Prescription is deemed to have been tacitly

renounced when the renunciation results
from acts which imply the abandonment of
the right acquired. (1935)
Art. 1113. All things which are within the
commerce of men are susceptible of
prescription, unless otherwise provided.
Property of the State or any of its
subdivisions not patrimonial in character
shall not be the object of prescription.
(1936a)
 PRESCRIPTION OF OWNERSHIP AND
OTHER REAL RIGHTS
Art. 1117. Acquisitive prescription of dominion
and other real rights may be ordinary or
extraordinary.
Ordinary acquisitive prescription requires
possession of things in good faith and with just
title for the time fixed by law. (1940a)
Art. 1118. Possession has to be in the concept
of an owner, public, peaceful and
uninterrupted. (1941)
Art. 1119. Acts of possessory character
executed in virtue of license or by mere
tolerance of the owner shall not be available for
the purposes of possession. (1942)
Art. 1120. Possession is interrupted for the
purposes of prescription, naturally or civilly.
(1943)
Art. 1121. Possession is naturally
interrupted when through any cause it
should cease for more than one year.

The old possession is not revived if a new

possession should be exercised by the
same adverse claimant. (1944a)
Art. 1122. If the natural interruption is for only
one year or less, the time elapsed shall be
counted in favor of the prescription. (n)
Art. 1123. Civil interruption is produced by
judicial summons to the possessor. (1945a)
Art. 1124. Judicial summons shall be deemed not to have been issued
and shall not give rise to interruption:

(1) If it should be void for lack of legal solemnities;

(2) If the plaintiff should desist from the complaint or should allow the
proceedings to lapse;

(3) If the possessor should be absolved from the complaint.

In all these cases, the period of the interruption shall be counted for
the prescription. (1946a)
Art. 1125. Any express or tacit recognition which
the possessor may make of the owner's right
also interrupts possession. (1948)
Art. 1126. Against a title recorded in the
Registry of Property, ordinary prescription of
ownership or real rights shall not take place to
the prejudice of a third person, except in
virtue of another title also recorded; and the
time shall begin to run from the recording of
the latter.

As to lands registered under the Land

Registration Act, the provisions of that special
law shall govern. (1949a)
Art. 1127. The good faith of the possessor
consists in the reasonable belief that the
person from whom he received the thing
was the owner thereof, and could transmit
his ownership. (1950a)
Art. 1128. The conditions of good faith required
for possession in Articles 526, 527, 528, and 529
of this Code are likewise necessary for the
determination of good faith in the prescription
of ownership and other real rights. (1951)
Art. 1129. For the purposes of prescription, there is
just title when the adverse claimant came into
possession of the property through one of the
modes recognized by law for the acquisition of
ownership or other real rights, but the grantor was
not the owner or could not transmit any right. (n)

Art. 1130. The title for prescription must be true

and valid. (1953)

Art. 1131. For the purposes of prescription, just

title must be proved; it is never presumed. (1954a)
Art. 1130. The title for prescription must be true
and valid. (1953)
Art. 1131. For the purposes of prescription, just
title must be proved; it is never presumed.
(1954a)
Art. 1132. The ownership of movables prescribes
through uninterrupted possession for four years in
good faith.

The ownership of personal property also prescribes

through uninterrupted possession for eight years,
without need of any other condition.

With regard to the right of the owner to recover

personal property lost or of which he has been
illegally deprived, as well as with respect to
movables acquired in a public sale, fair, or market,
or from a merchant's store the provisions of
Articles 559 and 1505 of this Code shall be
observed. (1955a)
Art. 1133. Movables possessed through a crime
can never be acquired through prescription by
the offender. (1956a)
Art. 1134. Ownership and other real rights over
immovable property are acquired by ordinary
prescription through possession of ten years.
(1957a
Art. 1135. In case the adverse claimant
possesses by mistake an area greater, or less
than that expressed in his title, prescription
shall be based on the possession. (n)
Art. 1136. Possession in wartime,
when the civil courts are not open,
shall not be counted in favor of the
adverse claimant.
Art. 1137. Ownership and other real rights over
immovables also prescribe through
uninterrupted adverse possession thereof for
thirty years, without need of title or of good
faith. (1959a)
Art. 1138. In the computation of time necessary for prescription the
following rules shall be observed:

(1) The present possessor may complete the period necessary for
prescription by tacking his possession to that of his grantor or predecessor in
interest;
(2) It is presumed that the present possessor who was also the possessor at
a previous time, has continued to be in possession during the intervening
time, unless there is proof to the contrary;

(3) The first day shall be excluded and the last day included. (1960a)
Art. 1139. Actions prescribe by the mere lapse
of time fixed by law. (1961)
Art. 1140. Actions to recover movables shall
prescribe eight years from the time the
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. (1962a)
Art. 1141. Real actions over immovables
prescribe after thirty years.

This provision is without prejudice to what is

established for the acquisition of ownership and
other real rights by prescription. (1963)
Art. 1142. A mortgage action prescribes after
ten years. (1964a)
Art. 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. (n)
Art. 1144. The following actions must be
brought within ten years from the time the right
of action accrues:
(1) Upon a written contract;
(2) Upon an obligation created by law;
(3) Upon a judgment. (n)
Art. 1145. The following actions must be
commenced within six years:
(1) Upon an oral contract;
(2) Upon a quasi-contract. (n)
Art. 1146. The following actions must be instituted within
four years:
(1) Upon an injury to the rights of the plaintiff;
(2) Upon a quasi-delict;

However, when the action arises from or out of any act,

activity, or conduct of any public officer involving the
exercise of powers or authority arising from Martial Law
including the arrest, detention and/or trial of the plaintiff,
the same must be brought within one (1) year. (As amended
by PD No. 1755, Dec. 24, 1980.)
Art. 1147. The following actions must be filed
within one year:

(1) For forcible entry and detainer;

(2) For defamation. (n)
Art. 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. (n)
Art. 1149. All other actions whose periods are
not fixed in this Code or in other laws must be
brought within five years from the time the right
of action accrues. (n)
Art. 1150. 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. (1969)
Art. 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. (1970a)
Art. 1152. The period for prescription of actions
to demand the fulfillment of obligation declared
by a judgment commences from the time the
judgment became final. (1971)
Art. 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. (1972)
Art. 1154. The period during which the obligee
was prevented by a fortuitous event from
enforcing his right is not reckoned against him.
(n)
Art. 1155. The prescription of actions is
interrupted when they are filed before the
court, when there is a written extrajudicial
demand by the creditors, and when there is any
written acknowledgment of the debt by the
debtor. (1973a)
 EXPLANATION/
ILLUSTRATION/
JURISPRUDENCE
Art. 1106. Acquiring ownership and other real
right through the lapse of time, in the same way
can be lost through the lapse of time.
Ex. Abandonment on the part of the owner and
acquisition on the part of the possessor.
Art. 1107. Refer to who may acquire by
prescription.

Persons capable of acquiring property or rights by the other legal

modes.
Minors and Incapacitated Persons, either personally or through their
parents, guardian or legal representatives.
Art. 1108. To whom prescription runs’ against.

Prescription runs against all persons having full civil capacity, and
even against
1. Minors and other incapacitated persons who have
parents, guardians or other legal representatives.
2.Absentees who have administrators, either appointed by
them or by the courts.
3.Persons living abroad, who have managers or
administrators; and
4.Juridical persons.
Art. 1109. To whom prescription does not run.

To the husband and wife.

Parent and child

The reason is , because of the affection relation between the family.

Art. 1110. It is acquisitive prescription, because
whatever property does the husband can the
wife is acquired their conjugal property except
in case of prenuptial agreement. It can be
extinctive, if they are legally separated or the
marriage is annulled, in case the property is not
part of their conjugal.
• Art. 1111. In the case of De Cabrera v. CA
• “Each co-owner shall have the full ownership of his part and of the fruits
and benefits pertaining thereto, and even he may therefore alienate,
assign or mortgage it, and even substitute another person in its
enjoyment, except when personal rights are involved. But the effect of
the alienation or the mortgage, with respect to the co-owners, shall be
limited to the portion which may be allotted to him in the division upon
the termination of the co-ownership.”
• Therefore, only the proportion own by co-owner who sold his part was
only the property have been sold to orias and not the property own by
felicidad, a co-owner, who did not signed a deed of sale.
Art. 1112. This refers to abandonment.

Lost of rights through the lapse of time

(extinctive prescription).
Art. 1113. All things as long as it is within the
commerce of men can be acquired by
prescription. Thus common things, public
dominion and in-transmissible rights cannot
acquire by prescription. Also movable possessed
through a crime.
Art.1117. Refers to the General requisites of Acquisitive
Prescription that:
1. Capacity to acquire by prescription.
2. A thing capable of acquisition by prescription.
3. Possession of thing under certain conditions.
4. Lapse of time provided by law.
Like in the case of Cutanda v. Cutanda that the inherited parcel
of land, the possessor-in-interest acquire the property through
the lapse of time for the period of 55 years without the
interruption of the other possessor-in-interest.
Art. 1118. This is the Possession for Prescription
through the following:

Concept of owner
Public
Peaceful
uninterrupted
Art. 1119. defined what is concept of owner,
where it meant that Acts of possessory
character executed in virtue of license or by
mere tolerance of the owner shall not be
available for the purposes of possession
Art.1120. If there is no interruption there is no
prescription.
In the case of Cutanda v. Cutanda, when the
inherited parcel of land was been tolerated to
be cultivated by the other heirs. And after the
lapse of time of 55 years and the heirs of
Domico made an interruption, then that will be
the time that prescription will run.
Art. 1121 and 1122. It speaks of Natural
Interruption.
Possession is naturally interrupted when
through any cause it should cease for more than
1 year.
If it less than 1 year there is no prescription.
Art. 1123,1124, and 1125. It speaks of Civil
interruption.
It is produced by judicial summons to the
possessor.
Art. 1126. If there is title, no prescription would
run.
Art. 1127 and 1128. Only defined what Good
faith is. Good faith is always presumed and
proving it is a burden to who alleges bad faith.
Conversion of possession
Three (3) possible solutions:
1.The supervening bad faith erases the former possession in good
faith, and extraordinary prescription will run from the date of
possession in bad faith.
2.The prescription will be extraordinary, but the period will be
counted from the time the possession began.
3.The prescription will be extraordinary but the possession in good
faith shall be computed in the proportion that the period of
extraordinary prescription bears to that of ordinary prescription.
Art. 1129,1130 and 1131. It is refers to the Title
for Prescription.

Just title
True title
Valid title
proved
Art. 1135. For example. A bought a rights of 1 hectare. B is
a farmer owned a 2 hectares beside the land of A. after 4
years, B contend that a piece of land or ¼ is part of his 2
hectares. But A also contended that when they bought the
rights it was mention that it was 1 hectare and they cannot
give the ¼ piece to B because they bought it and they ask
B to give any proof that ¼ part is part of their land but B
cannot proved it. Even B cultivated the land beside the
land of A and A possessed the 1 hectare for 4 years the
prescription is based on his possession. Therefore A
owned the 1 hectare.
Art. 1136,1137, and 1138. This is refers to the
period of the Prescription:
The ownership of movables prescribes through uninterrupted
possession for 4 years in good faith.
The ownership of personal property also prescribes through
uninterrupted possession for 8, without need of any other condition.
Ownership and other real rights over immovable property are
acquired by ordinary prescription through possession of 10 yrs.
Ownership and other real rights over immovable also prescribe
through uninterrupted adverse possession thereof for 30 yrs., without
need of title or of good faith.
Computation of period
 The present possessor may complete the period necessary for
prescription by tacking his possession to that of his grantor or
predecessor.
 It is presumed that the present possessor who was also at a
previous time, has continued to be in possession during the
intervening time, unless there is proof of the contrary.
 The first day shall be exclude and the last day included.
 Possession in war time, when will the civil courts are not open,
shall not be counted in favor of the adverse claimant.
Art. 1139. The law provided a prescribed length
of time wherein can an action to recover and as
well to lost a rights.
“The illustration shows the length
of time when the acquisition of
rights over the thing be acquired
or gain; in the same way , loss of
right of action by the lapse of
time”.
Art. 1145.
In Yusay v. Tugba, The respondent tenants filed in the lower court,
separate petitions against landholder Yusay, seeking reliquidation of
their respective palay produce for the years 1952-1953; 1956-57, inclusive. In
his answer Yusay put up the affirmative defense, among others, that the
tenants' causes of action had prescribed.
Held: Since the Agricultural Tenancy Act makes no mention of the period
within which an action for reliquidation may be brought, the provisions of the
New Civil Code on prescription applies, Article 1145,
which is 6 years, since there was no written contract between the
parties.
Art. 1154. In case of fortuitous event like war, prescription is
suspended.
In Reich v. Schwesinger, G.R. No, L-16525, January 31, 1963
The period of prescription as far as causes of action based on
promissory notes are concerned, was suspended on December
8, 1941 and it remained so suspended after the war by reason of
the Moratorium Law. It started to run only in May, 1953 when
said law was declared void.
Art. 1155. In the case of Cabrera v. Tinio, G.R No. L-17211, July 31, 1963.

Facts: Ciriaco and Gregoria had 5 children-lsabelo, Lourdes, Clemente,

Josefina and Cresencia. Gregoria died before the second world war together
with Clemente. During their lifetime, the spouses Ciriaco and Gregoria
acquired properties. On July 2, 1947, Ciriaco, the surviving husband and 3
children (Isabelo, Lourdes and Cresoncia) sold a parcel of land to defendant
Tiano. At the time of the sale, Cresencia was a minor and Josefina did not
know about it. On June 20, 1957, Josefina and Cresencia filed an action for
partition and recovery of real estate with damages, against Tiano. The judicial
summons was issued on June 21, 1957 and received by defendant
on July 2, 1957. Defendant claimed that he was the absolute owner
of the land by acquisitive prescription of 10 years from the date of
the purchase.
Art. 1155.
Held: Held: Article 1155 of the New Civil Code provides that "the prescription of
actions is interrupted when they are filed before the Court, when there is any
written extrajudicial demand by the creditors and when there is any written
acknowledgment of the debt by the debtor." Since the sale of the property in
question took place on July 2, 1947, the 10-year period within which to file the
action had not yet elapsed on June 20, 1957 when the complaint was presented.
While the sale took place before the effectively of the New Civil Code and the law
then on the matter (Act No. 109) contained no specific provision en the
interruption of the prescriptive period, the established rule then, as it is the rule
now, is that the commencement of the suit prior to the expiration of the applicable
limitation period, interrupts the running of the statutes as to all parties to the
action. The fact that summons was only served on defendant on July 8, 1957 which
coincidentally was the
end of the 10 year period, is of no moment, since civil actions are deemed
commenced from the date of the filing and docketing of the complaint, without
taking into account the issuance and service of summons.
Art. 1155. G,R. No. L-18342, September 19, 1963.
In the case of Philippine National Bank v. Dionisio.
Facts: Judgment was rendered in favor of plaintiff against defendants
for the payment of various sums of money on December 21, 1949. On
October 8, 1960, plaintiff filed a complaint for the revival of the
aforesaid judgment. Defendants moved to dismiss claiming that the
action was barred by the Statute of Limitations. Plaintiff opposed the
motion, arguing that although more than 10 years had elapsed the
aforesaid judgment was rendered, its action had not prescribed
because the prescriptive period had been legally interrupted when
plaintiff sent 2 extra-judicial written demands to defendants for the
satisfaction of the judgment.
Art. 1155. G,R. No. L-18342, September 19, 1963.
In the case of Philippine National Bank v. Dionisio.
Held: Article 1155 provides, among others, that the prescription of actions is
interrupted when there is a written extra-judicial demand by creditors. But
this article is not applicable to the instant case. The judgment in question
become final on December 21, 1949, from which date prescription began to
run. The New Civil Code took effect August 30, 1950 and Article 116 thereof
states that "prescription already running before the effectively of the Code
shall be governed by laws previously in force; But if since the time the Code
took effect the entire period required for prescription should elapse, the
present Code shall be applicable even though by the former laws a longer
period might be required." The law applicable, therefore, in determining
whether prescription had been interrupted in the case at bar, is Act No. 190.
Section 50 of said Act does not include, as a ground for suspending the
running of the period, a written extra-judicial demand made by the creditor.
Hence the present case has already prescribed.