SIGNIFICANT APPLICATION OF EXTINCTIVE PRESCRIPTION

Extinctive prescription was devised to correct a defect

in legal practice. The new civil code provides that rights and
actions are lost by prescription. Similarly, actions prescribe
by mere lapse of time as fixed by law. Thus, by negligence,
careless or abandonment, owners of titles or real rights may
be deprived and disposed of their properties by usurpers
who, by lapse of time as specified by law have acquired the
property by prescription. Basically, prescription protects the
person who has diligently cared and maintained the
possessed property.
Extinctive prescription is generally applied in litigation
as a defense against a complaint. It can be used as a ground
for motion to dismiss and as an affirmative defense in an
answer. Consequently, in order for such to be used as a
defense, it must therefore be specifically pleaded either in a
motion to dismiss or in an answer. If the defense of
extinctive prescription is not set up in a motion to dismiss or
pleaded as an affirmative defense in an answer, the
Supreme Court has considered the omission as a waiver
thereof, unless the complaint itself shows extinctive
prescription. However, if before trial a party has no means of
knowing that the opponents claim has already lapsed,
prescription as defense may be pleaded later as soon as the
true nature of the claim is discovered.
Defense of Prescription can also be considered to have
been
tacitly
renounced
through
acts
that
imply
abandonment of the right acquired.