INTRO (ALM1&CLM1) – MODULE 7: Prescription &

Estoppel [WEEK 7 – 9 September 2019]

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MODULE 7
PRESCRIPTION AND ESTOPPEL
WEEK 7 – 9 September 2019

PRESCRIPTION

 Concept of Prescription. – Prescription is

the loss or acquisition of a right through lapse of time.
(Art. 1106, NCC.)

 Types of prescription. –
(a) Acquisitive prescription. – By acquisitive
prescription, one acquires ownership and other real rights
through the lapse of time in the manner and under the
conditions laid down by law. (Arts. 1117, 1118, 1134
& 1137, NCC.) It is also known as adverse
possession, which has two kinds:

(a.1) Ordinary acquisitive prescription,

which requires possession of things in good faith and with
just title for 10 years.

(a.2) Extraordinary acquisitive prescription,

which is the acquisition of ownership and other real rights
without the need of title or of good faith or any other
condition, and would prescribe in 30 years.
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(b) Extinctive prescription. – By extinctive

prescription, rights and actions are lost through the lapse
of time in the manner and under the conditions laid down
by law. (Art. 1139, NCC.) A person’s uninterrupted
adverse possession of patrimonial property for at least 30
years, regardless of good faith or just title, ripens into
ownership pursuant to Art. 1137 of the Civil Code.

 Prescription of actions. – Actions prescribe

by the mere lapse of time fixed by law. (Art. 1139,
NCC.) THUS,

(a) Actions to recover movables shall prescribe eight

years from the time the possession thereof is lost. (Art.
1140, NCC.)

(b) Real actions over immovables prescribe after

thirty years. (Art. 1141, NCC.)

(c) A mortgage action prescribes after ten years.

(Art. 1142, NCC.)

(d) The following actions must be brought within ten

years from the time the right of action accrues: (Art.
1144, NCC.)

(d.1) Upon a written contract.

(d.2) Upon an obligation created by law.
(d.3) Upon a judgment.

(e) The following actions must be commenced

within six years: (Art. 1145, NCC.)
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(e.1) Upon an oral contract.

(e.1) Upon a quasi-contract.

(f) The following actions must be instituted within

four years: (Art. 1146, NCC.)

(f.1) Upon an injury to the rights of the

plaintiff.
(f.2) Upon a quasi-delict.
(g) 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. (Art.
1149, NCC.)

 When prescription of actions interrupted.

– The prescription of actions is interrupted:

(a) When they are filed before the court.

(b) When there is a written extrajudicial demand by
the creditors; and,
(c) When there is any written acknowledgement of
the debt by the debtor.

ESTOPPEL

 Concept of Estoppel – Generally speaking,

estoppel is a bar which precludes a person from denying
or asserting anything to the contrary of that which has, in
contemplation of law, been established as the truth, either
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by the acts of judicial or legislative officers or by his own

deed or representation, either expressed or implied.

 It concludes the truth in order to prevent

fraud and falsehood, and imposes silence on a party only
when in conscience and honesty he should not be
allowed to speak.
 Thus, whenever a party has, by his own
declaration, act, or omission, intentionally and
deliberately led another to believe a particular thing to be
true, and to act upon such belief, he cannot, in any
litigation arising out of such declaration, act, or omission,
be permitted to falsify it. The principle of estoppel would
step in to prevent one party from going back upon his
own acts and representations to the prejudice of the other
party who relied upon them.
 Kinds of Estoppel. –
(a) Estoppel in pais (equitable estoppel) – It arises
when one, by his acts, representations or admissions, or
by his silence when he ought to speak out, intentionally or
through culpable negligence, induces another to believe
certain facts to exist, and such other rightfully relies and
acts on such belief, so that he will be prejudiced if the
former is permitted to deny the existence of such facts.

 Illustrative examples:
(a.1) A divorce decree was obtained
from a U.S. Court by Henry, American husband of Fe, a
Filipina. While Philippine nationals are covered by the
policy against absolute divorces, aliens may obtain
divorces abroad, which may be recognized in the
Philippines, provided they are valid according to their
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national law. Before the U.S. Court, Henry represented

that they had no community of property. He contends
that divorce is not valid in the Philippines, the same being
contrary to local law and public policy.
Question: Does Henry have the standing to sue as Fe’s
husband, entitled to exercise control over the conjugal
assets?
Answer: No. He is estopped by his own representations
before said court from asserting his right over the alleged
conjugal property. To maintain that under our laws, Fe
has to be considered still married to Henry, and still
subject to a wife’s obligations cannot be just. Fe should
not be discriminated in her own country if the ends of
justice are to be served.

(a.2) Although the lack of jurisdiction of

a court may be raised at any stage of the action, a party
may be estopped from raising such questions if he has
actively taken part in the very proceedings which he
questions, belatedly objecting to the court’s jurisdiction in
the event that the judgment or order subsequently
rendered is adverse to him.

(a.3) If a vendee a retro agrees to

accept a check in payment of the repurchase price, he
cannot afterwards allege that the check is not legal
tender. He is bound by his own act.

(b) Estoppel by deed (technical estoppel) – It is a

bar which precludes a party to a deed and his privies
from asserting as against the other and his privies any
right or title in derogation of the deed, or from denying the
truth of any material fact asserted in it.
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 Estoppel by deed may be sub-classified into

estoppel by deed proper and estoppel by record. Their
common characteristic is that both are in writing.

(b.1) Estoppel by deed. – This is the

kind of technical estoppel which is in writing signed by a
party, which bars him from denying the truth of any
material facts asserted in it. It may be invoked only in a
suit on the deed itself, or concerning a right arising from
it.
 Example: If a shipper has his goods valued
at only P100,000.00, he cannot later on recover
damages for its value more than what he has
declared in the bill of lading, even if the value of the
goods be worth much more, for he is in estoppel.

(b.2) Estoppel by record. – This is the

kind of technical estoppel where the truth set forth in a
record, whether judicial or legislative, cannot be denied.
 Example: Agnes obtains a judgment of
paternity in court showing that Diego is the father of
her daughter Allyanna. Later, Agnes seeks an
order for Diego to pay child support. Because the
issue of paternity has already been established by
the court, Diego is collaterally estopped (or
“estopped by record”) from claiming he is not the
father, in an attempt to avoid his child support
obligations.

(c) Estoppel by laches. – Laches is failure or

neglect, for an unreasonable and unexplained length of
time, to do that which, by exercising due diligence, could
or should have been done earlier; it is negligence or
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omission to assert a right within a reasonable time,

warranting a presumption that the party entitled to assert
it either has abandoned or declined to assert it.

 The doctrine of laches or of “stale

demands” presumes that the party guilty of negligence,
silence or inaction had the right and opportunity to speak
or do what should have been done, and, in addition, the
obligation and duty to do so, but failed to do so.

 Example: The prescriptive period in an

action for recovery of a sum of money based on a
promissory note is 10 years counted from the time of the
maturity date of the obligation. Let us assume that the
debt covered by the promissory note is due for collection
on January 15, 2009. Under the statute of limitations, the
creditor has until January 15, 2019 within which to collect
the indebtedness. Supposing that the creditor files his
claim for collection against the debtor on November 15,
2018, although the action is filed within the prescriptive
period of 10 years, the court can dismiss the case on the
ground of laches.

 Estoppel cannot be invoked against the

government. – The government is not estopped by
reason of the errors or mistakes of its officials or agents.
 Thus, estoppel cannot be applied to
validate a contract entered into by a Municipality over
which it has no power to make. To apply estoppel in
such a case would enable the Municipality to do indirectly
what it cannot do directly. Also, where the contract is
violative of public policy, the Municipality executing it
cannot be estopped to assert the invalidity of the contract.
Neither can it be estopped from asserting the invalidity of
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a contract which has ceded away, controlled or

embarrassed its legislative or governmental powers.

* * * END * * *

HAPPY READING &

LEARNING! 

SOURCES of NOTES:

The discussions outlined in this

module have been collectively lifted
from the cases cited and
commentaries made by the authors
in the references cited below:

1. Hector S. De Leon. Obligations and Contracts

(Manila: Rex Book Store, 2014).

2. Marcelino T. Lizaso. Introduction to Law

(Quezon City: Central Lawbook Publishing Co., Inc.,
1991).

3. Paras, Edgardo. Civil Code, Volume V (Manila:

Rex Book Store, 2016).

4. Ernesto L. Pineda. Obligations and Contracts

(Quezon City: Central Book Supply Inc., 2009).
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Estoppel [WEEK 7 – 9 September 2019]
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5. Arturo M. Tolentino. Commentaries and

Jurisprudence on the Civil Code of the Philippines,
Volume IV (Quezon City: Central Lawbook Publishing
Co., Inc., 1991).

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

“By three methods we may learn wisdom:

First, by reflection, which is noblest;
Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and
Third, by experience, which is the bitterest.”
Confucius