OBLIGATIONS AND CONTRACTS ATTY. LYDIA C.

GALAS
Day 01 November 08, 2012 Thursday

KARL
1. What is Prescription?
2. Distinguish Prescription form Laches.
3. Distinguish Acquisitive Prescription from Extinctive
Prescription.
4. What are those where prescription does not lie against or
run against?
5. How will you reconcile it with another provision of
prescription where prescription will lie against the State
involving properties not patrimonial in character?
6. Are you saying that an abandoned plaza or an abandoned
street can be the subject of prescription?
7. So what can only be acquired by prescription owned by
the State would be those that are alienable in nature?
8. When is it deemed to have taken effect in the event that
period for prescription has been completed? When is the
right acquired for completion of period of prescription? Is it
at the time that the period has lapsed? Or is it at another
time?
JEHAN
1. All things within the commerce of man can be the subject
of prescription. What are those exceptions where even if
they are within the commerce of man but prescription will
not lie against?
2. Against whom shall prescription run?
3. Give me an example of a subdivision of a State.
4. If a minor acquires a property, what would be the nature
of the acquisition?
5. If the minor has no legal capacity, what will happen to the
contract entered into by the minor?
6. Suppose a minor is duly represented by a representative
or a guardian, Article 225 of FC, who is the presumed
administrator over the property of incapacitated or
unemancipated child?
7. And if the property exceeds P50,000.00, what is
required? Suppose the parents or the administrators of the
property of the child and the child buys a property, that

I - ESTRELLADO 2012

acquisition made by the minor is actually voidable. It is not

the minor who can institute an action for the annulment of
the contract. It is only the guardian. Suppose the guardian
did not institute the action within the period provided by
law, can the minor demand damages from the parents who
failed to institute the appropriate action?
8. What are the exceptions where prescription will not lie
against?
9. If a co-owner acquires property by prescription, would
that benefit the other co-owners?
JADE
1. All things within the commerce of man can be the subject
of prescription. What are those exceptions where even if
they are within the commerce of man but prescription will
not lie against?
2. When can you acquire a valuable and without being liable
to the Anti-Fencing Law?
3. Acquisitive Prescription of dominion or real right may
extra-ordinary or ordinary. When do you consider it
ordinary? Extraordinary?
4. When do you say that there is bad faith on the part of the
person?
5. What is required in order for one to acquire property, as
required by the law?
6. What are the different modes of interrupting possession?
7. Where is there natural interruption? Civil interruption?
8. What do you mean by judicial summons?
9. When are you considered to be judicially summoned?
10. What are the exceptions where no judicial summons
shall be deemed not to have been issued?
11. Article 17, NCC What do we mean by solemnities or
formalities? The technical manner/appearance of a
document.
12. Article 225 In what form shall the petition that shall be
filed by the guardians of the unemancipated minor for
purposes of furnishing a bond?
13. What do you mean by verification?

Article 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.
So these are the definitions given by the Civil Code on whether it is acquisitive or extinctive. Acquisitive is you acquire. Extinctive
is you lost your right.
Lets go to marriage, in order for you to fully appreciate. So lets go to Article 45, you remember what are the grounds for
annulment. One is absence of consent from the guardian or parents of the parties to the marriage and between the ages of 18
and 21. So the parents are only given, at any time before the parties reach the age of 21. But if it is the party who did not obtain
consent five years after attaining the age of 21. And remember that voidable/annullable contracts are valid but because of
defects it can be declared annulled by the court. It is different from a contract that is null and void because a void contract is one
where no legal effect shall flow from it. So from the beginning it is a void contract, a void agreement and parties are not bound

OBLIGATIONS AND CONTRACTS ATTY. LYDIA C. GALAS

Day 01 November 08, 2012 Thursday

I - ESTRELLADO 2012

by the agreement because of its complete nullity which is different from a voidable or annullable contract which is valid but can
it be annulled. And pursuant to one of the exceptions under Article 4/5 of Civil Code where acts executed against, you remember
that? void or.. ah, wala.. nganga na pud. Provisions shall be void except when the law allows it. So what are the exceptions?
When it gives the right to the party who is aggrieved and who is not. You talk of voidable contracts. So who is the aggrieved
party? Again, the contract of marriage that is voidable, the one who did not obtain consent. So he is the only person given by law
to institute the petition for annulment on the ground of absence of parental consent. But because it is a voidable contract, it can
be validated. The defects of the contract can be cleansed by cohabitation as husband and wife. So the prescriptive period is five
years. Now, if it is the woman who was 19 at the time and the husband is 21, so here, he is given, upon reaching the age of 21, 5
years. So he has that right to institute it. But suppose, after attaining the age of 21, he will cheat, he will not institute the petition
for annulment, so what is that kind of prescription, extinctive or acquisitive? Extinctive. She loses the right but the husband
acquires, the marriage now becomes valid for all intents and purposes that is already cleansed from all defect. That is what is
meant by extinctive or acquisitive.
But lets go now to our study of obligations and contracts. The persons you are going to meet here are no longer husbands and
wives. It is now the creditor and the debtor, also known as the obligee and the obligor. You have met obligees in support, the
one who is entitled to receive support. The debtor is the obligor, the one who is to give support. Now, generally, well talk of
money because that is a very common form of obligation. So suppose X borrowed P10,000.00 from Y, and P2,000.00. Now in the
absence of any agreement between 2 parties, the presumption is that the prescriptive period for this is 10 years. Y has 10 years
within which to demand payment from X. Now, suppose Y did not do anything about the loan obligation. So instead of
demanding payment from X, he left for the USA, its already 2011. When he returned, he could no longer demand payment from
X because it has already expired as early as 2010. But suppose Y, before leaving for the US in 2005 made a demand upon X that
there is the tolling of the prescriptive period. It stopped and it will start again on 2005. So if no demand whatsoever made, X
acquired the right, Y loses the right.
So prescription is statute-based, law. Laches is based on the fact that one has left over his/her rights to institute the appropriate
action. So, it is based purely on equity. But both are valid defenses. So going back to this, when Y instituted an action for
payment of sum of money against X, the proper defense of X will be prescription. That is the valid defense, but it has to be
alleged by the one claiming prescription. You cannot just simply say that Your Honor, perhaps Y has forgotten that obligation has
not prescribed. No, because it is an affirmative defense, you have to allege it in your answer. And the same degree of proof.
What is the degree required in Civil Cases? Mere preponderance of evidence. In Criminal cases? It is proof beyond guilt. Proof
beyond reasonable doubt. What kind of proof is required if you are to claim that there is absence of sexual access of the first 120
days of the 300 days immediately preceding the birth of the child? You have read the case of Concepcion? Proof beyond
reasonable doubt that there was no access during the first 120 days of the 300 days that immediately preceded the birth of the
child. So for men, you remember that. And I remember I have read a joke. So there was this wife who bought something for the
husband, it was a T-shirt. And so the husband said, its so ugly! Youre so fond of ugly things! The wife said, remember, you are
part of it! Are you aware of the joke that why are you so beautiful and yet, so stupid? have you heard of that? And the wife
said, I am so beautiful thats why you married me, and I am so stupid that I married you.
So prescription retroacts, the acquisition of the right retroacts on the date that the prescriptive period started to run. So there is
retroactivity. The event is retroactive. While generally the law frowns on retroactivity because laws are supposed to be
prospective in nature. Why should it be prospective in nature? Because laws would impose obligations, create new rights, so
precisely, it also would frown on retroactivity subject to certain exceptions.

Article 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.
Persons who are capable of acquiring property or rights while the other legal modes may acquire the same by means of
prescription. So what are the other legal modes of acquiring property? It might be by onerous title or gratuitous title. Onerous
title in your conjugal partnership, properties acquired during the marriage by onerous title, meaning there is consideration
given, that is what is meant by onerous title. Notebook, laptop, that is onerous in title because you acquire it with consideration.
Gratuitous title how shall properties be acquired gratuitously? By acts inter vivos or mortis causa. Inter vivos, if it is given
during the lifetime of the donor; mortis causa if it is to take effect upon the death of the donor, or you acquired property

OBLIGATIONS AND CONTRACTS ATTY. LYDIA C. GALAS

Day 01 November 08, 2012 Thursday

I - ESTRELLADO 2012

because you are an heir. With respect to your parents, what kind of heir are you? You are compulsory heirs. If you are the
spouse? Who are married here? And I always tell my students that marriage is a contract where everyone wants to be a part of
it. But once in it, everybody wants to be out of it. So it might be that you are an heir, or you might be a legatee. You know what a
legatee is? A legatee is one who receives money or a personal property. A devisee is one who receives a property through also
testi, there is a will. If there is no will, only the heirs will be the one who will inherit the property of the deceased. Article 16,
remember testate and intestate succession?
Minors and other incapacitated persons may acquire property or rights by prescription, either personally or through their
parents, guardians or legal representatives. By themselves they are capacitated to acquire property by prescription. Because it
might be that the minor or incapacitated persons or through their or through their parents, guardians or legal representatives
because it might be that the minor or incapacitated, the representative over their person is a stranger. If we go back to your
Persons and Family Relations, there might be a different guardian or person of an unemancipated minor, and another guardian
over the property of the unemancipated minor. So here we are talking about acquisition of properties. Were not talking about
the person of the incapacitated.
Article 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.
So in order for prescription to lie against minors and incapacitated, they must be duly represented; otherwise, no prescription
will set in against these persons.
Absentees. You remember the provisions in Absence? When do you file an action for declaration of a persons as an absentee,
there are two periods, 2 and 5. 2 years, if he left without an administrator before disappearing. 5 years, if he had appointed an
administrator. That is why if you read number 2, who have administrators. So this time, it might either be, the one appointed by
the missing person or the one appointed by the courts.
Persons living abroad, who have managers or administrators. Juridical persons, you remember who are juridical persons? Do
juridical persons have juridical capacity? (Article 37) is it the same as capacity to act? No. Juridical capacity, which is the fitness to
be the subject of legal relations, is inherent in every natural person and is lost only through death. Capacity to act, which is the
power to do acts with legal effect, is acquired and may be lost. Do juridical persons have juridical capacity? No, because they are
not natural persons. They only have capacity to act. That is why juridical persons can be sued or sue. An example of a juridical
person would be private corporations. But prescription will not run against the State, where at present is run by your president
who is capable of giving $250,000 to the USA, $200,000 to China but cannot afford to buy or construct, schools, houses, roads,
water pumps for barangays that there is no means of availing potable water, but can afford to give money to very powerful
nations. That is the kind of President that you have elected.
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. So I said a minor who buys a property, that contract is voidable but the
minor cannot ask for the annulment because he does not have the legal capacity to institute an action for annulment which
should be the legal representative or the guardian. And the mother informs the guardian but the guardian did not do anything
about it and four years have lapsed and the action could no longer be instituted by reason of prescription and the minor now can
sue the guardian for damages, because it has been caused by the negligence of the representative.
Article 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.

OBLIGATIONS AND CONTRACTS ATTY. LYDIA C. GALAS

Day 01 November 08, 2012 Thursday

I - ESTRELLADO 2012

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.
Now, in instances where prescription will not lie. Number 1 is between husband and wife. So the husband or the wife cannot
acquire the property of the other by means of prescription even of there has been an agreement in the property regime of
complete separation of property. Or the other instance would be separation of the property during marriage, for causes
mentioned under either 135 or 136 of FC. 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. So these are the exceptions.