Property and the Different Modes of Acquiring Ownership

Article 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)

Article 1118

Possession has to be in the concept of an owner, public, peaceful and uninterrupted. (1941)

Article 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)

Article 1120

Possession is interrupted for the purposes of prescription, naturally or civilly. (1943)

Article 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)

Article 1122

If the natural interruption is for only one year or less, the time elapsed shall be counted in favor of the prescription. (n)

Article 1123

Civil interruption is produced by judicial summons to the possessor. (1945a)

Article 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)

Article 1125

Any express or tacit recognition which the possessor may make of the owner's right also interrupts possession. (1948)

Article 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)

Article 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)

Article 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)

Article 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)

Article 1130

The title for prescription must be true and valid. (1953)

Article 1131

For the purposes of prescription, just title must be proved; it is never presumed. (1954a)

Article 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)

Article 1133

Movables possessed through a crime can never be acquired through prescription by the offender. (1956a)

Article 1134

Ownership and other real rights over immovable property are acquired by ordinary prescription through possession of ten years. (1957a)

Article 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)

Article 1136

Possession in wartime, when the civil courts are not open, shall not be counted in favor of the adverse claimant. (n)

Article 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)

Article 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)