Chapter 2. Prescription of Ownership and Other Real Rights (Title V, Book III, Civil Code)

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)

A. Notes

1) Definitions.

a. Prescription – in the context of ownership and possession, “is another mode of acquiring ownership and other real rights over immovable property. It is concerned with lapse of time in the manner and under conditions laid down by law, namely, that the possession should be in the concept of an owner, public, peaceful, uninterrupted and adverse.” (Heirs of Arzadon-Crisologo v. Rañon, G.R. No. 171068, September 5, 2007)

b. Acquisitive prescription – in the context of ownership and possession, refers to “the acquisition of a right by the lapse of time as expounded in paragraph 1, Article 1106”; also known as “adverse possession” and “usucapcion.” (Pangasinan v. Disongloalmazora, G.R. No. 200558, July 1, 2015)

c. Extinctive prescription – in the context of ownership and possession, refers to a state “whereby rights and actions are lost by the lapse of time as defined in paragraph 2, Article 1106 and Article 1139”; also known as “litigation of action”. (Ibid.)

d. Good faith – “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.” (Civil Code, Article 1127)

e. Just title – “[f]or the ...