What is prescription in legal cases and when does it apply?

Judicial relationships, not unlike natural phenomena, are subject to the effects of time. Time operates either in conjunction with a positive or negative act of man or independently of any such act, and time produces juridical effects. Such is the institute of prescription.

There is a lot to say about ‘prescription’; here, we will limit ourselves to extinctive prescription (prescriptio). This is the plea that purports to seek the extinction of an action through the operation of time, which is described by our law (Article 2107 (2) of the Civil Code) as a “mode of releasing oneself from an action, when the creditor has failed to exercise his right for a time speci­fied by law”.

Prescription was originally tied to payment. The debtor cannot be expected to retain proof of payment of debt forever, just in case sometime down the line, perhaps in 20 years, the creditor re-seeks payment. Cases filed late are hard to prove for both parties, and had it not been for prescription, much of the time of the court would be consumed with cases involving years-pending debts, most of which cannot be proven.

Therefore, the law provides for the extinguishment of a right of action after a certain...