G.R. No. L-2622

FACTS:
Plaintiff-appellee Teodoro S. Benedicto, as administrator of the estate of Teodoro Benedicto and Brigida Ledesma, filed an action to recover from defendant-appellant Julian Perizuelo the balance of an account amounting to 4,559.05 pesos (Mexican) with 15% annual interest from September 30, 1894. The debt was evidenced by a written acknowledgment (“liquidation”) signed by Perizuelo on that date. Perizuelo raised the defenses of general denial and prescription. The parties agreed during trial that if the debt existed, it arose from rents due on land, making the applicable prescriptive period five years. The Court of First Instance of Iloilo ruled in favor of the plaintiff, finding that the debt had been acknowledged and was not prescribed. Perizuelo appealed.

ISSUE:
Whether the action to recover the liquidated sum acknowledged in the document of September 30, 1894, has prescribed.

RULING:
No, the action has not prescribed. The Supreme Court held that the nature of the action is determinative of the prescriptive period. Despite the parties’ stipulation that the debt originated from unpaid rents, the action brought was not one for the recovery of rents under Article 1966 of the Civil Code (which prescribes in five years). Instead, it was a personal action to enforce a written acknowledgment of a liquidated debt. Such an action falls under Article 1964 of the Civil Code, which provides a prescriptive period of fifteen years for personal actions. Since the action was filed well within fifteen years from the date of the acknowledgment (September 30, 1894), the defense of prescription must fail. The judgment of the lower court was affirmed.