G.R. No. 1572
FACTS:
Plaintiff-appellee Enrique F. Somes, as heir of Manuel F. Somes, filed an action to recover the sum of 200 pesos based on a promissory note executed by Ignacio Gorricho on August 24, 1891. The note promised repayment in four monthly installments of 50 pesos each, beginning November 1, 1891. No payment was ever made. The defendants-appellants (the wife and son of Ignacio Gorricho) raised the defense of prescription, contending that the action was barred under Article 1966(3) of the Civil Code, which provides a five-year prescriptive period for actions to demand payments to be made annually or in shorter periods. The justice of the peace court sustained this defense and dismissed the complaint. On appeal, the Court of First Instance of Manila ruled in favor of the plaintiff, holding that Article 1966(3) did not apply to payments with a fixed date agreed upon by the parties, and that the general 15-year prescriptive period for personal actions under Article 1964 of the Civil Code governed.
ISSUE:
Whether the action to enforce the promissory note, which provided for payment in fixed monthly installments, prescribes in five years under Article 1966(3) of the Civil Code or in fifteen years under Article 1964 of the Civil Code.
RULING:
The Supreme Court affirmed the decision of the Court of First Instance. The action prescribes in fifteen years under Article 1964 of the Civil Code, not in five years under Article 1966(3). The Court held that the obligations referred to in paragraph 3 of Article 1966 (“any other payments which should have been made annually or in shorter periods”) belong to the same class as those enumerated in the preceding paragraphs of the same articlenamely, recurring payments like income for support or rents. The promissory note in question, being a simple loan payable in specific monthly installments, does not belong to that class. It is a personal obligation for which no special prescriptive period is provided; thus, the general 15-year period applies. Since the action was filed on May 24, 1903, less than fifteen years from the date of the instrument (August 24, 1891), the action had not yet prescribed.
