Table of Contents

SECTION III - OF THE SEVERAL SPECIES OF PRESCRIPTION

Art. 64. Prescription is not computed by hours but by days.  Prescription is only acquired after the last day compleating the time required by law, has elapsed.

Art. 65. After thirty years, all actions either personal or real are prescribed against; and the person pleading prescription in that case, is not obliged to produce any color of title nor can it be alledged against him that he acted knavishly.

Art. 66. Immoveable estates may also be prescribed for, after thirty years possession, though thus possessed without any title and knavishly.

Art. 67. A man who becomes possessed of an immoveable estate fairly and honestly and by virtue of a just title, may prescribe for the same, after the expiration of ten years, if the true proprietor resides in the territory and after twenty years, in case said proprietor resides abroad.

Art. 68. A just title is one by virtue of which property may be transferred, such as a sale, a donation and the like, though such title may not in reality give a right to the estate possessed.

Art. 69. If the true proprietor resided at times in the territory and at other times out of it, to render the prescription complete, two years absence must be computed as one year of actual residence and thus added to the time of residence already elapsed.

Art. 70.  When a title is defective with respect to form, it cannot become the basis of the ten or of the twenty years prescription.

Art. 71. A man is always presumed to have possessed fairly and honestly; the person alledging the contrary, is obliged to bring proofs to support the charge.

Art. 72.  It is sufficient to have commenced the possession fairly and honestly.

Art. 73. After the expiration of ten years, the architect or undertaker is released from all responsibility with respect to stone or brick buildings; and five years will release him equally with respect to frames filled up with bricks or wooden buildings.

Art. 74. Slaves may be prescribed for in half the time required for the prescription of immoveable estate and in the same manner and subject to the same exceptions.

Art. 75. If a man has had a public and notorious possession of a moveable thing, during three years, in the presence of the person who claims the property of the thing, said person being a resident within the territory, is presumed to have known the circumstances of the possession and the property becomes vested in the possessor, unless the thing has been stolen.

Art. 76. But however, if the thing stolen has been purchased by the possessor at a public market, or at a fair, or at public auction, or from a person dealing in similar commodities, the former possessor can only obtain possession of the thing, by paying the possessor the purchase money.

Art. 77. The claims of teachers or school masters for the lessons which they gave by the month, may be prescribed against, after a year has elapsed, unless a settlement has taken place, a note given or an action be pending before a court of justice.
The provisions of this article extend likewise to the keepers of taverns boarding houses and inns, on account of the lodging and boarding which they furnish; to that of workmen and day laborers for the payment of their days works and of the materials by them furnished; and for that of the domestics which let their services by the year.

Art. 78. The arrears due on life annuities, alimony, rent of houses and rural estates, the interest of money lent and every thing generally which is to be paid by the year or at shorter periods, may be prescribed against at the expiration of five years.

Art. 79. The several species of prescriptions mentioned in the two preceding articles, run against minors and interdicted persons, reserving to said persons all such remedies as they may have against their tutors or curators.




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