Sunday, January 12, 2014

Prescriptive period in ejectment cases counted from last demand, not from date of termination of lease contract.

See - INOCENCIO VS. HOSPICIO DE SAN JOSE, GR NO. 201787, SEPT. 25, 2013.


"x x x.

We also find that the action for unlawful detainer was not barred by prescription. Section 1, Rule 70 of the Rules of Court provides that actions for unlawful detainer must be filed “within one (1) year after such unlawful deprivation or withholding of possession.” In interpreting the foregoing provision, this Court, in Republic v. Sunvar Realty Development Corporation,53 held that:


[T]he one-year period to file an unlawful detainer case is not counted from the expiration of the lease contract on 31 December 2002. Indeed, the last demand for petitioners to vacate is the reckoning period for determining the one-year period in an action for unlawful detainer. “Such one year period should be counted from the date of plaintiff’s last demand on defendant to vacate the real property, because only upon the lapse of that period does the possession become unlawful.”54


HDSJ’s last demand was made on 3 March 2005, and it filed the complaint for unlawful detainer on 28 June 2005. Thus, the complaint was filed within the period provided under the Rules of Court.

x x x."