B & I Realty Co. v. Teodoro Caspe

Summary

B&I Realty sought to foreclose on a mortgage originally executed by Datuin but assumed by the Caspe spouses. The mortgage was secured on property fraudulently obtained by Datuin from the original owner Venegas. The Caspe spouses made payments from 1976 to 1980, then stopped. B&I Realty filed foreclosure proceedings in 1993, thirteen years after the last payment. The Supreme Court affirmed the Court of Appeals' dismissal of the foreclosure action on grounds of prescription. Under Article 1142 of the Civil Code, mortgage actions prescribe after ten years, computed from the last payment per Article 1151. Since the last payment was made on January 14, 1980, the prescriptive period expired on January 14, 1990, making the 1993 foreclosure action time-barred. The Court rejected arguments that other proceedings interrupted the prescriptive period and emphasized that B&I Realty could have protected its rights by filing a cross-claim in earlier related litigation.