1. Release of the Obligation

Article 371

Obligations are extinguished by a voluntary release of a debtor by his creditor. The release is completed as soon as it comes to the knowledge of the debtor, but becomes void if refused by him.

Article 372

The release of an obligation is subject to the basic rules that govern gifts.

No special for is required for release even if it is the release of an obligation whose existence was conditional upon a special form required by law or by the agreement entered into by the parties.

2. Impossibility of Performance

Article 373

An obligation is extinguished if the debtor establishes that its performance has become impossible by reason of causes beyond his control.

3. Extinctive Prescription

Article 374

The term of prescription for obligations is fifteen years with the exception of those cases for which a special provision is contained in the law and with the exception also of the following cases.

Article 375

The term of prescription for sums payable periodically at recurring intervals such as the rent of buildings and of agricultural land, the rent of hekr, interest, periodical payments, salaries, wages and pensions, is five years, even if the debt is admitted by the debtor.

The term of prescription for revenue due by a holder in bad faith and for revenue due by a nazir of a wakf to the beneficiaries is fifteen years.

Article 376

The term of prescription for sums due to physicians, chemists, lawyers, engineers, experts, receivers in bankruptcy, brokers, professors or teachers is five years, provided that the debts are due as remuneration for work coming within the scope of their professions or in payment of expenses incurred by them.

Article 377

The term of prescription for taxes and dues owing to the State is three years. The term of prescription for taxes and annual dues commences to run from the end of the year for which they were due: that for fees for legal documents from the date of termination of the hearing of the case in respect of which such documents were prepared, or, if no hearing takes place, from the drawing up of such documents.

The term of prescription of the right to claim repayment of taxes and dues unduly paid is also three years. This prescription runs from the date of payment.

The preceding provisions apply subject to provisions contained in special laws.

Article 378

The term of prescription is one year for the following rights of action:

a) the rights of action of merchants and manufacturers in respect of things supplied to persons who do not trade in these articles, as well as the rights of action of hotel and restaurant proprietors for the cost of accommodation and food and for expenses incurred by them on behalf of their clients.

b) the rights of action of workmen, servants, wage earners, in respect of their pay, daily or otherwise, and for the cost of supplies provided by them.

When a person claims this prescription of one year, he must take oath that he has actually paid the debt. The judge will of his own accord pass the oath. If the debtor is dead, such oath will be passed to the heirs of the debtor, or, if they are minor, to their guardians, so that they may declare either that they do not know the existence of the debt or that they know that the debt has been paid.

Article 379

The term of prescription in respect of rights referred to in Articles 376 and 378 runs from the time that the prestations were made by the creditors, even when the creditors continue to make further prestations.

Once anyone of these rights has been established by a written document, it is only prescribed after fifteen years.

Article 380

Periods of prescription are calculated in days, not in hours; the first day does not count and prescription is completed when the last day is at an end.

Article 381

Prescription runs, subject to a special provision of the law to the contrary, only from the day on which the debt becomes due.

Prescription in particular only runs, in the case of a debt that is subject to a suspensive condition, from the day on which the condition is realized; in the case of an action on a warranty against eviction, only from the date eviction takes place; in the case of a debt payable in the future, only from the date of the expiration of the term.

When the date upon which the obligation becomes due depends upon the will of the creditor, prescription runs from the date on which he is in a position to express his will.

Article 382

Prescription does not run whenever there is a bar, even a moral one, which prevents the creditor from claiming his right. It does not run between a principal and his representative.

Prescription of which the period is more than five years, does not run as regards persons who are legally incapable, absent or convicted criminals, if they are not legally represented.

Article 383

Prescription is interrupted by legal proceedings even if instituted in a court without jurisdiction, by a summons or by an attachment, by the application of a creditor for the admission of his claim in a bankruptcy or in a distribution, or by any act of a creditor to claim his right in the course of legal proceedings.

Article 384

Prescription is interrupted by an express or tacit admission of the right of the creditor by the debtor.

A debtor who leaves a pledge in the hands of his creditor as security for his debt is deemed to have tacitly acknowledged the debt.

Article 385

When prescription is interrupted, a new prescription commences to run from the time that the effect of the act that gave rise to the interruption has ceased. The term of the new prescription will be of the same duration as that of the former one.

When the debt has been confirmed by a final judgment or when, in the case of a debt prescribed after one year, the prescription has been interrupted by the admission of the debtor, the term of the new prescription will be fifteen years unless the debt confirmed by the judgment involves periodical recurring obligations which will not become due until after the judgment.

Article 386

Prescription extinguishes the obligation, but leaves a natural obligation upon the debtor.

When a right is extinguished by prescription, interest and other accessories to the debt are also extinguished even if the term of the particular prescription applying to these accessories has not expired.

Article 387

The judge at his own initiative cannot invoke prescription. Prescription must be invoked by the debtor, or his creditors, or by any interested party, even if the debtor has failed to do so.

Prescription may be invoked at any stage of the proceedings, even before the Court of Appeal.

Article 388

A debtor cannot renounce the benefit of prescription before he has acquired the right to invoke it, nor can he agree to a term of prescription other than that fixed by law.

A person, however, who is legally capable of disposing of his rights, may renounce even tacitly, a right to prescription which he is in a position to invoke; but a renunciation made to the detriment of his creditors will have no effect against them.