The effect of some act or circumstance which stops the course of a prescription or act of limitation’s. 2. Interruption of the use of a thing is natural or civil. Natural interruption is an interruption in fact, which takes place whenever by some act we cease truly to possess what we formerly possessed. A right is not interrupted by: mere trespassers, if the trespasser’s were unknown; but if they were known, and the trespasses frequent, and no legal proceeding instituted in consequence of them, they then become legitimate interruptiones, of which Bracton speaks, and are converted into adverse assertions of right, and if not promptly and effectually litigated, they defeat the claim of rightful prescription; and mere threats of action for the trespasses, without following them up, will have no effect to preserve the right. 3. Civil interruption is that which takes place by some judicial act, as the commencement of a suit to recover the thing in dispute, which gives notice to the possessor that the thing which he possesses does not belong to him. When the title has once been gained by prescription, it will not be lost by interruption of it for ten or twenty years. 1 Inst. 113 b. A simple acknowledgment of a debt by the debtor, is a sufficient interruption to prevent the statute from running. Indeed, whenever an agreement, express or implied, takes place between the creditor and the debtor, between the possessor and the owner, which admits the indebtedness or the right to the thing in dispute, it is considered a civil conventional interruption which prevents the statute or the right of prescription from running.
Law Dictionary – Alternative Legal Definition
The occurrence of some act or fact, during the period of prescription, which is sufficient to arrest the running of the statute of limitations. It is said to be either “natural” or “civil,” the former being caused by the act of the party; the latter by the legal effect or operation of some fact or circumstance. Innerarity Y. Mims, 1 Ala. 674; Carr v. Foster, 3 Q. B. 588; Flight v. Thomas, 2 Adol. A El. 701. Interruption of the possession is where the right is not enjoyed or exercised continuously; interruption of the right is where the person having or claiming the right ceases the exercise of it in such a manner as to show that he does not claim to be entitled to exercise it. In Scotch law. The true proprietor’s claiming his right during the course of prescription.