Short answer. Prescription can run in favor of a minor. Under Article 1107 of the Civil Code, minors and other incapacitated persons may acquire property or rights through prescription, either personally or through their parents, guardians, or legal representatives. The period is not automatically suspended simply because the acquirer is a child.
What the law says
Minors and other incapacitated persons may acquire property or rights by prescription, either personally or through their parents, guardians or legal representatives.
Civil Code, Article 1107 — Who May Acquire by Prescription. Read the full provision →
What Article 1107 says
Article 1107 of the Civil Code draws a clear distinction between acquiring property by prescription and losing it by prescription. On the acquiring side, minors are not at a disadvantage. The provision expressly states that minors and other incapacitated persons may acquire property or rights by prescription, either personally or through their parents, guardians or legal representatives. A child does not have to wait until reaching the age of majority to begin accumulating the prescriptive period on property the child occupies or exercises rights over.
Through a representative or personally
The statute allows prescription to run either way. A parent, guardian, or legal representative who possesses land or exercises a right on the minor's behalf causes the prescriptive period to run in the minor's favor just as effectively as if the minor were acting alone. This is important where the minor is very young and lacks the practical capacity to take physical possession — the representative's acts count. Equally, an older minor who is in actual possession can anchor the claim directly.
The different rule when a minor stands to lose a right
Article 1107 governs acquisition in the minor's favor. Prescription running against a minor is a separate question. The Civil Code has distinct provisions addressing whether and how prescription runs against incapacitated persons, and those rules can operate differently depending on whether the minor has a legal representative. If you are concerned about a claim being extinguished while a child is still a minor, the relevant analysis is not Article 1107 but the provisions governing when prescription runs against persons under disability.
What this means practically
If a minor has been in open, continuous, and adverse possession of land through a guardian's management — or personally, for an older child — those years count toward the prescriptive period needed to acquire ownership. This can be significant in property disputes where the basis of a claim depends on how long possession has been maintained. A lawyer can help you assess whether the specific facts of possession and the nature of the property meet the requirements the law imposes alongside Article 1107.