Short answer. You have ten years from the time your right of action accrues. An action upon an obligation created by law is one of the three categories the statute expressly gives this ten-year prescriptive period, distinct from — but treated the same as — an action on a written contract.

What the law says

The following actions must be brought within ten years from the time the right of action accrues: (1) Upon a written contract; (2) Upon an obligation created by law; (3) Upon a judgment.

Civil Code, Article 1144 — Ten-Year Actions. Read the full provision →

Obligations created by law get the same ten years as a written contract

The statute names three categories of actions entitled to a ten-year period: those upon a written contract, those upon an obligation created by law, and those upon a judgment. Your situation — a duty the law itself imposes on someone, rather than one the parties agreed to by contract — falls into the second category. The absence of a contract does not shorten your time to sue; the law gives this category the identical ten-year period.

What distinguishes an obligation created by law

An obligation created by law arises independently of any agreement between the parties — it exists because a statute imposes the duty directly, rather than because the parties bargained for it. This differs from an obligation arising from a contract, where the parties themselves define the duty, and from a judgment, where a court has already adjudicated the obligation. The ten-year period applies regardless of which of these three sources gave rise to the underlying obligation.

The trigger is accrual of the right of action

The ten years runs from the time the right of action accrues — the point at which you could actually have brought your action, not necessarily the date the law imposing the obligation first took effect. Where the legally created duty is a continuing one, or where a breach only becomes apparent later, identifying exactly when accrual happened is often the key question in determining whether the ten-year period has already run out.

What this article does not do

This provision fixes the period and its trigger; it does not itself identify which specific statutes create obligations falling into this category, nor does it address obligations governed by their own special prescriptive periods set out elsewhere in the law. Where another statute specifically provides a different period for a particular obligation it creates, that special period, rather than this general ten-year rule, would ordinarily control.

Cases citing this provision

These Supreme Court decisions cite the provision above. We list them so you can read them yourself; the summaries of what each decided are not ours to give.

Related provisions

Note. Statute text quoted on this page is reproduced from the official enactment and is linked to the full provision. The explanation around it is general legal information from Vivas & Nobles Law Office, not legal advice. Whether it applies to your situation depends on facts only a lawyer reviewing them can assess.