Under this heading there are to be considered the subjects of prescription and limitation.

Prescription is the method of acquiring title by the continued occupancy of a piece of property for a certain period, even if such occupancy was in its origin without right. To secure title in this manner the occupancy may have been open, notorious, uninterrupted, and hostile to the rights of the true owner.

A statute of limitations is one providing that no action shall be brought upon a cause of action after the lapse of a certain period.

In order that the statute may operate against the right of recovery of real property, the possession must have been adverse for the entire period of limitation. There must not only have been an actual and complete disseisin, but such disseisin must be continuous and uninterrupted during the statutory period. The adverse possession need not, however, be continuous in one person. The Title may be assigned, and it descends to the disseisor's adverse heirs. If two or more disseisors hold successively and in privity with each other, whether by purchase or descent, and their several periods of holding make up the requisite statutory period, the owner will be effectually barred. In some states, however, it is held that the holding must be continuous by a person or his heirs for the statutory period. The statute runs against the rightful owner and all other persons standing in privity with him. The statute begins to run against the person only from the time that he has a right to bring action.

15 Warvelle on Real Property, pp. 186-7, 2nd Ed.