Creditor Reimbursement for Payment of Prescribed Debt

A claim for reimbursement was brought against a debtor by a creditor who had made a payment on the debtor's behalf to a third party, asserting that the payment discharged a debt for which the debtor was ultimately responsible; the lower court dismissed the claim, ruling that since the underlying debt was deemed prescribed (statute-barred) at the time of the payment, the payment itself did not revive the obligation, thus precluding any right of reimbursement against the debtor. The highest court quashed this decision, reasoning that a payment made by a third party to extinguish a debt, even if the debt was already prescribed, is a voluntary engagement that entitles the payer to seek recovery from the debtor based on unjust enrichment or agency principles, because the payment extinguished a liability that the debtor owed to the third party, even if the third party could no longer legally enforce it against the debtor.