PROPERTY AND MODES OF ACQUIRING OWNERSHIP

Property is a thing which is or maybe the object of appropriation. (Art. 414,

New Civil Code)

I. Characteristics of Property:

1. Utility - The ability to serve as a means to satisfy human wants, The

value of the thing need not be economic.

2. Substantivity - The object must exist independently of other things.

It must have a separate and autonomous existence

i.e. Parts of a thing may not be considered a separate property if still

attached to or part of the whole thing: A strand of hair cannot be
considered a property while still attached to the body. After they are
detached from the composite whole, the body parts in some instances
may be considered as property.

Property can be tangible or intangible. Hence, even rights—which are

intangibles can have substantivity

3. Appropriability - The thing can be object of a juridical relation. It is

also considered as that characteristic of being capable of occupation
or of being controlled by man; they are meant to satisfy man’s
necessities. It is not necessary that the thing is already actually
appropriated; mere susceptibility is enough.

a. Res communes – things that belong to everyone: water in the

ocean and the air around us, in their original and uncontrolled
whole or diffused state, are not property.
b. Res nullius - things that do not have owners. They can be
considered property because they can be appropriated: fish in
the ocean; wild pig

License- cannot be considered a property because it is merely a

permit or privilege to do what otherwise would be
unlawful.
 Man- cannot be considered a property because it is a subject
of rights; he cannot be made subject to the power of
another to serve as a means of accomplishing one’s
end.

II. Classification of properties in general

1. Immovable and movable

2. Tangible and intangible (corporeal and incorporeal)
3. Consumable and non-consumable
4. Fungible and non-fungible
5. Property of public dominion and of private ownership
6. Res nullius and Res communes

Importance of classification of immovable and movable properties

1. Formalities: Different formalities are required in some cases.

i.e. donation of land must be in a public instrument
2. Registration: Title over immovable property which are not
duly inscribed or annotated in the Registry of Property shall
not prejudice third persons. Movable properties are not
covered by the registry of property.
3. Acquisitive prescription: The period for acquisitive
prescription
4. Notices and publication: Notices and publication, when
required, more requirements if the property involved is
immovable. i.e. Section 18, Rule 39, Revised Rules of Court
5. Venue in civil cases is different if real properties or rights
thereto are involved.
6. Sale on installment
7. Double sale
8. Taxation: Real properties are subject of real property taxes
under the Local Government Code. However, the concept of
real property under the Local Government Code is not exactly
the same as the Civil Code. i.e office equipment may, in proper
cases be considered real property for purposes of taxes even if
they are not considered as such under the New Civil Code
(NCC).
III. Classification of IMMOVABLE and MOVABLE properties
(Arts. 415 and 416, NCC)

The agreement to treat real property as personal property does

not bind third persons.

i.e. To secure the payment to Jose (creditor) of a loan, Mario

(debtor), the owner of a lot, executed a chattel mortgage on the
building he erected thereon as well as on some newly bought
machinery stored therein. Thereafter, a judgment was rendered
against Mario in favor of Tanny who had the building and
machinery levied upon to satisfy the judgment. Is the chattel
mortgage binding on Tanny?

Ans: Yes, the chattel mortgage is binding on Tanny but only with
respect to the machinery. The chattel mortgage is void with
respect to the building.

The machinery should be considered personal property

because it does not appear that it was installed for some
industry or work.

On the other hand, a building is an immovable by nature under

Art. 415 of the New Civil Code. Hence, it cannot be subject of a
chattel mortgage. While it is true that the parties may be
estopped if they treat the building as an immovable, the same
cannot bind third persons, like Tanny. Hence, Tanny can have
the building attached, free from encumbrance.

Properties of private ownership

Patrimonial properties of the State; properties belonging to

private persons

*Foreigners are not allowed to become owners of land except

through hereditary succession
 Properties of public dominion of the State

Characteristics:

a. It is outside the commerce of man: cannot be alienated or

leased or otherwise be the subject matter of contracts;
cannot be acquired by prescription against the State; is
not subject to attachment or execution. Exempt from real
estate tax and exempt from sale at public auction; cannot
be burdened by voluntary easement

b. Cannot be registered under the land registration law and

be the subject of a Torrens Title

Property of public dominion for public service

This property is not open for use by the public at large but is
generally meant for authorized persons only. i.e. government
offices and military camps

Properties of public dominion for the development of

national wealth

These include forest land or timberlands and other natural

resources.

Conversion. An abandonment of intention to use a property

for public service makes property of public dominion into
patrimonial property under Art. 422 of the NCC. However,
the abandonment must be definite and must be made by the
authorized person or entity, generally by Congress or by the
President through Presidential Proclamation in cases
authorized by law.

Non-use does not immediately convert a property of public

dominion into patrimonial property.

IV. OWNERSHIP
It is the right to enjoy, dispose, and recover a thing without
further limitations than those established by law or the will of
the owner.

Rights included in or consequences of ownership:

a. Right to enjoy: to possess, to use, to the fruits and accessions,

and to exclude others
b. Right to dispose: to destroy or abuse, to alienate; to
transform, to encumber

c. Right to recover: These covers the right to file the following

cases:

Real Property

a. Accion Interdictal or Ejectment

Forcible Entry - The defendant’s possession of the property

is illegal ab initio

Unlawful detainer –The defendant’s possession was

originally lawful but ceased to be so by the expiration of his
right to possess

b. Accion Publiciana

A plenary action for recovery of the right to possess and

which should be brought in the proper Regional Trial Court
when the dispossession has lasted for more than oneyear

c. Accion Reivindicatoria

Recovery of possession based on ownership and includes jus

utendi and jus fruendi . Requisites: identity of property and
ownership. Proof of ownership includes Torrens Title. Tax
declaration by itself is not proof of ownership unless couples
with other circumstances.

Personal Property: Replevin

Ownership distinguished from Possession

Ownership exists when a thing pertaining to one person is

completely subjected to his will in a manner not prohibited by
law and consistent with the rights of others. Ownership confers
certain rights to the owner, one of which is possession. On the
other hand, possession is defined as the holding of a thing or the
enjoyment of a right. Literally, to possess means to actually and
physically occupy a thing with or without a right.

Limitations of ownership:

1. Specific limitations imposed by law

2. General limitations: exercise of the police power of the State;
eminent domain; taxation
3. Limitations imposed by the transferor or the grantor
4. Limitations imposed by the owner himself.

Doctrine of self-help: doctrine of self defense

Force can only be used at the time when possession is disturbed

or immediately after actual dispossession. It is a lawful measure
of self-help to scare away persons who were committing acts of
trespass. i.e the act of trespass justifies the owner to shoo the
trespassers away, even by means of a bolo because of their
refusal to listen to the owner’s reasonable appeal.

Right to enclose

The owner can exclude others by erecting fences in the

boundaries subject to limitations like those brought about by
easement. i.e. if there is no easement, the owner of a building can
erect a fence even if his neighbors use the property for passage
(case of damnum absque injuria)

Doctrine of state of necessity

Interference with a neighbor’s property is allowed if necessary

because of an imminent and threatened damage and/or damage
to another is much greater than damage to the property
 interfered. i.e. in case of fire, one can demolish another house to
prevent the fire from spreading to the houses in the same
community.

Damages may be demanded by the owner of the property

interfered with from the party benefited.

Surface and sub-surface rights

The owner of the land is entitled to exercise his rights to the

surface, the space above it and the sub-surface. Limitations:
reasonable requirements of aerial navigation; limitations
imposed by the mining law

Hidden treasure

General Rule: Hidden treasure as defined under Art. 439, NCC,

belongs to the owner of the land, building or other property (real
or personal) on which it is found.

Exceptions:

a. If finder is not the owner: ½ to the owner and ½ to the finder,

provided:

- discovery was made on the property of another or of the

State or any of its political subdivisions; the finding was
made by chance or by stroke of luck; the finder is not the
co-owner of the property where it is found; the finder is
not a trespasser

b. Treasure Hunting subject to DENR Admin Order No. 2002-04

as amended

V. ACCESSION

It is a right by virtue of which the owner of a thing becomes the

owner of everything that the thing may produce or which may be
inseparable united or incorporated, thereto, either naturally or
artificially. It is not a mode of acquiring ownership, it is an
attribute of ownership.
Kinds:

a. Accession discreta or fruits of the thing – everything produced

by the property

Natural fruits: spontaneous products of the soil and the

young and other products of animals

Industrial fruits: those produced by lands of any kind

through cultivation or labor.

Civil fruits – rents of buildings, amount of perpetual or life

annuities, etc.

General rule: The owner of the principal likewise owns the

fruits except: possessor in goodfaith, usufructuary, lessee of
rural land, pledgee who can apply it to the debt, antichretic
creditor

b. Accession continua – incorporated or attached to the principal

thing

It is the right pertaining to the owner of the thing over

everything that is incorporated or attached thereto either
naturally or artificially by external forces.

Kinds

Accession continua with respect to real property

Industrial - building, planting or sowing

Natural - alluvium, avulsion, change of river course, and

formation of islands

Accession continua with respect to movable property

Adjunction, commixtion or confusion, specification

INDUSTRIAL ACCESSION

With respect to real property, it includes anything that is built,

planted or sown on the land.

1. Expenses for production, gathering and preservation

Art. 443 of the NCC provides that he who receives the fruits has
the obligation to pay the expenses made by a third person in their
production, gathering, and preservation. This rule applies to a
possessor in badfaith (BF) where the owner of the land has
succeeded in recovering the land after the said possessor in BF
has harvested the crop planted thereon. The possessor in BF
must turn over to the owner what he produced and gathered but
the owner must reimburse the amounts he spent for production,
gathering and preservation.

Art. 443 does not apply if the possessor in BF has not yet gathered
the fruits when the owner recovered the land. It is Art. 449 that
applies if the possessor has not yet gathered the fruit before the
recovery by the owner of the land. The possessor loses what he
planted without indemnity.

The owner cannot escape his obligation to pay under Art. 443 if
the standing crops have been damaged by fortuitous event and
the estimated harvest may be less than the expenses. (Manresa
187-188; 1 Capistrano 399).

If the owner allows the possessor in BF to finish the cultivation

and gather and appropriate the fruits for himself Ipossessor) the
owner shall have no obligation to pay under Art. 443, NCC.

2. Rules when the land is claimed by two parties: The

landowner and the builder, planter or sower.

The owner of the land on which anything has been built,

sown or planted in good faith (GF), shall have the right to
appropriate as his own the works, sowing or planting after
payment of the indemnity provided for under Arts. 546 and
548, or to oblige the one who built or planted to pay the price
of the land, and the one who sowed, the proper rent.

However, the builder or planter cannot be obliged to buy the

land if its value is considerably more than that of the building
or trees. In such case, he shall pay the reasonable rent, if the
owner of the land does not choose to appropriate the building
or trees after proper indemnity. The parties shall agree upon
the terms of the lease and in case of disagreement the court
shall fix the terms thereof.

He who builds, plants, or sows in BF on the land of another,

loses what is built, planted or sown without right to
indemnity.

The owner of the land on which anything has been built,

planted or sown in BF may demand the demolition of the
work, or that the planting or sowing be removed, in order to
replace things in their former condition at the expense of the
person who built, planted or sowed; or he may compel the
builder or planter to pay the price of the land and the sower,
the proper rent.

Art. 448 does not apply to co-owners as a co-owner is not a

third person. This situation will be governed by the rules on
co-ownership; not applicable to a usufructuary, lessee, or
tenant who recognizes that another person is the owner of the
land.

i.e Because of confusion as to the boundaries of the adjoining

lots they bought from the same subdivision company,
Mandy constructed a house on the adjoining lot of Pepito
in the honest belief that it is the land that he bought from
the subdivision company. What are the respective rights
of Mandy and Pepito with respect to Mandy’s house?

Under Art. 448 of the New Civil Code, Pepito has the
option either to appropriate the house or sell the land to
Mandy. The latter cannot be compelled to pay the value of
 the land if its value is considerably more than that of the
house.

If Pepito chooses to appropriate the house, Mandy has the

right to indemnity consisting of the payment of necessary
expenses that he spent. Mandy is also entitled to the
payment of the expenses for mere luxury if Pepito decides
to retain the said improvement for mere luxury. Mandy
has the right of retention until the payment of indemnity.

If Pepito chooses to compel Mandy to purchase the land,

then Mandy must pay. If Mandy will not be able to pay,
Pepito can compel Mandy to remove the house. However,
if the value of the land is considerably more than the value
of the house, Pepito cannot compel Mandy to appropriate
the house and Mandy has to pay reasonable rent. If they
cannot agree on the term of the lease, the court shall fix the
terms thereof.

NATURAL ACCESSION

Natural accession includes alluvion, avulsion, naturally

uprooted trees, river bed left change in the course of the
river, island. Accretion is the process through which soil
is deposited in the banks of the river.

a. Alluvion or alluvium. It is the increment which lands

abutting rivers gradually receive as a result of the
current of the waters. The increment belongs to the
owner of the land to which the sediments are attached
if the following requisites are present: the deposit is
gradual and imperceptible; the attachment of the
sediments is the result of the action of the waters of the
river; and the land where accretion takes place is
adjacent to the banks of the river.
b. Accretion operates ipso jure. However, the additional
area is not covered by a Torrens title and the riparian
owner must register the additional area, otherwise, the
additional area can be acquired by other persons
through prescription.
 c. Where the deposit is by sea water, it belongs to the State

d. The rules on alluvion cannot apply if the deposit

occurred through human intervention. i.e. the riparian
owner will not get the additional portion where the
accretion was formed by the dumping of boulders, soil
and other filling materials on portions of a creek and
the river bounding the land of the riparian owner.
Desamparado vs. Court of Appeals, June 26, 1996.

e. The rules on alluvion will not apply if the river simply

dries up. The river bed is retained by the State if the
river dries up. The bed will not go to the riparian
owner. Republic vs. Santos III, November 12, 2012.

AVULSION

It is the transfer of a known portion of land from one

tenement to another by the force of the current. The
portion of land must be such that it can be identified as
coming from a definite tenement. Requisites: the
segregation and transfer must be caused by the current
of a river, creek or torrent; the segregation and transfer
must be sudden and abrupt; and the portion of land
transported must be known or identified.

The original owner remains to be the owner of the

portion that is attached. However, he must remove the
transported portion within two years to retain
ownership.

UPROOTED TREES

The owner retains ownership if he makes a claim within

six months. This refers only to the uprooted trees and
does not include trees which remain planted on a known
portion of land carried by the force of the waters. In the
latter case, the trees are regarded as accession of the land.

CHANGE IN THE COURSE OF THE RIVER

The abandoned river bed ipso facto belongs to the owner
of the owner of the property occupied by the river. The
requisites are as follows: there must be a natural change
in the course of the waters of the river and the change
must be abrupt or sudden.

The new bed becomes part of property of public

dominion. If the river simply dries, the riparian owner
will not get the new bed, the same is still public
dominion. However, the Government has the option of
returning the river to its original course.

FORMATION OF ISLANDS

Rules as to who owns the island:

a) If formed by the sea

If formed in lakes, or navigable or navigable or

floatable rivers. ----- State

b) If formed on navigable or non-floatable rivers.

1) If nearer to one margin or bank - to owner of the

nearer to one margin or bank--- to owner of the
nearer property will own the island.

2) If equidistant from both banks ---- the riparian

owns on both sides of the river will be the owners
and they shall divide the island longitudinally in
halves.

c) If islands are formed by the branching of a river.

The landowner retains ownership of the isolated
piece of land

ACCESSION ON MOVABLE PROPERTIES

Rule: accession exists only if separation is not feasible.

Separation may be demanded if it is possible without in
jury or damage. In such case there is no real accession.
 Kinds of accession continua:

Adjunction and conjunction; mixture and specification

QUIETING OF TITLE

It is an action that maybe brought to remove or prevent

a cloud from being cast upon title to real property or any
interest therein. It is an equitable action in rem.

A cloud is said to be a semblance of a title, either legal or

equitable, or a cloud of an interest in land appearing in
some legal form but which is, in fact, unfounded, or
which it would be inequitable to enforce.

Requisites:

a. Plaintiff must have a legal or equitable title to, or

interest in the real property which is the subject
matter of the action.
b. There must be a cloud in such title
c. Such cloud must be due to some instrument, record,
claim, encumbrance or proceeding which is
apparently valid but is in truth invalid, ineffective,
voidable or unenforceable, and it is prejudicial to the
plaintiff’s title.
d. Plaintiff must return to the defendant all benefits he
may have received from the latter, or reimburse him
for expenses that may have redounded to his benefit.

Prescriptive period:

a. If the plaintiff is in possession --- Imprescriptible

b. If the plaintiff is not in possession 10 (ordinary) or 30
years (extraordinary)

CO-OWNERSHIP

Characteristics of co-ownership
a. Plurality of subjects (two or more persons)
b. Unity of or material indivision, which means that there is a
single object that is not materially divided
c. Recognition of ideal shares which determines the rights and
obligations of the co-owners

Rights and obligations of co-owners:

The co-owner has interest: over the thing itself and over his
undivided interest over the thing

a. Rights of each co-owner as to the thing owned in

common

To use the thing owned in common subject to the

following limitations:

- It must be used according to the purpose for which it was

intended. The use expressly or tacitly agreed upon by the
co-owners should govern and in default thereof, it is to be
understood that the thing is intended for the use for which
it is ordinarily adapted.

- The use must not prejudice the interest of the co-

ownership

- The other co-owners must not be prevented from using it

according to their own rights. The co-owners may
establish rules on the subject which will be binding on all.
In default thereof, , there should be a just and equitable
distribution of uses among all the owners.

b. To share in the benefits

Including fruits, accession and accessories—in
proportion to the interest of each and any stipulation to
the contrary is VOID.

c. To benefit from prescription that pertain to one co-owner

as such.
 Rights of co-owners with respect to his ideal share or undivided
interest

a. The right to alienate, sell or mortgage the undivided interest

b. The right to substitute another in enjoyment unless personal rights
are affected
c. The right to redeem the share of a co-owner if the latter sells the
same.

Right to recover

A co-owner may file an action to recover possession of the co-owned

property from third persons: accion interdictal; recovery of possession;
recovery of ownership.

A co-owner may bring such an action without the necessity of joining

all the other co-owners as co-plaintiffs because the suit is presumed
to have been filed to benefit his co-owners.

Where the suit is for the benefit of the plaintiff alone who claims to be
the sole owner and entitled to the possession of the litigated property,
the action should be dismissed as the action should be pursued in
favor of the co-ownership.

Obligations of co-owners

a. To share in the Charges in proportion to the interest of each in the

co-ownership. Any stipulation to the contrary is VOID.
b. To share in the expenses for preservation

The co-owner being compelled to share in the expenses may exempt

himself from the payment of taxes and expenses by renouncing his
share equivalent to such taxes and expenses. The value of the property
at the time of the renunciation will be the basis of the portion to be
renounced.

Extinguishment of co-ownership:

a. Consolidation and merger in one co-owner

 b. Acquisitive prescription in favor of a third person or a co-owner
who repudiates the co-ownership
c. Loss or deterioration of the property owned in common
d. Partition
e. Expropriation
f. Termination of the period agreed upon by the co-owners.