Law 114 Notes

A. Constitution

Article XII National Economy and Patrimony

SECTION 6. The use of property bears a social function, and all economic agents shall contribute to the
common good. Individuals and private groups, including corporations, cooperatives, and similar
collective organizations, shall have the right to own, establish, and operate economic enterprises, subject
to the duty of the State to promote distributive justice and to intervene when the common good so
demands.

Article XIV Education, Science and Technology, Arts, Culture and Sports Education

SECTION 13. The State shall protect and secure the exclusive rights of scientists, inventors, artists, and
other gifted citizens to their intellectual property and creations, particularly when beneficial to the
people, for such period as may be provided by law.

SECTION 14. The State shall foster the preservation, enrichment, and dynamic evolution of a Filipino
national culture based on the principle of unity in diversity in a climate of free artistic and intellectual
expression.

I. Property

What is an immovable?

(1) Land, buildings, roads and constructions of all kinds adhered to the soil;

(2) Trees, plants, and growing fruits, while they are attached to the land or form an integral part of
an immovable.

(3) Everything attached to an immovable in a fixed manner in such a way that it cannot be
separated therefrom without breaking the material or deterioration of the object;

(4) Statues, reliefs, paintings or other objects for use or ornamentation, placed in buildings
or on lands by the owner of the immovable in such a manner that it reveals the intention to attach them
permanently to the tenements;

(5) Machinery, receptacles, instruments or implements intended by the owner of the tenement for
an industry or works which may be carried on in a building or on a piece of land, and which tend directly
to meet the needs of the said industry or works;

(6) Animal houses, pigeon-houses, beehives, fish ponds or breeding places of similar nature, in case
their owner has placed them or preserves them with the intention to have them permanently attached
to the land, and forming a permanent part of it; the animals in these places are included;

(7) Fertilizer actually used on a piece of land;

(9) Docks and structures which, though floating, are intended by their nature and object to remain
at a fixed place on a river, lake, or coast;

(10) Contracts for public works, and servitudes and other real rights over immovable property.

What are movables?

Art. 416. The following things are deemed to be personal property:

(1) Those movables susceptible of appropriation which are not included in the preceding article;
(2) Real property which by any special provision of law is considered as personal property (e.g.
growing crops as far as chattel mortgage is concerned);
(3) Forces of nature which are brought under control by science (e.g. electricity generated); and
(4) In general, all things which can be transported from place to place without impairment of the
real property to which they are fixed. (335a)

Art. 417. The following are also considered as personal property:

(1) Obligations and actions which have for their object movables or demandable sums; and

(2) Shares of stock of agricultural, commercial and industrial entities, although they may have
real estate. (336a)

Art. 418. Movable property is either consumable or non-consumable. To the first class belong
those movables which cannot be used in a manner appropriate to their nature without their being
consumed; to the second class belong all the others. (337)

Tests to determine if a thing is moveable?

Test of EXCLUSION -

Everything not included in Art. 415

By reason of a SPECIAL LAW

Immovable by nature but movable for the purpose of the special law,
e.g. growing crops for purpose of the chattel mortgage law

Test of MOBILITY

If the property is capable of being carried from place to place without injuring the property to which it
may in the meantime be attached.
II. Ownership

Public versus Private

Art. 419. Property is either of public dominion or of private ownership. (338)

Art. 420. The following things are property of public dominion:

(1) Those intended for public use, such as roads, canals, rivers, torrents, ports and bridges
constructed by the State, banks, shores, roadsteads, and others of similar character;
(2) Those which belong to the State, without being for public use, and are intended for some
public service or for the development of the national wealth. (339a)

Art. 421. All other property of the State, which is not of the character stated in the preceding article, is
patrimonial property. (340a)

Art. 425. Property of private ownership, besides the patrimonial property of the State, provinces, cities,
and municipalities, consists of all property belonging to private persons, either individually or
collectively. (345a)

Kinds of Ownership

1. Full ownership

Includes all the right of an owner;

2. Naked ownership

Ownership where the rights to the use and to the fruits have been denied;

3. Sole ownership

Ownership is vested in only one person;

4. Co-ownership

Ownership is vested in 2 or more persons. There is Unity of the property, and plurality of the subjects.

Characteristics of Ownership

Elastic

power/s may be reduced and thereafter automatically recovered upon the cessation of the limiting
rights

General
the right to make use of all the possibilities or utility of the thing owned, except those attached to other
real rights existing thereon.

Exclusive

there may be two or more owners, but only one ownership.

Independent

other rights are not necessary for its existence.

Perpetual

ownership lasts long as the thing exists. It cannot be extinguished by non-user but only by adverse
possession

Attributes

1. Right to enjoy (jus utendi, Art. 428)

Art. 428. The owner has the right to enjoy and dispose of a thing, without other limitations than
those established by law.

The owner has also a right of action against the holder and possessor of the thing in order to
recover it.

ARTICLE III BILL OF RIGHTS

Section 1. No person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law,
nor shall any person be denied the equal protection of the laws.

2. Right to the fruits (jus fruendi)

Art. 1164. The creditor has a right to the fruits of the thing from the time the obligation to deliver
it arises. However, he shall acquire no real right over it until the same has been delivered to him.
(1095)

3. Right to abuse (jus abutendi)

4. Right to dispose (jus dispodendi, art.428)

5. Right to recover (jus vindicandi, art. 428)

Art. 428. The owner has the right to enjoy and dispose of a thing, without other limitations than
those established by law.
 The owner has also a right of action against the holder and possessor of the thing in order to
recover it. (348a)

6.Right to accessories (jus accessiones)

Art. 1166. The obligation to give a determinate thing includes that of delivering all its accessions
and accessories, even though they may not have been mentioned. (1097a)

7. Right to possess (jus possidendi)

Personal property - Replevin

Real Property

Accion Interdictal (within 1 year)

Forcible Entry
Unlawful Detainer

Accion Publiciana (ejectment suit after 1 year)

Accion Reinvindicatoria (recovery of real property as an enforcement of ownership)

8. Right to exclude (art. 429)

Art. 429. The owner or lawful possessor of a thing has the right to exclude any person from the
enjoyment and disposal thereof. For this purpose, he may use such force as may be reasonably
necessary to repel or prevent an actual or threatened unlawful physical invasion or usurpation of
his property. (n)

9. Right to enclose (art. 430)

Art. 430. Every owner may enclose or fence his land or tenements by means of walls, ditches,
live or dead hedges, or by any other means without detriment to servitudes constituted
thereon. (388)

Trademark Under the Civil Code

Art. 520. A trade-mark or trade-name duly registered in the proper government bureau or office is
owned by and pertains to the person, corporation, or firm registering the same, subject to the provisions
of special laws. (n)

Art. 521. The goodwill of a business is property, and may be transferred together with the right to use
the name under which the business is conducted. (n)

Art. 522. Trade-marks and trade-names are governed by special laws. (n)
Modes of Acquiring Ownership

Art. 712. Ownership is acquired by occupation and by intellectual creation.

Ownership and other real rights over property are acquired and transmitted by law, by donation, by
estate and intestate succession, and in consequence of certain contracts, by tradition.

They may also be acquired by means of prescription. (609a)

Art. 713. Things appropriable by nature which are without an owner, such as animals that are the object
of hunting and fishing, hidden treasure and abandoned movables, are acquired by occupation. (610)

Art. 714. The ownership of a piece of land cannot be acquired by occupation. (n)

Art. 721. By intellectual creation, the following persons acquire ownership:

(1) The author with regard to his literary, dramatic, historical, legal, philosophical, scientific or
other work;

(2) The composer; as to his musical composition;

(3) The painter, sculptor, or other artist, with respect to the product of his art;

(4) The scientist or technologist or any other person with regard to his discovery or
invention. (n)

Art. 722. The author and the composer, mentioned in Nos. 1 and 2 of the preceding article, shall have
the ownership of their creations even before the publication of the same. Once their works are
published, their rights are governed by the Copyright laws.

The painter, sculptor or other artist shall have dominion over the product of his art even before it is
copyrighted.

The scientist or technologist has the ownership of his discovery or invention even before it is
patented. (n)

Art. 723. Letters and other private communications in writing are owned by the person to whom they
are addressed and delivered, but they cannot be published or disseminated without the consent of the
writer or his heirs. However, the court may authorize their publication or dissemination if the public
good or the interest of justice so requires. (n)

Art. 724. Special laws govern copyright and patent. (429a)