Lunod et al vs. Meneses | Torres, J.

G.R. No. 4223 | August 19, 1908

FACTS
 Plaintiifs (Appellees) Nicolas Lunod and 7 others are owners of farmlands on the upper estates near a lake
(Calalaran).
 Defendant-Appellant Higno Meneses is the owner of a fishpond and a strip of land in Paraanan adjoining
said lake on one side and a river on the other. Paraan is the only outlet of water to the river from the lands
of Lunod et al during rainy season.
 In 1901 Meneses converted the land in Paraan to a fishpond and by means of a dam and a bamboo net
prevented the free passage of water through Paraan causing flood and damage of plantations in the upper
estates.
 Lunod et al filed a complaint alleging that there exists in favor of their rice fields a statutory easement for
more than 20 years before 1901 and praying that Meneses be ordered to remove the obstructions that
impede the passage of water through Paraanan.
 TC ruled in favor of the plaintiffs.

ISSUE
Whether Meneses can be permitted to obstruct the flow of waters through his lands.

HELD
NO. But Lunod et al cannot prevent the defendant from building works to prevent his lands against influx of waters.

RATIO
 Where a statutory easement exists between adjoining estates, the owner of the lower lands must not
construct any work that may impair or obstruct an easement which consists in receiving the waters which
naturally, and without the intervention of man, descend from more elevated lands; neither shall the owner of
the latter construct any work that may increase the easement.
 The Civil Code allows that every owner may enclose his property by means of walls, dikes, fences, or any
other device, but his right is limited by the easement with which his estate is charged.
 Since the plaintiffs can not prevent the defendant from protecting his lands against the influx of salt water;
but the defendant could never be permitted to obstruct the flow of the waters through his lands to the river
during the heavy rains, when the high lands in Calalaran and the lake in said place are flooded, thereby
impairing the right of the owners of the dominant estates; the court advised that it is perhaps useful and
advantageous to all parties that Meneses be made to build a another dike in addition to the old dike
between the lake of said place and the low lands in Paraanan, for the purpose of preventing the salt waters
of the river flooding (at high tide) not only the lowlands in Paraanan but also the higher ones of Calalaran
and its lake.