CASE NAME (all caps, bold) ● The Civil Code allows that every owner may enclose his

● The Civil Code allows that every owner may enclose his property by means of walls,
Topic: Ownership
RECIT-READY: Summarize the case in 5 sentences or so. Keep it brief and concise
FACTS: (all caps, bold)
● 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.
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.
Format:
Font: Helvetica Neue
Size: 10
Page Setup: Landscape, 2 columns
File name: # of case_Case name_Person who digested
Sample: 01_Cruz v. Reyes_ Santos

ISSUE (all caps, bold): Whether Meneses can be permitted to obstruct the flow of waters
through his lands?

HELD (all caps, bold): NO. But Lunod et al cannot prevent the defendant from building
works to prevent his lands against influx of waters.

● 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.