OWNERSHIP

Definition (428, 429)

 independent right of a person
 to the exclusive enjoyment and control of a thing, including its
disposition and recovery
 subject only to the restrictions or limitations by law and the rights of
others

Kinds of ownership
Types Definition
Beneficial ownership ownership recognized by law and capable of
being enforced in court

used in 2 senses:
(1) to indicate the interest of a beneficiary in
trust property (aka “equitable ownership”)

(2) to refer to power of a shareholder of a

corporation to buy or sell
Naked ownership the enjoyment of all the benefits and privileges
of ownership, as against the bare title to
property (e.g. when you own a property but
someone is in lawful possession of it for a
certain time)

Subject matter of ownership (427):

1. thing --- any material object; corporeal property
2. rights --- real or personal; incorporeal property

Rights included in ownership (428)

1 Jus possidendi Right to possess (523)

2 Jus utendi
3 Jus fruendi
4 Jus accessionis
5 Jus abutendi
6 Jus disponendi
7 Jus vindicandi
Right to use and enjoy (429)
Right to the fruits
Right to accessories
Right to consume the thing by its use
Right to dispose or alienate
Right to vindicate or recover

Right to possess (523, 524)

--- the right to hold a thing or enjoy a right; may be exercised in one’s own
name or in that of another.

Ownership Possession
Might not include possession (e.g.
contract of lease); provided actual Might not include right to use (e.g.
possessor has some rights which contract of deposit)
must be respected

--- Right to possess is included if the claim to possession is based on claim

of ownership; EXC if actual possessor shows valid right over the property
enforceable against the owner
--- Possession and ownership should be delivered by vendor to the vendee
in contract of sale. Ownership is acquired the moment the thing is
delivered, i.e. when placed in the control and possession of the vendor.

Right to use and enjoy (429)

--- includes the right to transform and “the right to exclude any person
from the enjoyment and disposal of the thing/right”
--- owner or lawful possessor of a thing 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 (429)
--- right to enclose or fence (430)

--- LIMITATIONS
(a)must not injure rights of third party (431)
(b)contribute to the common good (Art. XII, Sec. 6, Constitution)

Right to receive the fruits and accessories (440)

--- ownership of property gives the right by accession to everything:
(a)which is produced thereby
(b)which is incorporated or attached thereto naturally
(c) which is incorporated or attached thereto artificially

EXC: possessor entitled to fruits when:

(a)possessor in good faith (544)
(b)usufructuary (566)
(c) lessee of agricultural land (1676)
(d)antichretic creditor (432)

--- obligation to deliver a determinate thing includes obligation to deliver all

its accessions and accessories (even if not mentioned). Art. 1166.

Right to consume (by its use)

--- includes right to abuse or destroy, SUBJECT to limitations (e.g. protect
rights of others; provided by law)

Right to dispose or alienate

 (1) totally --- e.g. sale or donation

Principle: Nobody can dispose of that which he does not have or own.
--- GR: the vendor has the duty to transfer ownership for the sale to be
valid. (1438)
However, a seller need not be the owner at the time of the perfection of the
contract of sale. It is sufficient that he be the owner at the time of delivery of
the thing sold.

(2) partially --- i.e. w/o transfer of ownership or encumbrance e.g. lease,
pledge, mortgage

--- can only be done by the absolute owner, OTHERWISE (e.g. constituted
by impostor, or by one who was not the owner before the execution of the
contract) the pledge or mortgage is VOID.

--- EXC
(1)third persons who are not parties to the principal obligation (2085[2])
(2)lessor, provided he has the enjoyment of the thing (572)

Right to recover possession and/or ownership (428)

--- owner has a right of action against the holder and possessor of the thing
(or right) in order to recover it
--- HOWEVER, possessor has presumption of title in his favor

Actions available to recover possession and/or ownership.

Considerations: (a) real v. personal property (b) purpose: recover v.
recover & vindicate

Recovery of Personal property

Replevin or the manual delivery of property (Rule 60, § 2, ROC)
 Recovery of personal property (Rule 60, RoC) by the owner of the
property entitled to its possession from another who has “wrongfully
detained” such property
 Principal remedy –to regain possession
 Provisional remedy –to retain the thing wrongfully detained by
another pendente lite
 Prescriptive period: 4 or 8 years from the time possession is lost
(Art 1132)
 Principle of Irrevindicability: If you are in possession of a
movable/personal property and you acquired it in good faith,
acquisition of which is equivalent to JUST TITLE.

Recovery of Real property

1. accion interdictal
Common features:
i. Summary in nature
- filed w/in 1 year from
i. date of actual entry on the land
ii. date of last demand to vacate
ii. Issue is possession de facto
- mere physical or material possession, not juridical or civil
possession (possession de jure)

2 distinct causes of action:

a. forcible entry (detencion)
- a quieting process
- ISSUE: who owned it previously?
- possession became unlawful from the time of entry
- requires allegations of:
- 1. Fraud
- 2. Intimidation
- 3. Stealth
- 4. Strategy

b. unlawful detainer (desahuico)

- possession was lawful until it was not
- plaintiff’s supposed acts of tolerance present from start of
possession later sought to be recovered
- defendant unlawfully withholds possession after expiration of his
right thereto

2. plenary action to recover

Common features:
i. an ordinary civil proceeding to recover the better right of
possession of realty independently of title
 N/A in cases of forcible entry and unlawful detainer
o XPN: 1-year period to bring accion interdictal has expired
 Filed w/in 10 years, otherwise right to possess is lost
ii. issue is possession de jure
iii. distinguished from action for recovery of title or ownership
 Judgment rendered in action to recover is conclusive only on the
question of possession, and not that of ownership.

2 actions:
accion publiciana (possessory action)
- remedy for the lawful possessor to regain loss of possession from
the lawful owner
- prescriptible
accion reivindicatoria (discussed below)
- seeks the recovery of possession based on ownership
- imprescriptible
3. action to recover based on ownership
accion reivindicatoria or accion reivindicacion
Features:
i. issue is ownership
 ordinarily includes possession
 action for annulment or rescission of contract of sale of realty
o objective is to recover real property
 action for reconveyance
o objective is the transfer of the property wrongfully registered
in another person’s name, to its rightful and legal owner, or to
one with a better right
o 2 facts must be alleged:
i. Plaintiff owns land or possesses land in the concept of
owner
ii. Defendant illegally dispossessed plaintiff of said land
ii. prescription period
 4 years – if constructive notice (e.g. registration of real property);
counted from date of issuance of certificate of title
 10 years – if based on implied or constructive trust
 Imprescriptible – if plaintiff or person enforcing the trust is in
possession of the property

NOTE: These actions are actions in personam

 can only be executed against the parties and their privies or
successors-in-interest in the same action
 cannot be executed against a stranger who is a possessor is good
faith

Injunction as a remedy for recovery of possession.

- A writ framed on a case-to-case basis:
(a) commanding an act which the court regards as essential to
justice, or
(b) restraining an act deemed contrary to equity and good
conscience
- May be granted when:
(a)There is clear and positive right over the property which should be
judicially protected through the writ; and
(b)The acts against which the injunction is to be directed are violative
of said rights

GR: Injunction cannot be availed by those entitled to recover possession. It

is not designed to protect contingent or future rights. It cannot be a
substitute for other suits for recovery of possession. Its denial will not bar
the institution of the more appropriate remedy.

XPNs:
a. Forcible entry
o w/in 10 days from filing of complaint
o motion for a writ of preliminary mandatory injunction
  purpose: to prevent the defendant from committing further
acts of dispossession against the plaintiff
b. Ejectment
o Remedy given to lessor if:
 it is shown that the lessee’s appeal is dilatory
 lessor’s appeal is prima facie meritorious
c. Possessor admittedly owner or in possession in the concept of owner
o PAO: protection from repeated or further intrusions into his
property by a stranger
o PCO: more than 1 year; to protect his possession
d. Possessor clearly not entitled to property
e. Extraordinary cases
o where urgency, expediency, and necessity require immediate
possession
 e.g. material or irreparable injury if injunction is denied

Writ of possession as a remedy

- an order whereby a sheriff is commanded to place a person in
possession of a real or personal property (e.g. extrajudicial
foreclosure)

GR: improper remedy to eject possessor

XPNs:
a. land registration proceedings
 purpose: to place the winning party in possession of the
property covered by such decree
b. real estate mortgage
 e.g. extrajudicial foreclosure of a real estate mortgage
c. Chattel mortgage
d. eminent domain proceedings
e. ejectment

---- 000 ----

Distinctions between real rights and personal rights

Real right Personal right

Definite active subject who has a
right against all persons generally
as an indefinite passive subject
Object is generally a corporeal
thing
Created by ‘mode’ and ‘title’
Extinguished by the loss or
destruction of the thing which it is
exercised
Definite active subject and a
definite passive subject
Object always an incorporeal thing
Created by ‘title’
Personal right survives the subject
matter
Directed against the whole world Directed against a particular person
(actio in rem against 3rd persons) (actio in personam)

Modes of acquiring ownership (712)

Mode --- the specific cause which produces them as the result of the
presence of:
(a) a special condition of things
(b) of the capacity and intention of persons
(c) the fulfillment of the requisites established by law

Title --- the juridical act, right or condition which gives the means to their
acquisition but which in itself is insufficient to produce them.

Mode Title
Mode and immediately produces a Serves merely to give the occasion
real right for its acquisition or existence
The cause The means
Proximate cause Remote cause
Essence of the right which is to be The means whereby that essence
created or transmitted is transmitted

In a contract of sale, CONTRACT is the TITLE, TRADITION is the MODE.

[OLDTIPS]
(1) Original modes (independent of any pre-existing right of another
person
a. Occupation (condition of being without known owner)
b. Work which includes intellectual creation (creation, discovery,
or invention)
(2)Derivative modes (based on a pre-existing right held by another
person)
a. Law (existence of required conditions)
b. Donation (contract of parties)
c. Succession, estate and intestate (death)
d. Tradition, as consequence of certain contracts (contract of
parties)
e. Prescription (possession in the concept of owner)

Limitations on the right of ownership

- ownership is not absolute

1. State’s power to tax, police power, and eminent domain [435]

Police power (436)

 - the power of the State to enact such laws or regulations in relation to
persons and property as may promote public health, public morals,
public safety, and the general welfare and convenience of the people.
- enables the State to prohibit all things hurtful to the comfort, safety
and welfare of society
- PRINCIPLE: the welfare of the people is the supreme law so use
your own as not to injure another’s property

Condemnation or seizure of property in the exercise of police

power (436)

PRINCIPLE: Any holder of property, however absolute and unqualified may

be his title, holds it under the implied condition that his manner of using it
shall not be injurious to the enjoyment of others having an equal right to the
enjoyment of their property, nor injurious to the community.

Condemnation =/= taking of property

- Does not disturb owner in the control of use. It’s just that the way the
owner uses it NOW is injurious to the health, morals, or safety of the
community
- No financial compensation
 XPN: unless owner can show that the condemnation or seizure
is unjustified

Taxation
- the power of the State to impose charge or burden upon persons,
property, or property rights, for the use and support of the
government and to enable it to discharge its appropriate functions.
- the State imposes financial burdens on persons, property,
business transactions, and income which in case of failure to
discharge the same, the property of the delinquent taxpayer may
be seized and sold or forfeited by the government. It is in this
sense that taxation is a limitation on the right of ownership.

Eminent domain (435)

- the right or power of the State or of those to whom the power has
been lawfully delegated to take (or expropriate) private property
for public use upon paying to the owner a just compensation to be
ascertained according to law.
- Requisites: JuDo CoP
 The taking must be done by competent authority
o By the State – executive; needs legislative enactment
 It must be for public use
o Public benefit, utility, advantage
o Benefits few – still public use as long as public benefit is
present although indirect e.g. urban land reform, housing
o Taken by private corp (e.g. Meralco) for public
convenience
 o Judicial question
o Reasonable necessity
 The owner must be paid just compensation
o the equivalent for the value of the property at the time of
its taking
o fair and full – all capabilities of the property
o prompt
 The requirement of due process of law must be observed
o Procedural due process
 the method or manner by which the law is enforced
 requires that the owner of property shall have due
notice and hearing in expropriation proceedings
o Substantive due process
 requires that the law itself is fair, reasonable or just
 law must be valid/constitutional
 not arbitrary
- Restoration to the owner of his property (435[2])
 failure to comply with requisites
o estoppel or acquiescence on part of the owner ---
owner allowed public utility company to occupy his
land without objection; waived his right to the
possession thereof and may only sue for just
compensation (so as to avoid injury i.e. inconvenience,
on the public in general)
o power of eminent domain exercised w/o authority ---
LIMIT: authority granted by the State

2. imposed by law (e.g. legal easement)

3. imposed by owner (e.g. voluntary easement)
4. imposed by the grantor on the grantee
5. arising from conflicts of private rights (takes place in accession continua)
6. prohibition against the acquisition of private lands by aliens [Art. XII, Sec.
7. 1987 Constitution]

Principle of SELF-HELP (429)

Requisites: PARDO
(1) Person defending must be the owner or lawful possessor
(2) Use of reasonable force
(3) Only be exercised at the time of an actual or threatened
dispossession OR immediately after the dispossession to regain
possession (no delay)
(4) Actual or threatened physical invasion or usurpation which is
unlawful

READ WITH ART. 19, Civil Code

Art. 19. Every person must, in the exercise of his rights and in the
performance of his duties, act with justice, give everyone his due, and
observe honesty and good faith.

Right to enclose or fence (430)

Limitation: the right of others to existing servitudes imposed on the land or
tenement

Doctrine in Lunod v. Meneses

FACTS: The lands owned by Lunod as well as the adjoining Lake Callaran,
are located higher than Sitio Paaranan where Meneses’s land and fishpond
are located, which borders Taliptip River. During the rainy season, the rain
water falls on Lunod’s land, which then flows toward Callaran, and its only
outlet to Taliptip River is through the low land of Meneses.

Meneses built a dam thus impeding the outlet of the waters that flood
Callaran, to the serious detriment of the growing crops of Lunod.

ISSUE: Does Meneses have the right to close the outlet to the river of the
water on Lunop’s property?

HELD: No. Meneses…might have constructed the works necessary to

make and maintain a fishpond within his own land, but he was always
under the strict and necessary obligation to respect the statutory easement
of waters charged upon his property, and had no right to close the passage
and outlet of the waters flowing from the lands of the plaintiffs and the lake
of Callaran into the Taliptip River.

Obligation to respect the rights of others (431)

- N/A if the act of the owner is LAWFUL
- BUT even if lawful but the owner’s purpose is ONLY to damage his
neighbor, rule applies

Obligation to permit interference under certain circumstances (432)

GENERAL RULE: person cannot interfere with ownership rights of another

EXCEPTION: State of necessity

Requisites:
(1) Interference is necessary to avert imminent danger and threatened
damage to actor or third person (damage proportionate and
reasonable to necessity)
(2) Damage to another much greater than damage to property of owner

NOTE: person benefited may bear the indemnity for the damage
 UNLESS the owner would have been liable under the law for the
damage if the danger had not been prevented, in which case he
would not be entitled to recover indemnity for the damage suffered
by him.

Resort to judicial process (433)

Requisites to raise disputable presumption of ownership:

(1) actual (physical or material) possession of the property
(2) possession must be under claim of ownership

Requisites in an action to recover (434)

(1) Property must be identified
 By describing the location, area and boundaries
o RULE: If there is conflict between area and boundary
(from complaint and testimony), NAA GIHAPON RIGHT
TO RECOVER POSSESSION --- boundaries prevail
 what really defines a piece of ground is not the area
but the boundaries therein laid down as enclosing
the land and indicating its limits.
 N/A: if boundaries relied upon do not identify the
land beyond doubt (here, area matters more)

(2) Plaintiff must rely on the strength of his title

o Presumption of sufficient title
 The possessor under claim of ownership has in his
favor the legal presumption that he holds the
possession by reason of a sufficient title
 Possessor cannot be forced to show title
o PRINCIPLE: plaintiff must rely on the strength
of his own evidence rather than the weakness
of that of his opponent
o Action founded on positive rights
 The action of the plaintiff must be founded on
positive rights and not merely on negative ones,
such as the lack or insufficiency of title on the part
of the defendant.

Evidence to prove ownership

(1)Torrens title
(2)Title from the Spanish government
(3)patent duly registered in the Registry of Property by the grantee
(4)deed of sale
(5)operating a business for nine years in defendant’s own name, without
protest from the plaintiff
(6)occupation of a building for a long time by a party without paying rent
 (7)a letter in which defendant recognized the ownership of the property
by the plaintiff
(8)Open, continuous, exclusive, adverse and notorious actual
possession and occupation of parcels of land

Quantum of proof needed:

PREPONDERANCE OF EVIDENCE
 GR: in civil cases, the party having the burden of proof must establish
his case by a “preponderance of evidence’’ by which is meant that
the evidence as a whole adduced by one side is superior to that of
the other.
 If there is EQUIPONDERANCE of evidence, (A=B), court will decide
in favor of defendant.

INDICIA OF PROOF
- Mere presentation of one (or two proofs), in the absence of other
proofs, is not sufficient to support an action to recover
- Tax declaration and tax receipts are only prima facie evidence of
ownership or possession
 Good indicia of possession in the concept of owner
- Mere registration of an adverse claim does not confer instant title of
ownership (judicial determination still necessary)
- Payment of taxes alone, without possession, could hardly be
construed as exercise of ownership

CONCLUSIVENESS OF CERTIFICATES OF TITLE

- Original certificate of title indicates true and legal ownership of a
private land (shows ownership and identity of property)
 Titled property cannot be attacked collaterally (e.g. ejectment
suit)

Surface rights of a landowner (437)

ANCIENT MAXIM: land, in its legal signification, extends from the surface
downwards to the center of the earth and upwards indefinitely to the skies

The right of the owner of a parcel of land to construct any works or make
any plantations and excavations on his land is subject to:
(1) existing servitudes or easements (Title VII.)
(2) special laws --- apply regalian doctrine (all minerals and other natural
resources found either in public or private lands are owned by the
State); owner is not entitled to minerals etc w/o permission from
State; State may excavate but should pay owner just compensation
(3) local ordinances
(4) the reasonable requirements of aerial navigation
(5) the rights of third persons. (Art. 431.)
Right to hidden treasure (438)
(1)treasure belongs to owner of land, building, or other property, IF he is
the finder
(2)finder entitled to ½ if he is not owner of the land, etc. (by chance, not
by treasure hunting)
(3)finder not entitled to share if trespasser
(4)lessee gets ½ if he is the finder

What is a hidden treasure? (439)

Requisites:
(1)It consists of money, jewelry or other precious objects
(2)Its existence is hidden and unknown
(3)Its lawful ownership does not appear