Civil Code I - Property Flashcards
Classifications of Property
Common, public, or private;
Corporeal or incorporeal; and
Movable or immovable.
Common Things
- a thing that is owned by no one (including the state) and that can be freely used by everyone in the manner that nature intended
Examples of Common Things
- the air & the high seas b/c they are owned by no one—not even the state—and can be freely used by everyone
Private Things
(1) A thing that is owned by a private person, or
(2) A thing that is owned by the State or its political subdivisions in their private capacity.
- alienable
- not subject to public use
Examples of Private Things Owned by State
- computers used by state agencies
Public Things
A thing that is owned by the State or its political subdivisions in its public, sovereign capacity.
- inalienable
- subject to public use
Examples of Public Things
- natural, navigable waterways
- highways
- public squares
Public Things - Territorial Sea
- Gulf of Mexico up to the 3-mile federal limit
Public Things - Arms of the Sea
- water bodies in the immediate vicinity of the Open Gulf and directly overflowed by the tides
Public Things - Seashore
- the space of land over which the waters of the sea spread in the highest tide during winter
Public Things - Natural Navigable Water Bodies
This rule does not include artificial water bodies, such as man-made canals.
A body is navigable in law if it is navigable in fact.
Test: whether the water is susceptible to commercial activity.
- inalienable
- open to public use
Public Things - Riverbed
- the land beneath the ordinary low water mark
Public Things - Lake Bed
- the land beneath the ordinary high water mark
Private Things - River Bank
- the land between the ordinary high and ordinary low water marks
- owned by riparian landowners
Public Use of Water Bodies
- exceptionally limited
- use that is incidental to navigation
- no right to trespass on private property to make the public use
- the right of public use does not extend to improvements on the thing
- the right of public use does not permit commercial activities
Changes in a Water Body - Alluvion
- a sedimentary buildup that creates a new space of dry land formed successively and imperceptibly over time
- must be permanent, not merely seasonal
- on a river, the land belongs to the primary riparian landowner
- on a lake, the sea, or any other water body, the new land belongs to the State
Changes in a Water Body - Dereliction
- the successive and imperceptible uncovering of waters to create a new space of dry land
- must be permanent, not merely seasonal
- on a river, the land belongs to the primary riparian landowner
- on a lake, the sea, or any other water body, the new land belongs to the State
Changes in a Water Body - Erosion
- when the water level permanently rises such that more land slips beneath the dividing line between public and private ownership
- the state takes ownership of these lands, regardless of the water body implicated
Changes in a Water Body - Avulsion
- the convulsive act of a river that takes a defined piece of land, carries it off, and attaches it elsewhere
- original owner of the land does not lose ownership, but may continue to claim it within a year in the new place