MIDTERMS Flashcards
ARTICLE 414. All things which are or may be the object of appropriation are considered either:
(1) Immovable or real property; or
(2) Movable or personal property.
The word “property” is derived from the Latin word proprius,
meaning
belonging to one or one’s own.1
The concept of “property” (bienes) is intimately related with the
concept of
of “things” (cosa). It must be noticed that the Civil Code does
not defi ne the term property but simply implies that the concept refers
to things which are susceptible of appropriation.4
the concept
of things under the Civil Code is not limited to corporeal objects —
or to objects that can be perceived by the senses. The concept also
extends to those which
have only an intellectual or juridical existence
(incorporeal objects). Otherwise stated, the concept of things in our
Civil Code embraces both material objects and rights. This is clear from
the provisions of Articles 414, 415 and 416 of the New Civil Code.
the traditional notion is that property
are those things which are already possessed and found in the possession
of man. However, in our Civil Code, the concept of property is not
confi ned to things which are already appropriated or possessed by man
but also extends to those
susceptible of such appropriation, although
not yet appropriated.
Pursuant to said article, it is essential that a thing must be
susceptible of appropriation before it can be considered as property.
Things which cannot, therefore, be subjected to human control by
reason of sheer physical impossibility are not considered as property.
Examples are the following:
(1) Things which, because of their distance, their depth or their
immensity are not capable of human control such as the sun, the stars
and the ocean, are not properties;
(2) Ordinarily, forces of nature such as lightning and rain are not
properties because of impossibility of appropriation in their diffused
state. However, when they are brought under human control through the
help of science, i.e., electricity, they may now be regarded as property.6
Aside from the criterion of susceptibility to appropriation
mentioned in Article 414, most authors in the subject provide for two
additional requisites before considering a thing as property:
(1) utility, or
that it can serve as a means to satisfy human needs; and (2) substantivity
or individuality, or that the thing must have an autonomous and separate
existence.
The requisite of individuality, on the other hand, need not be
spelled out separately for the same is implicitly required in Article 414
of the Code. Thus, to be considered a separate property, a thing must
have an autonomous and separate existence and not simply a part of a
whole. But if a part is separated from the whole and, while in that state, is
capable of satisfying any human need or want, it can then be considered
as a separate property. This is the basis, for example, of the rule stated
in Article 466 of the New Civil Code which states that “whenever two
movable things belonging to different owners are, without bad faith,
united in such a way that they form a single object, the owner of the
principal thing acquires the accessory, indemnifying the former owner
thereof for its value.”
Hence, when a diamond stone is attached to a
ring, the ring and the stone constitute a single property since they now
form a single object. However, when the stone is removed from the ring
it will be regarded as a separate property from the ring to which it has
once been attached.
Although there are many classifi cations of property, Book II of
the New Civil Code enumerates the more important classifi cations, as
follows:
(1) Immovable or movable (Arts. 415 to 417);
(2) Movables, in turn, are classifi ed into consumable or non-
consumable (Art. 418);
(3) From the viewpoint of ownership, property is classifi ed
either as property of public dominion or of private ownership (Arts. 419
to 425).
Movables, in turn, are classified into
consumable or non-
consumable (Art. 418);
For purposes of applying the rules of acquisitive
prescription: The ownership of movables prescribes
through uninterrupted possession for ____ or through uninterrupted possession for ____
four years in good
faith
for eight years,
without need of any other condition.
Ownership and real rights over immovable property, on the other hand,
are acquired by by ordinary prescription through possession
of ten years or thirty years, without need of title or of
good faith.
Art. 415. The following are immovable property:
(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 fi ed 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 ornamen-
tation, 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 car-
ried 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, fi sh ponds or breed-
ing places of similar nature, in case their owner has placed them or pre-
serves 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;
(8) Mines, quarries and slug dumps, while the matter thereof
forms part of the bed, and waters either running or stagnant;
(9) Docks and structures which, though fl oating, are intended
by their nature and object to remain at a fi xed place on a river, lake, or
coast;
(10) Contracts for public works, and servitudes and other real
rights over immovable property. (334a)
Kinds of Immovable (Real) Property
Immovable by nature —
Immovable by incorporation —
Immovable by destination —
Immovable by analogy or by law —
Immovable by nature —
those which by their
essence and nature are immovable or cannot be
moved from one place to another, such as lands
and roads in paragraph 1 of Article 415 and mines,
quarries and slug dumps in paragraph 8 of Article
415;
(8) Mines, quarries and slug dumps, while the matter thereof
forms part of the bed, and waters either running or stagnant;
