Round One

Question 1

Article 414

Answer 1

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.

Question 2

Article 415

Answer 2

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 fixed 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 ornamentation, 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 carried 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, fish ponds or breeding places of similar nature, in case their owner has placed them or preserves 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 slag dumps, while the matter thereof forms part of the bed, and waters either running or stagnant;

(9) Docks and structures which, though floating, are intended by their nature and object to remain at a fixed place on a river, lake, or coast;

(10) Contracts for public works, and servitudes and other real rights over immovable property.

Question 3

Article 416

Answer 3

The following things are deemed to be personal property:

(1) Those movables susceptible of appropriation which are not included in the preceding article;

(2) Real property which by any special provision of law is considered as personal property;

(3) Forces of nature which are brought under control by science; and

(4) In general, all things which can be transported from place to place without impairment of the real property to which they are fixed.

Question 4

Article 417

Answer 4

The following are also considered as personal property:

(1) Obligations and actions which have for their object movables or demandable sums; and

(2) Shares of stock of agricultural, commercial and industrial entities, although they may have real estate.

Question 5

Article 418

Answer 5

Movable property is either consumable or nonconsumable. To the first class belong those movables which cannot be used in a manner appropriate to their nature without their being consumed; to the second class belong all the others.

Question 6

Article 419

Answer 6

Property is either of public dominion or of private ownership.

Question 7

Article 420

Answer 7

The following things are property of public dominion:

(1) Those intended for public use, such as roads, canals, rivers, torrents, ports and bridges constructed by the State, banks, shores, roadsteads, and others of similar character;

(2) Those which belong to the State, without being for public use, and are intended for some public service or for the development of the national wealth.

Question 8

Article 421

Answer 8

All other property of the State, which is not of the character stated in the preceding article, is patrimonial property.

Question 9

Article 422

Answer 9

Property of public dominion, when no longer intended for public use or for public service, shall form part of the patrimonial property of the State.

Question 10

Article 423

Answer 10

The property of provinces, cities, and municipalities is divided into property for public use and patrimonial property.

Question 11

Article 424

Answer 11

Property for public use, in the provinces, cities, and municipalities, consist of the provincial roads, city streets, municipal streets, the squares, fountains, public waters, promenades, and public works for public service paid for by said provinces, cities, or municipalities.

All other property possessed by any of them is patrimonial and shall be governed by this Code, without prejudice to the provisions of special laws.

Question 12

Article 425

Answer 12

Property of private ownership, besides the patrimonial property of the State, provinces, cities, and municipalities, consists of all property belonging to private persons, either individually or collectively.

Question 13

Article 426

Answer 13

Whenever by provision of the law, or an individual declaration, the expression “immovable things or property,” or “movable things or property,” is used, it shall be deemed to include, respectively, the things enumerated in Chapter 1 and Chapter 2.

Whenever the word “muebles,” or “furniture,” is used alone, it shall not be deemed to include money, credits, commercial securities, stocks and bonds, jewelry, scientific or artistic collections, books, medals, arms, clothing, horses or carriages and their accessories, grains, liquids and merchandise, or other things which do not have as their principal object the furnishing or ornamenting of a building, except where from the context of the law, or the individual declaration, the contrary clearly appears.

Question 14

Article 427

Answer 14

Ownership may be exercised over things or rights.

Question 15

Article 428

Answer 15

The owner has the right to enjoy and dispose of a thing, without other limitations than those established by law.

The owner has also a right of action against the holder and possessor of the thing in order to recover it.

Question 16

Article 429

Answer 16

The owner or lawful possessor of a thing has the right to exclude any person from the enjoyment and disposal thereof. For this purpose, he 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.

Question 17

Article 430

Answer 17

Every owner may enclose or fence his land or tenements by means of walls, ditches, live or dead hedges, or by any other means without detriment to servitudes constituted thereon.

Question 18

Article 431

Answer 18

The owner of a thing cannot make use thereof in such manner as to injure the rights of a third person.

Question 19

Article 432

Answer 19

The owner of a thing has no right to prohibit the interference of another with the same, if the interference is necessary to avert an imminent danger and the threatened damage, compared to the damage arising to the owner from the interference, is much greater. The owner may demand from the person benefited indemnity for the damage to him.

Question 20

Article 433

Answer 20

Actual possession under claim of ownership raises disputable presumption of ownership. The true owner must resort to judicial process for the recovery of the property

Question 21

Article 434

Answer 21

In an action to recover, the property must be identified, and the plaintiff must rely on the strength of his title and not on the weakness of the defendant’s claim.

Question 22

Article 435

Answer 22

No person shall be deprived of his property except by competent authority and for public use and always upon payment of just compensation.

Should this requirement be not first complied with, the courts shall protect and, in a proper case, restore the owner in his possession.

Question 23

Article 436

Answer 23

When any property is condemned or seized by competent authority in the interest of health, safety or security, the owner thereof shall not be entitled to compensation, unless he can show that such condemnation or seizure is unjustified

Question 24

Article 437

Answer 24

The owner of a parcel of land is the owner of its surface and of everything under it, and he can construct thereon any works or make any plantations and excavations which he may deem proper, without detriment to servitudes and subject to special laws and ordinances. He cannot complain of the reasonable requirements of aerial navigation

Question 25

Article 438.

Answer 25

Hidden treasure belongs to the owner of the land, building, or other property on which it is found.

Nevertheless, when the discovery is made on the property of another, or of the State or any of its subdivisions, and by chance, one-half thereof shall be allowed to the finder. If the finder is a trespasser, he shall not be entitled to any share of the treasure.

If the things found be of interest to science of the arts, the State may acquire them at their just price, which shall be divided in conformity with the rule stated

Question 26

Article 439

Answer 26

By treasure is understood, for legal purposes, any hidden and unknown deposit of money, jewelry, or other precious objects, the lawful ownership of which does not appear.

Question 27

Article 440

Answer 27

The ownership of property gives the right by accession to everything which is produced thereby, or which is incorporated or attached thereto, either naturally or artificially.

Question 28

Article 441

Answer 28

To the owner belongs:

(1) The natural fruits;

(2) The industrial fruits;

(3) The civil fruits.

Question 29

Article 442

Answer 29

Natural fruits are the spontaneous products of the soil, and the young and other products of animals.

Industrial fruits are those produced by lands of any kind through cultivation or labor.

Civil fruits are the rents of buildings, the price of leases of lands and other property and the amount of perpetual or life annuities or other similar income

Question 30

Article 443

Answer 30

He who receives the fruits has the obligation to pay the expenses made by a third person in their production, gathering, and preservation

Question 31

Article 444

Answer 31

Only such as are manifest or born are considered as natural or industrial fruits.

With respect to animals, it is sufficient that they are in the womb of the mother, although unborn.