PROPERTY MIDTERM REVIEWER Atty. Robles
Claudio, Cortina, Sarines (2A SY 2009-2010) Page 1 of 46
PROPERTY
PROPERTY Property is an economic concept, meaning, a mass of
things or objects useful to
human activity and which are necessary to life, for which reason
they may in one way or another be organized and distributed but
always for the use of man.
In the strict legal sense, it is an aggregate of rights which is
guaranteed and protected by the government.
In the ordinary sense, it indicates the thing itself rather than
the rights attached to it.
Property, considered as an exclusive right to things, contains
not only a right to use these things, but the right to dispose of
them, either by exchanging them for other things or by giving them
away to any other person without any consideration, or even
throwing them away.
Right to Property 1987 Philippine Constitution
No person shall be deprived of property without due process of
law (Article 3, Section 1)
Private property shall not be taken for public use without just
compensation (Article 3, Section 9)
Right to Property Louisiana State Constitution
Every person has the right to acquire, own, control, use, enjoy,
protect, and dispose of private property. This right is subject to
reasonable statutory restrictions and the reasonable exercise of
the police power (Article 1, Section 4).
Right to property
The right to property is distinct and separate from property in
itself and is defined as the juridical tie by virtue of which a
person has the exclusive power to receive or obtain all the
benefits from a thing, except those prohibited by law, or by the
rights of others.
The right to property emphasizes the vinculum between man and
thing, while ownership refers to the mass of rights over a
thing.
The right to property is the right and interest which a man has
in lands and chattels to the exclusion of all others.
Right to property is a real right.
How is property lost? I. By the act of man
1. Alienation 2. Voluntary Abandonment
II. By operation of law
1. Forced sale 2. Confiscation or sentence of a criminal court
3. Prescription 4. Civil Death 5. Capture by public enemy 6. When
lost by the act of God
What constitutes property? Article 414 of the Civil Code
provides that property is anything which is or may be the
object of appropriation The concept of a thing is broader than
the concept of property
THING PROPERTY
The Civil Code purportedly uses thing and property
interchangeably Thing refers to those which are not or may not be
the object of appropriation
Anything which is or may be the object of appropriation
Thing is genus Property is the species In order for a thing to
be considered as property, it must have:
1. Utility for satisfaction of economic wants 2. Substantivity
or the capability to exist by itself and not merely part as a whole
3. Appropriability
Art. 414 Classification of things may be the object of
appropriation
1. Immovable or real 2. Movable or personal
PROPERTY MIDTERM REVIEWER Atty. Robles
Claudio, Cortina, Sarines (2A SY 2009-2010) Page 2 of 46
The classification into movable or immovable property does not
assume its importance from the fact of mobility or non-mobility but
from the fact that different provisions of law govern the
acquisition, possession, disposition, loss, and registration of
movables and immovables.
Paras further comments on the matter saying that it is an
incomplete classification for failure to take into consideration
machines, removable houses, or transportable trees which are
movable properties but by virtue of their being attached to an
immovable for specified purposes may be considered immovable. He
refers to these kinds of properties as semi-immovable or mixed.
Profs lecture
For Art. 414 to be applicable the thing must have an owner or
possessor. Embedded in the concept of property is an animus with
intent to possess as ones
own. It is important to ascertain whether it is movable or
immovable because different
laws govern them (e.g., taxes, Statute of Frauds, crimes against
property)
Art. 415 Immovable property
The law does not define what properties are immovable; they are
merely enumerated.
The enumeration in Art. 415 does not give an absolute criterion
as to which properties are real, and which are peTrsonal.
Immovables follow the law of their locality.
Academic classification of real properties Classes Paragraphs
Examples
1. By nature (1), (8) Trees and plants 2. By incorporation (1),
(2), (3), (4), (6) Building 3. By destination or purposes
(4), (5), (6), (7), (9) Like machinery placed by the owner of a
tenement on it for direct use in an industry to be carried on
therein
4. By analogy (10) Contract for public works, right of usufruct,
easements and servitudes
I. Immovables by nature: those which cannot be moved from place
to place
1. Lands, buildings, roads, and constructions of all kinds
adhered to the soil (par. 1)
That which is built upon the land goes with the land
Constructions of all kinds adhered to the soil should be
interpreted as to be
immovable, it must be attached permanently to the land. It thus
becomes immovable by incorporation.
2. Mineral deposits and waters (par. 8)
Mines stated here include the minerals attached thereto. Once
the minerals are extracted, they become chattels
II. Immovables by incorporation: those which are essentially
movables, but are attached to an immovable
1. Trees, plants, and growing fruits while they attached to the
land or form an integral part of an immovable
Paras provides that trees and plants are considered really
property by incorporation only if they were planted through labor.
If such are spontaneous products of the soil, they are real
property by nature
The moment the tree is detached from or uprooted from the land,
they become personal property
Except in case of uprooted timber, if the land is timber land.
This is so because although it is no longer attached, the timber
still forms an integral part of the timber land immovable
2. Things incorporated (par. 3)
These are immovable by incorporation For the incorporated thing
to be considered real property, the injury or
breakage or deterioration in case of separation must be
substantial