Property taken for public use/purpose, but subject to due process and payment of just compensation.
Requisites
To justify the exercise of the right of eminent domain, the following requisites must all be present:
(1) Private property or its use as the object of the expropriation;
(2) The property or its use is taken by the State or by competent authority;
(3) The purpose of the taking is for public use; (4) The taking must be attended with due
process of law; and
PAGE 99 OF 574 Note:
Expropriation may be exercised on both real and personal property. [Rule 67, Rules of Court] Expropriation may be exercised not only on property but also its use such as the use of telephone lines [Republic v PLDT (1969)]
Eminent domain may be availed of to impose only a burden upon the owner of the condemned property, without loss of title and possession.
D.2. SPECIFIC LIMITATIONS: Legal Servitudes
Once requisites are satisfied, the servient owner may ask the Court to declare the existence of an easement.
(1) Art. 644 & 678: Aqueduct (2) Art. 679: Planting of trees (3) Art. 670: Light and View (4) Art. 649 & 652: Right of Way
(5) Art. 637: Passage of water from upper to lower tenements
(6) Art. 676: Drainage of buildings
(7) Art. 684-687: Lateral and subjacent support Must not injure the rights of a third person
Sic Utere Tuo Ut Alienum Non Laedas
The owner of a thing cannot make use thereof in such manner as to injure the rights of a third person. [NCC 431]
Actions in a State of Necessity
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. [NCC 432]
Nuisance
A nuisance is any act, omission, establishment, business, condition of property, or anything else which:
(1) Injures or endangers the health or safety of others;
(2) Annoys or offends the senses;
(3) Shocks, defies or disregards decency or morality;
(4) Obstructs or interferes with the free passage of any public highway or street, or any body of water; or
(5) Hinders or impairs the use of property. [NCC
694]
CLASSES OF NUISANCE [Iloilo Cold Storage
v. Municipal Council (1913) ]
Nuisances per se
Those which are unquestionably and under all circumstances nuisances (i.e. gambling houses, houses of ill fame, etc.) May be summarily abated.
Nuisance per accidens
Nuisances because of particular facts and circumstances surrounding the otherwise harmless cause of nuisance
Requires a hearing before a tribunal to be abated
PAGE 100 OF 102 SUMMARY OF ACTIONS
Action Venue Summon Prayer Basis Prescription
Forcible Entry / Unlawful Detainer
Real
Action In personam Possession
Prior physical possession for forcible entry; Notice to vacate for unlawful detainer 1 year Accion Publiciana Real Action In personam Possession Real right of Possession 10 years [NCC 555(4)] Accion
Reividicatoria Real Action In personam Possession Ownership
GF: 10 years BF: 30 years [NCC 1137] Exception (i.e. no acquisitive prescription): Torrens Title and property of public dominion; Exception to exception: laches
Reconveyance Real Action In personam Title Constructive trust 10 years (NCC 1456) Quieting of Title Real Action Quasi-in rem Quieting of Title Ownership Imprescriptible Replevin Personal Action In personam Possession Possession or Ownership GF: 4 years BF: 8 years
PAGE 101 OF 102
IV. Accession
Accession – the right by virtue of which the owner of a thing becomes the owner of everything that is produced thereby, or which is incorporated or attached thereto, either naturally or artificially. [NCC 440]
Accession is one of the bundle of rights of ownership and is not a mode of acquiring property; it does not depend upon a new title. Accessories – things joined to or included with the principal thing for the latter’s embellishment, better use, or completion, but which cannot be separated without damage or injury.
A. CLASSIFICATION OF ACCESSION
(1) Accession Discreta – the right pertainingto the owner of a thing over everything produced thereby (by internal forces). (2) Accession Continua – the right pertaining
to the owner of a thing over everything that is incorporated or attached thereto either naturally or artificially (by external forces).
(a) Over Immovables
(i) Industrial or artificial (building, planting, sowing)
(ii) Natural (1) Alluvion (2) Avulsion
(3) Change of Course of River (4) Formation of Islands (b) Over Movables
(i) Conjunction and Adjunction (ii) Commixtion and Confusion (iii) Specification
A.1. WITH RESPECT TO IMMOVABLES ACCESSION DISCRETA
Right of ownership to the fruits. [NCC 441]
General Rule: To the owner of the principal belongs the natural, industrial and civil fruits. Exceptions:
(1) Possession in good faith (fruits belong to possessor by good faith for as long as he remains in good faith)
(2) Usufruct (to usufructuary)
(3) Lease (to lessee in civil law lease of agricultural land; lessor gets rentals as civil fruits)
(4) Antichresis KINDS OF FRUITS
(1) Natural – spontaneous products of soil and the young and other products of animals [NCC 442 (1)]
Under the rule partus sequitur ventrem, to the owner of female animals would also belong the young of such animals although this cannot apply when the owner mixes his cattle with those of another and they interbreed, thus co-ownership is applied [Siari Valley
Estates v. Lucasan (1960)].
(2) Industrial – produced by lands of any kind through cultivation or labor [NCC 442 (2)]. Standing trees are not fruits since they are considered immovables although they produce fruits themselves. However, they may be considered as industrial fruits when they are cultivated or exploited to carry on an industry, as in tree plantation.
(3) Civil – easily prorated for under NCC 544 they are deemed to accrue daily and belong to the possessor in good faith in that proportion (e.g. rents of buildings, price of leases or lands and the amount of perpetual or life annuities or other similar income).
Notes:
Natural and industrial fruits are real property while still ungathered.
Only those that are manifest or born are considered as natural or industrial fruits.
PAGE 102 OF 102 PRINCIPLES APPLICABLE TO ACCESSION
DISCRETA
(1) Time of Accrual depending on kind: Annuals: from the time seedlings appear on
the ground.
Perennials: from the time fruits actually
appear on the plants.
Young of animals: from the time they are in
the womb, although unborn – beginning of maximum ordinary period of gestation.
Fowls: from the time of incubation.
(2) He who receives the fruits has the obligation to pay the expenses incurred by a third person in the production, gathering and preservation of the fruits. [NCC 443] Exception: Owner does not have to pay if land is recovered before gathering from a possessor in bad faith.
But if owner recovers land from possessor in bad faith, he may choose to acquire the land and he can make the possessor, builder, planter, sower account for the fruits that have been gathered, with the obligation to deduct the expenses for producing, harvesting and preservation of the fruits.
PRINCIPLES APPLICABLE TO ACCESSION