MODES OF ACQUIRING OWNERSHIP
Art. 712 - modes of acquiring ownership
A. Original modes - independent of any pre-existing or preceding title or right of
another:
1 Occupation
2 Intellectual creation (work)
B. Derivative modes - somebody was the owner before:
1. Succession
2. Donation
3. Prescriptio
4. Law
5. Tradition, as a consequence of certain contract (contract of sale, barter,
assignment, simple loan or mutuum).
 a perfected sale does not transmit ownership, it is the delivery or tradition
which conveys ownership.
 In some contracts, like deposit or commodatum, neither the perfection of the
contract nor the delivery transfers ownership.
 Not tradition, but tradition, as a consequence of certain contracts.
 Tax declarations and receipts are not conclusive evidence of ownership. If
accompanied by actual possession, it becomes a strong evidence of ownership.
Mode distinguished from title:
A. Mode - the process of acquiring or transferring ownership.
B. Title - not ordinarily sufficient to convey ownership, but which gives a juridical
justification for a mode. It provides the cause for the acquisition of ownership.
 ex. Sale - is the title, the justification of a mode; delivery - is the mode, the
process of acquiring or transferring ownership
Mode vs title:
1. Proximate cause; remote cause
2. The true cause (the process); justification of the process
3. Directly produces a real right; serves merely to give an opportunity for the
existence of a real right, in the meantime only personal right exists.
 in some case, the mode is at the same time the title such as in succession. In
succession, the delivery or tradition is not necessary to transfer ownership.
Real right distinguished from personal right
Real right (jus in re) - the power of a person to obtain certain financial or economic
advantages over a specific thing, a power enforceable against the whole world whether
or not he possesses the thing.
Personal right (jus in personam) - the power belonging to a person to demand from
another, as a definite passive-subject debtor, the fulfillment of a prestation to give, to
do, or not do.
 ex. Before delivery - personal right, after delivery - real right is passed
1. Has a specific right; affects all present and future property of the debtor
2. There is one definite active subject (owner or usufructuary), the rest of the world
is the passive subject. Hence, a real right follows its object in the hands of any
possessor (binding on the whole world); there is definite active subject (credito)
and a definite passive subject (debtor). Hence, a personal right is enforceable only
against the original debtor or a transferee who has notice or knowledge.
3. The right is created directly over a thing; it is exercise through another person,
against whom the action may be bought.
4. The right is over a thing; the right is to a thing (through another)
5. Limited by value, use, or productivity of the thing; not so limited.
6. Created by both mode and title; created by title alone ( except if title is at the
same time the mode, as in succession.
7. Subject matter is generally corporeal; subject matter is intangible or incorporeal
 (for it is the fulfillment of a duty or prestation).
8. Extinguished by loss or destruction; not extinguished by loss or destruction (the
personal right survives at least as to claim for damages).
Classification or real right in civil code:
A. Where there is full control and enjoyment (dominio pleno):
1. Ownership (included is co-ownership which is only a form of ownership).
2. Possession (without prejudice the effect of good faith and bad faith).
B. Where there is partial control and enjoyment (dominio menos pleno. Domino
limitado):
1. Usufruct (beneficial ownership)
2. Naked ownership
3. Easements (whether real or personal easements)
4. Lease of real property, if it exceeds more than one year, or if it is registered
(regardless of period).
1. Occupation - hunting. fishing, hidden treasure, abandoned movables res nullius,
but not res communes.
2. Intellectual creation - book copy rights, patented inventions, trademarks, letters
3. Law - accession, fruits naturally falling on adjacent land
Ex. By operation of the law - a person who has been in open, continuous, exclusive and
notorious possession of agricultural lands of the public domain, under a bona fide claim
of ownership, for at least 30 years.
1. Donation - a parcel of land is given gratuitously and accepted in a public
instrument.
2. Testate and intestate succession - inheritance
3. Tradition as a consequence of certain contracts - sold sugar has been delivered
4. Prescription - when ownership is acquired by adverse possession for the period
of time required by law, provided the necessary legal condition or requisites are
present.
 lands covered by torrens title cannot be acquired through prescription
 Registration is not a mode of acquiring ownership, it merely confirms the fact
of its existence with notice to the world at large.

 this is a quasi-real

C. Real rights of security or guaranty: Another basis of classification:

1. Mortgage  modes may be classified as follows:

2. Chattel mortgage
3. Pledge A. Mode of acquisition only:
4. Antichresis
5. Retention (similar to legal pledge, but not exactly like a lien. It requires 1. Occupation
possession, otherwise the right to retain is lost, although the lei. Itself
2. Intellectual creation
D. Acquisition:
3. Prescription
1. Pre-emption
2. Redemption (whether conventional or legal) B. Modes of acquisition and transmission - all the rest

Examples of mode of acquiring ownership: Modes of extinguishing ownership:

A. Absolute extinguishment (all persons are affected): 5. The requisites and conditions of law must be complied with

1. Physical loss or destruction Some kinds of property acquirable by occupation:

2. Legal loss or destruction (when it goes out of commerce of man) 1. Those without an owner, like animals that are the object of hunting and fishing,
provided that: (1) they are seized during the open, not closed seasons, (2) is not
B. Relative (only for certain persons for others may acquire their ownership): perpetrated through illegal means like explosives, (3) they have not been already
caught and appropriated by somebody else.
1. Law (finding of lost property) 2. Hidden treasure (he gets half as finder, by occupation, provided he is not a
2. Succession (testate or intestate) trespasser; if married, his share goes to the conjugal partnership).
3. Tradition (as a consequence of certain contracts) 3. Abandoned movables
4. Donation
5. Abandonment A thing is considered abandoned when:
6. Destruction of prior title or right (expropriation, rescission, annulment.
Fulfillment of resolutory condition) 1. The spes recuperandi (expectation to recover) is gone; and
7. Prescription 2. The animo revertendi (intention to return or have it returned) has been given up
by the owner.

Recovery of a thing that had been lost by force:

 a thing lost or taken by force is not ipso facto converted into res nullius,
TITLE I - OCCUPATION  It may be recovered from whoever is in possession of such thing,
 Unless such possessor has shown that he has acquired it by any of the modes of
Art. 713 - occupation defined acquiring ownership

 the acquisition of ownership by seizing corporeal things that have no owner,

made with the intention of acquiring them, and accomplished according to legal
rules. Catching of sea products by a group of fishermen

Essential requisites for occupation:  creates co-ownership. Ex. Ambergis

 Sea products:
1. There must be a seizure or apprehension (material holding is not required as long
as there is right of disposition) 1. Marine products
2. The property seized must be corporeal personal property 2. Jetsam (floating on the sea surface)
3. The property seized must be susceptible of appropriation (either abandoned 3. The results of a shipwreck
property - res derelicta or unowned property - res nullius) (not res communes
because it is owned in common or public property) Art. 714
4. There must be an intent to appropriate
  the ownership of a piece of land cannot be acquired by occupation.
 Reason: when the land has no owner, it pertains to the state.
 Under the constitution, all lands of the public domain, and other natural
resources of the Philippines belong to the state.
 Under the regalian doctrine, is to enable the state to have a permanent and
fundamental policy relating to the conservation and utilization of all natural
resources.
Abandoned land
 no provision authorizing the state to own a land which is formerly owned by
someone
 However, in view of the art 714, it can now be implied that all lands whether
originally with an owner or without one, and at present have no owner, belong to
the state.
 Abandoned land becomes patrimonial property of the state susceptible of
acquisition through acquisitive prescription.
Acquisition of land by prescription:
 acquisitive prescription is a mode of acquiring ownership by a possessor
through lapse of time.
 In order to ripen into ownership, possession must be in the concept of an owner,
public, peaceful, and uninterrupted
 Acquisitive prescription of dominion and other real rights may be ordinary or
extraordinary.
Occupation and prescription distinguished:
1. Original mode - no owner; derivative mode - somebody else was owner
2. Shorter period of possession; generally, longer period of possession
Art. 715
 the right to hunt and to fish is regulated by special laws
 Municipality has the power to issue and enforce ordinances respecting fisheries
 To hold a municipality liable for the issuance of fishing licenses covering areas
which overlap each other, proof of negligence is essential
 Hunting law: Act 2590, regulates hunting to (1) preserve certain animal life; (2)
declares some seasons closed and others open; (2) provides that even during open
season, one cannot hunt without a license.
 Fishing laws:
1. Fisheries act 4003, as amended by commonwealth acts 116 and 471 and by RA
659
2. Act 1499 as amended by act 1685 prohibiting the use of explosives and poisons
for use in fishing.
3. PD 534
Art. 716
 kinds of animals:
1. Wild
2. Domesticated or tamed (once upon a time they were wild)
3. Domestic or tame (reared under man's control)
 acquisition of domesticated and domestic animals:
1. Domesticated animals may be acquired by occupation unless a claim has been
made for them. 20days
2. Domestic animals cannot be acquired by occupation unless there is an
abandonment
 when custody of a carabao is entrusted to another:
> A carabao cannot be acquired by occupation when the person claiming was entrusted
with its custody
> reason: there was a contract, not a straying away from the lawful possessor and
owner.
 the owner of the swarm of bees shall have the right to pursue them in another's
land, indemnifying the owning of such land for the damages.
 If the owner has not pursued the swarm, or ceases to do so within two
 consecutive days, the possessor of the land may occupy or retain the same. considerably diminish its value, it shall be sold at public auction, eight days after
the publication.
 Six months from the publication, and the owner has not appeared, the thing
found or its value shall be awarded to the finder. The finder and the owner shall bee
Art. 717 obliged, as the case may be, to reimburse the expenses.
 If the finder does not give it to the owner or the authorities, whether or not he
> rules as to pigeons and fishes: knows who the owner is, shall be liable for theft.
 The same rule shall apply to buyer who continues to possess lost property
 pigeons and fish which from their respective breeding places, pass to another knowing that such thing is a lost property.
pertaining to a different owner shall belong to such owner, provided - they have not  Reason: lost property is not necessarily abandoned property. In loss, there us no
been enticed by some artifice or fraud. renunciation of ownership. In abandonment there is renunciation, the object
becomes res nullius and may be acquired by prescription.
Art. 718  Extra-official expenses to find the owner must be reimbursed, as a form of
quasi-contract.
> hidden treasure

 Right to hidden treasures - art. 438-439

 shall belong to the owner of the land, building or other property on which it is Art. 720
found
 If it is found in another's property, state, or political subdivision, and by chance, > reward to finder
the finder is allowed of 1/2 of the treasure
 If the finder is a trespasser he is not entitled to any share  If the owner appear, he shall be obliged to pay the finder, as a reward, 1/10 of
 If the thing found be of interest to science or arts, the state may acquire them in the sum or price of the thing found.
their just price which shall be divided in conformity with the rules stated
 Hidden treasures mean hidden and unknown deposit of money, jewelry, or other
precious objects; requisites: HCL

Art. 719

> finding of lost movable

 whoever finds a movable , which is not a treasure, must return it to its previous
possessor.
 If the previous possessor is unknown, the finder shall immediately deposit it
with the mayor of the city or municipality where it is found.
 The finding shall be publicly announced by the mayor for two consecutive
weeks in the way he deems best.
 If the movable cannot be kept without deterioration, or without expenses which