PROPERTY, OWNERSHIP, AND ITS

MODIFICATIONS
Title I. CLASSIFICATION OF PROPERTY
PRELIMINARY PROVISIONS
Definition of Property in the Civil
Code
An object which or maybe appropriated.
(See Art. 414)

b. Res communes (belonging to everyone)

While in particular no one owns common
property, still in another sense, res
communes are really owned by everybody
in that their use and enjoyment are given
to all of mankind. Examples would be the
air we breathe, the wind, sunlight, and
starlight.

Definition of Property as a Subject in

a Law Course
It is that branch of law which classifies and
defines the different kinds of appropriable
objects, provides for their acquisition and
loss, and in general, treats of the nature
and consequences of real rights.

c. Res alicujus (belonging to someone)

These are objects, tangible or intangible,
which are owned privately, either in a
collective or individual capacity. And
precisely because they can be owned, they
really should be considered property.
Examples: your book, your shares of stock,
your parcel of land.

Thing Distinguished from Property

Technically, thing is broader in scope for
it includes both appropriable and nonappropriable objects.

Classification of properties
Properties may be classifi ed from different
viewpoints. Among the most important
bases are the following:

Classification of things

a. Mobility and non-mobility

1. Movable or personal property (like a car)
2. Immovable or real property (like land)

a. Res nullius (belonging to no one)

These things belong to no one, and the
reason is that they have not yet been
appropriated, like fi sh still swimming in
the ocean, or because they have been
abandoned (res derelictae) by the owner
with the intention of no longer owning
them. Other examples include wild animals
(ferae naturae), wild birds, and
pebbles lying on the seashore.

MIDTERM COVERAGE; January 5, 2017 Topic

b. Ownership
1. Public dominion or ownership (like
rivers)
2. Private dominion or ownership (like a
fountain
pen)
c. Alienability

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1. Within the commerce of man (or which

may be the objects of contracts or judicial
transactions)
2. Outside the commerce of man (like
prohibited
drugs)
d. Existence
1. Present property (res existentes)
2. Future property (res futurae)
[NOTE: Both present and future property,
like a harvest, may be the subject of sale
but generally not the subject of a
donation.].
e. Materiality or Immateriality
1. Tangible or corporeal (objects which can
be seen or touched, like the paper on
which is printed a P1,000
Bangko Sentral Note)
2. Intangible or incorporeal (rights or
credits, like the credit represented by a
P1,000 Bangko Sentral
Note)
[NOTE: The Philippine peso bills when
attempted to be exported may be deemed
to have been taken out of domestic
circulation as legal tender, and may
therefore be treated as a COMMODITY.
Hence, bills carried in excess of that
allowed by the Bangko Sentral may be
forfeited under Sec. 1363(f) of the Revised
Administrative Code. (Commissioner of
Customs v. Capistrano, L-11075, June 30,
1960).].

f. Dependence or Importance
1. Principal
2. Accessory
g. Capability of Substitution
1. Fungible (capable of substitution by
other things of the same quantity and
quality)
2. Non-fungible (incapable of such
substitution, hence, the identical thing
must be given or returned)
h. Nature or Defi niteness
1. Generic (one referring to a group or
class)
2. Specifi c (one referring to a single,
unique object)
i. Whether in the Custody of the Court or
Free
1. In custodia legis (in the custody of the
court) when it has been seized by an of
cer under a writ of attachmentor under a
writ of execution. (De Leon v.
Salvador, L-30871, Dec. 28, 1970).
2. Free property (not in custodia legis).

c. Individuality or substantivity (i.e., it can

exist by itself, and not merely as a part of
a whole). (Hence, the human hair becomes
property only when it is detached from the
owner.)
What are the classification of those
things subject for appropriation as
provided under 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.
Importance of the classification of
property
into
immovables
and
movables
The
classification
of
property
into
immovables or movables does not assume
its importance from the fact of mobility or
non-mobility, but from the fact that
different provisions of the law govern the
acquisition, possession, disposition, loss,
and registration of immovables and
movables.

Characteristics of property
a. Utility for the satisfaction of moral or
economic wants;
b. Susceptibility of appropriation;

MIDTERM COVERAGE; January 5, 2017 Topic

Examples:
1. In general, a donation of real property,
like land, must be in a public instrument,
otherwise the alienation will not be valid
even as between the parties to the
transaction. (Art. 749). Upon the other
hand, the donation of an Audi automobile,
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worth let us say, P1.8 million, needs only

to be in a private instrument. (Art. 748).
2. The ownership of real property may be
acquired by
prescription although there is bad faith, in
thirty (30) years (Art. 1137); whereas,
acquisition in bad faith of personal
property needs only eight (8) years. (Art.
1132).
3. Generally, to affect third persons,
transactions involving real property must
be recorded in the Registry of Property;
this is not so in the case of personal
property.
Under the Civil Code, it is only the LAW
which may consider certain real property
(like growing crops) as personal property
(for the purpose of making a chattel
mortgage). (See Art. 416, par. 2).
Reclassification
conversion

distinguished

from

Reclassification is very much different

from conversion it is the act of
specifying how agricultural lands shall be
utilized for non-agricultural uses such as
residential, industrial, or commercial as
embodied in the land use plan, subject to
the requirements and procedures for land
use conversion.

Conversion is the act of changing the

current use of
a piece of agricultural land into some other
use as approved by the Dept. of Agrarian
Reform (DAR).
A mere reclassification of agricultural land
does not automatically allow a landowner
to change its use and, thus, cause the
ejectment of the tenants he has to
undergo the process of conversion before
he is permitted to use the agricultural land
for other purposes. (Ludo & Luym
Development Corp. v. Barretto, 471 SCRA
391 [2005]).

MIDTERM COVERAGE; January 5, 2017 Topic

At any rate, court proceedings are

indispensable
where
the
classifi
cation/conversion of a landholding in dulydetermined before ejectment can be
effected, which, in turn, paves the way for
the payment of disturbance compensation.
Who may execute a donation?
Any of the following persons, in the order
of priority stated hereunder, in the
absence of any actual notice of contrary
intentions by the decedent or actual notice
of opposition by a member of the
immediate family of the decedent (that

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includes a still-born infant or fetus ), may

donate all or any part of the decedents
body for any purpose specifi ed, thus:
1. Spouse;
2. Son or daughter of legal age;
3. Either parent;
4. Brother or sister of legal age; or
5. Guardian over the person of
decedent at the time of his death.

the

[NOTE: The persons authorized may make

the donation after or immediately before
death.].