MODES OF ACQUIRING OWNERSHIP (ARTICLES 712-720)

Original Modes. Independent of any pre-existing or preceding title or right of another.

1. Occupation
2. Intellectual creation

Derivative Modes. Somebody else was a previous owner.

3. Law
4. Donation
5. Tradition, as a consequence of certain contracts
6. Prescription
7. Succession

MODE v. TITLE

1. Mode – the process of acquiring or transferring ownership.

2. Title – not ordinarily sufficient to convey ownership, but which gives a juridical
justification for a mode

REAL RIGHT v. PERSONAL RIGHT

1. 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.
2. Personal right (jus in personam) – the power belonging to a person to demand from
another, as a definite passive subject-debtor, the fulfilment of a prestation to give, to
do, or not to do.

CLASSIFICATION OF REAL RIGHTS

1. When there is full control and enjoyment

(a) Ownership, including co-ownership
(b) Possession

2. Where there is partial control or enjoyment

(a) Usufruct
(b) Naked Ownership
(c) Easements
(d) Lease of real property if it exceeds one year, or if it is registered
 3. Real Rights of Security or Guaranty
(a) Mortgage
(b) Chattel Mortgage
(c) Pledge
(d) Antichresis
(e) Retention

4. Of acquisition
(a) Pre-emption
(b) Redemption

Art. 713. Things appropriable by nature which are without an owner, such as animals
that are the object of hunting and fishing, hidden treasure and abandoned movables, are
acquired by occupation.

Q: What is occupation?

A: 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.

Q: What are the essential requisites for occupation?

A: The following must be present:

(a) There must be seizure or apprehension – material holding not required, right of
disposal is what is important
(b) The property seized must be corporeal personal property
(c) The property seized must be susceptible of appropriation – abandoned or unowned
(d) There must be intent to appropriate
(e) The requisites or conditions of the law must be complied with

Q: What are some kinds of property acquirable by occupation?

A: 1. Those without an owner

2. Hidden treasure
3. Abandoned movables

Q: When is a thing considered abandoned?

A: 1. Spes recuperandi - when the expectation to recover is gone

2. Animo revertendi – when the intention to return or have it returned has been given up
by the owner
Art. 714. The ownership of a piece of land cannot be acquired by occupation.

Q: Why?
A: Because when the land is without owner, it pertains to the State.

Art. 715. The right to hunt and to fish is regulated by special laws.

Q: What special laws?

A: RA 8550 as amended by 10654 or the Philippine Fisheries Code.

Art. 716. The owner of a swarm of bees shall have a right to pursue them to another's
land, indemnifying the possessor of the latter for the damage. 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. The owner of domesticated animals may also claim
them within twenty days to be counted from their occupation by another person. This
period having expired, they shall pertain to him who has caught and kept them.

Q: What are the kinds of animals?

A: 1. Wild
2. Domestic
3. Domesticated

Q: How may domesticated and domestic animals be acquired?

A: 1. Domesticated animals may be acquired by occupation unless a claim has been made
on them—20 days
2. Domestic animals cannot be acquired by occupation unless there is abandonment

Art. 717. Pigeons and fish which from their respective breeding places pass to another
pertaining to a different owner shall belong to the latter, provided they have not been
enticed by some article of fraud.

Art. 718. He who by chance discovers hidden treasure in another's property shall have
the right granted him in article 438 of this Code.

Art. 719. Whoever finds a movable, which is not treasure, must return it to its previous
possessor. If the latter is unknown, the finder shall immediately deposit it with the
mayor of the city or municipality where the finding has taken place. 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
considerably diminish its value, it shall be sold at public auction eight days after the
publication. Six months from the publication having elapsed without the owner having
appeared, the thing found, or its value, shall be awarded to the finder. The finder and
the owner shall be obliged, as the case may be, to reimburse the expenses.
Q: What is the reason for this provision?
A: Lost property is not necessarily “abandoned” property. In “loss”, there is no
renunciation of ownership unlike in “abandonment”.

Q: Is the finder entitled to any reimbursement?

A: Yes, only as to extra-official efforts and expenses to find the owner, as a form of quasi-
contract.

Art. 720. If the owner should appear in time, he shall be obliged to pay, as a reward to
the finder, one-tenth of the sum or of the price of the thing found.