II.

OWNERSHIP
A. OWNERSHIP IN GENRERAL
a. DEFINTION
i. Ownership is that independent right of a person to the exclusive enjoyment and control of a thing
including its disposition and recovery subject only to the restrictions or limitations established by
law and the rights of others.
b. KINDS
i. Beneficial ownership is ownership recognized by law and capable of being enforced in court,
as distinct from legal ownership and control. Beneficial use, ownership or interest in property
means right to its enjoyment in one person where the legal title is in another. The term
beneficial ownership is used in two (2) senses: first, to indicate the interest of a beneficiary in
trust property (also called equitable ownership); and second, to refer to power of a shareholder
of a corporation to buy or sell, the shares though the shareholder is not registered in the
corporations books as the owner.
ii. Naked ownership, which is the enjoyment of all the benefits and privileges of ownership, as
against the bare title to property.
c. RIGHTS OF AN OWNER
i. USE, POSSESSION, FRUITS AND DISPOSITION
1. Right to Possess - The right to possess is the right to hold a thing or enjoy a right. It may
be exercised in ones own name or in that of another.
2. Right to Use and Enjoy - This right necessarily includes the right to transform and the
right to exclude any person from the enjoyment and disposal thereof. For this purpose, he
may use such force as may be reasonably necessary to repel or prevent an actual or
threatened unlawful physical invasion or usurpation of his property. He may enclose or
fence his property, subject to the servitudes that may be constituted thereon. An owner,
however, cannot make use of his property in such a manner as to injure the rights of a
third; otherwise, he may be held liable for damages.
3. Right to Receive the Fruits and Accessories - The ownership of property gives the
right by accession to everything which is produced thereby, or which is incorporated or
attached thereto, either naturally or artificially. The general rule is that all accessions and
accessories are included in the obligation to deliver a determinate thing although they
may not have been mentioned.

4. Right to Consume - The right of the owner to consume a thing by its use, the use that
extinguishes, that consumes things which are consumable.
5. Right to Dispose or Alienate - An owner may dispose of or alienate his property either
totally, as in sale and donation, or partially, without transferring ownership, encumber as
in lease, pledge, and mortgage.
6. Right to Recover Possession and/or Ownership - The owner has a right of action
against the holder and possessor of the thing (or right) in order to recover it. The true
owner must resort to judicial process for the recovery of the property.
ii. DOCTRINE OF SELF-HELP (ART. 429)
1. It is the limitation that the owner may use only such force as may be reasonably
necessary. The right to repel or prevent an actual or threatened physical invasion or
usurpation of property is essential to the maintenance of property rights.
2. Requisites:
a. Owner or lawful possessor
b. Reasonable force
c. No delay
d. Actual or threatened physical invasion or usurpation
iii. ENCLOSING AND FENCING (ART. 430)
1. Art. 430. Every owner may enclose or fence his land or tenements by means of walls,
ditches, live or dead hedges, or by any other means without detriment to servitudes
constituted thereon.

2. The limitation to this right is the right of others to existing servitudes imposed on the land
or tenement.
iv. SURFACE RIGHTS OF LANDOWNER
1. It is an ancient maxim of the common law that land, in its legal signification, extends from
the surface downwards to the center of the earth and upwards indefinitely to the skies, so
that whatever is in a direct line between the surface of any land and the center of the
earth belongs to the owner of the surface.
2. Limitations:
a. The right of the owner of a parcel of land to construct any works or make any
plantations and excavations on his land is subject to: (1) existing servitudes or
easements (2) special laws, (3) local ordinances, (4) the reasonable
requirements of aerial navigation, and (5) the rights of third persons.

b. If a person is the owner of agricultural land in which minerals are discovered, his
ownership of said land does not give him the right to extract or utilize the said
minerals without the permission of the State to which said minerals belong. The use
by the owner of the land may be discontinued by the State to enable it to extract
the minerals therein in the exercise of its sovereign prerogative. For the loss
sustained by such owner, he is, of course, entitled to just compensation under the
mining laws or in appropriate expropriation proceedings.
d. RECOVERY OF POSSESSION AND/OR OWNERSHIP
i. ACTIONS AVAILABLE TO OWNER
1. RECOVERY OF PERSONAL PROPERTY
a. REPLEVIN
i. Manual delivery of personal property.
ii. Requires the plaintiff to state in an affidavit that he is the owner of the
property claimed, particularly describing it, or that he is entitled to the
possession thereof and that it is wrongfully detained by the adverse party.
The applicant for the writ of replevin has the burden of proving his ownership
and/or right of possession over the property in question.
iii. A property that is validly in custodia legis cannot be the subject of a replevin
suit.
2. RECOVERY OF REAL PROPERTY
a. FORCIBLE ENTRY AND UNLAWFUL DETAINER
i. NATURE OF THE ACTION/S
1. Forcible entry or unlawful detainer (denominated accion interdictal),
are two forms of an ejectment suit which may be instituted by a
person deprived of the possession of any land or building by force,
intimidation, threat, strategy, or stealth, or landlord, vendor, vendee,
or other person against whom the possession of any land or building is
unlawfully withheld after the expiration or termination of the right to
hold possession, by virtue of any contract, expressed or implied, or the
legal representatives or assigns of any such landlord, vendor, vendee,
or other person.
2. The main difference between the two actions lies in the time when
possession became unlawful in forcible entry, it is from the time of

entry, while in unlawful detainer, possession which was at first lawful

later became illegal.
ii. PRESCRIPTIVE PERIOD
1. Accion interdictal which comprises two distinct causes of action, i.e.,
forcible entry (detencion) and unlawful detainer (desahuico), must be
brought in the proper municipal trial court or metropolitan trial court
within one year from the date of actual entry on the land or
from the date of last demand to vacate, as the case may be.
2. The one-year period within which to bring the action is
generally counted from the date of actual entry into the
property.
iii. ISSUES INVOLVED
1. The only issue involved in forcible entry or unlawful detainer is mere
physical or material possession (possession de facto) not
juridical or civil possession (possession de jure) which arises
from ownership as one of its attributes nor ownership of which a
person has been deprived or against whom it has been withheld by any
of the means or circumstances mentioned. Actual or physical
occupation is not always necessary in order that possession may be
acquired.
b. ACCION PUBLICIANA AND ACCION REIVINDICATORIA
i. PRESCRIPTIVE PERIOD
1. The action (accion publiciana or accion reivindicatoria) must be brought in the
proper regional trial court within a period of ten years otherwise the real
right of possession is lost.
2. The action is also used to refer to an ejectment suit filed after the
expiration of one year from the occurrence of the cause of action or
year from the unlawful withholding of possession of the realty.

ii. ISSUES INVOLVED

1. The issue involved is not possession de facto but possession de jure of

realty independently of the title which arises from ownership as one of its
attributes nor ownership of which a person has been deprived or against
whom it has been withheld by any of the means or circumstances mentioned.

iii. NATURE OF
THE ACTION

1. When the complaint fails to aver facts constitutive of forcible entry or unlawful
detainer as where it does not state how entry was effected or how and when
dispossession started as where the complaint contains only bare allegations
that respondents without any color of title whatever occupies the land in
question by building their house in the said land thereby depriving the
petitioners of the possession thereof, the remedy should either be an accion
publiciana or an accion reinvidicatoria in the proper regional trial court.