Professional Documents
Culture Documents
1. As an act – (Holding) Holding of a thing or enjoyment of a right with the intention to possess in one's
own right.
3. As a right – (consequences) the right of a person to holding or enjoyment to the exclusion of all others
The fact of possession gives rise to certain rights and presumption, such as the right to be respected in
his possession, and should he be disturbed, he shall be protected in or restored to said possession. (539)
*Possession is not a definitive proof of ownership nor is non-possession inconsistent therewith. (Heirs of
Bofill v. CA, 1994)
As a RIGHT -
a) Jus possidendi – right to possession which is incidental to or included in the right of ownership.
b) Jus possessionis – right of possession independent from the right of ownership.
REQUISITES
POSSESSION v. OWNERSHIP
1. A person may be declared the owner but he may not be entitled to possession.
2. A person may have introduced improvements thereon of which he may not be deprived without due
hearing. He may have other valid defenses to resist surrender of possession.
3. Judgement for ownership does not necessarily include possession as a necessary incident.
POSSESSION – Degrees:
1. Grammatical Degree - possession without any title whatsoever (theif or squatter)
2. Juridical Possession - possession with juridical title – based on juridical relation between possessor
and owner. (lessee, usufructuary, etc.)
3. Real Possessory Right - possession with just title sufficient to transfer ownership. Possession of an
adverse claimant whose title is sufficient to transfer ownership but is defective.
4. Dominium - possession with a title in fee simple. Based on right of dominion or possession of an
owner, highest degree of possession.
POSSESSION – Classes:
a) In one’s own name – where possessor claims the thing for himself.
b) In the name of another – for whom the thing is held by the possessor.
* Voluntary – by virtue of agreement. (agent – principal)
* Necessary or Legal – when exercised by virtue of law. (in behalf of incapacitated persons, parent-child,
etc.)
* Unauthorized – This will become the principal's possession only after there has been ratification
without prejudice to the effects of negotiorium gestio.
Note: Landlord is in actual possession thru the tenant. Hence, he can also bring a suit against an
intruder. (Simpao v. Dizon)
1) In the concept of owner (Art. 525) – possessor of thing or right, by his actions, is considered or
believed by others as the owner, regardless of good or bad faith of the possessor, recognizing no
title of ownership in another.
Only the possession acquired and enjoyed in the concept of owner can serve as a title for
acquiring dominion. (540)
Such possessor is presumed to possess just title. (541)
Such adverse possession may ripen into ownership.
Note: It is essential that such flaw or defect in the title must be such that it will have the effect
of invalidating the title. If flaw or defect does not result in invalidation of title, he is not merely a
possessor in good faith but the owner. The phrase “possessor in good faith” presupposes
ownership of another. (Pershing Tan Cueto v. Ca, GR 35648)
In the concept of holder, possessor holds it merely to keep or enjoy it, the ownership
pertaining to another person; possessor acknowledges in another a superior right which he
believes to be ownership; cannot acquire ownership by prescription (525)
None of these holders may assert a claim of ownership for himself over the thing but they
may be considered as possessors in the concept of owner, or under claim of ownership, with
respect to the right they respectively exercise over the thing.
Note: There can be possession in concept of both owner and holder or in neither.
In good faith, possessor is not aware that there is in his title or mode of acquisition a defect
that invalidates it. (Art. 526)
Requisites:
IN BAD FAITH:
*A lessee who continues to stay on the premises after the expiration of the lease contract is deemed a
usurper; as such he has become a possessor in bad faith (Republic v. Diaz, GR 36486, 1979)
Possession in good faith is converted to possession in bad faith from the moment facts exist
showing the possessor's knowledge of the flaw. (538)
In the absence of other facts showing the possessors knowledge, good faith is interrupted
from the receipt of service of judicial summons.
If cannot be determined, then at the time of filing an answer.
Extent of Possession:
Actual possession – occupancy in fact of the whole or at least substantially the whole
property.
Constructive possession – occupancy of part, in the name of the whole, under such
circumstances that the law extends the occupancy to the possession of the whole.
Object of possession:
2) Effect of bad faith of the decedent – One who succeeds by hereditary title shall not suffer the
consequences of the wrongful possession of the decedent unless it is shown that he had knowledge
of the defects affecting it; but the effects of possession in good faith shall not benefit him except
from the death of the decedent. (Art. 534)
Tacking of Possession: The latter part of 534 is not applicable if the father (or decedent) had
been in good faith, for the son (or heir) would not suffer. In such a case, the possession of
the father in good faith is added to the possession of the son in good faith, and we cannot
say that the effects of possession in good fatih shall commence only from the decedent's
death.
General Rule: Acquisition of possession by the action of our will and by proper acts and legal
formalities are not applicable to incapacitated persons subject to the laws on succession and
donation. 535
Exception: Minors and incapacitated persons may acquire the physical possession of corporeal
properties, but they need the assistance of their legal representatives in order to exercise the rights
from which the possession arise in their favour. Art. 535
Note: Minors and incapacitated persons may acquire property or rights by prescription, either
personally or thru their parents, guardians, or legal representatives. Art. 1107
Modes by which Possession Cannot be Acquired:
1) By Force or intimidation, as long as there is a possessor who objects thereto. Art. 536
Note: for all intents and purposes, a legal possessor, even if physically ousted, is still deemed the
legal possessor. (Caquena v. Bolante, GR 137944, 2000)
Acts merely tolerated are those which by reason of neighbourliness or familiarity, the owner
of property, allows his neighbour or another person to do on the property.
NOTE: It is difficult to draw a dividing line between tolerance of the owner and abandonment of his
rights when the acts of the possessor are repeated, specially when the lapse of time has consolidated
and affirmed a relation the legality of the origin of which can be doubted. When there is license or
permission, the proof is easy. It is for the court to decide in each case whether there exists mere
tolerance or an abandonment of rights on the part of the owner.
Silence or inaction is negligence, not tolerance. But where a person occupies another land
with the latter permission (tolerance), the occupier, no matter how long he may remain, can
never acquire ownership, because he never had possession.
Possession by mere tolerance is not adverse. Thus, it does not start the running of the
period of acquisitive prescription.
Requisites:
NOTE: A person who believes himself entitled to the possession of property may not take the law into
his hands. (Bishop of Cebu v. Mangaron, GR 1748, 1906) or else he will be made to suffer the
consequences of his lawlessness. (Santiago v. Cruz, GR 31919)
For this reason 536 mandates that he must invoke the aid of competent court, if the holder
should refuse to deliver the thing.
EFFECTS OF POSSESSION
Note: A squatter has no possessory rights of any kind against the owner of the land into which he has
intruded. (Banez v. CA, 30351, 1974)
Article 540. Only the possession acquired and enjoyed in the concept of owner can serve as a title for
acquiring dominion. (even if he acted in bad faith)
Article 541. A possessor in the concept of owner has in his favor the legal presumption that he
possesses with a just title and he cannot be obliged to show or prove it.
Presumption of just title does not apply in acquisitive prescription. The adverse possessor must prove
his just title.
Kinds of Titles:
1. True and Valid Title – there was a mode of transferring ownership and the grantor was the owner.
2. Colorable Title – there was such mode of transferring ownership, but the grantor was not the owner.
3. Putative Title – that title although a person believes himself to be the owner, he nonetheless is not,
because there was no mode of acquiring ownership.
Note: Colorable title is what is meant by “just title” in the law of prescription, and not Valid title, for if it
were the latter, there could be no necessity of still acquiring ownership thru prescription, the grantee
being already the owner. (Solis v. CA, GR 46753-54, 1989)
1. Lessees
2. Trustees, including: parents, husband and wife.
3. Antichretic creditors
4. Agents
5. Attorney's regarding their client's properties
6. Depositaries
7. Co-owners
Note: Possession of real property presumes that of the movables therein, so long as it is not shown or
proved that they should be excluded. Art. 542
Presumption applies whether the possessor be in good faith or bad faith, in one's own name or in
another's and in the concept of holder.
Rules on Co-Possession:
1. Each one of the participants of a thing possessed in common shall be deemed to have exclusively
possessed the part which may be alloted to him upon division thereof, for the entire period during
which the co-possession lasted. Art. 543
2. Interruption in the possession of the whole or a part of a thing possessed in common shall be to the
prejudice of all possessors.
Civil interruption:
When interruption is produced by judicial summons to the possessor, and only those
possessors served with judicial summons are affected.
Note: Judicial summons shall be deemed not to have been issued, and shall not give rise to
interruption:
AS TO FRUITS GATHERED
TO POSSESSOR TO OWNER
AS TO NECESSARY EXPENSES
NO REIMBURSEMENT NO REIMBURSEMENT
POSSESSOR IN GOOD FAITH POSSESSOR IN BAD FAITH
NECESSARY EXPENSES
- Those made for the preservation of the thing.
USEFUL EXPENSES
- Those that add value to property or increase the object’s productivity.
ORNAMENTAL/LUXURY EXPENSES
- Those that add value to the thing only for certain person in view of their particular whims;
neither essential for preservation nor useful everybody in general.
LOSS OF POSSESSION, Art. 555
General Causes:
1) By the will of the possessor
a) Abandonment; and
b) Assignment
2) Against the will of the possessor
a) Eminent domain;
b) Acquisitive prescription;
c) Judicial decree in favor of one who has a better right;
d) Possession of another for more than one year;
Note: This refers to possession de facto where the possessor loses the right to a summary action; but he
may still bring an action publiciana or reinvidicatoria.
Theory of Irrevendicability
General Rule: Possession in good faith of a movable is presumed ownership. It is equivalent to title. No
further proof is necessary. (Aznar v. Yapdiangco, GR 18536, 1965)
The rule is necessary for purposes of facilitating transactions on movable property which are usually
done without special formalities. (Sotto v. Enage, 1947)
Requisites:
Exception: one who has lost or has been unlawfully deprived of a movable may recover it from whoever
possess it without reimbursement.
Unlawful Deprivation
One who has lost or has been unlawfully deprived of a movable may recover it from whoever
possesses it without reimbursement. The owner of the thing must prove:
Exceptions to Exception:
1) Where the owner acts negligently or voluntarily parts with the thing owned, he cannot
recover it from the possessor.
2) If the possessor of the movable acquired it in good faith at a public sale, the owner cannot
obtain its return without reimbursing the price paid therefore. Art. 418
Public Sale
One where there has been a public notice of the sale in which anyone is allowed to bid for the
object he desires to buy.
Owner may recover without Owner may recover but should Owner Cannot Recover
reimbursement reimburse
1. From possessor in bad faith; If possessor acquired the object 1. If possessor had acquired it
2. From possessor in good faith in good faith at public auction in good faith by purchase
(if the owner lost the sale. from a merchant’s store, or
property or has been in fairs or markets in
unlawfully deprived of it.) accordance with the Code of
Commerce and special laws;
2. If owner is by his conduct
precluded from denying the
seller’s authority to sell;
3. If possessor had obtained
the goods because he was
an innocent purchaser for
value and holder of a
negotiable document of title
to the goods.
Wild Animals
Those living in a state of nature independently of and without the aid and care of man; they are
considered possessed only while they are under man’s control.
Domesticated/Tamed Animals
1. Wild or savage by nature but have been subdued and became accustomed to live in a tamed
condition;
2. Considered possessed if they habitually return to the premises of their possessor; and
3. Live, born and reared under the control and care of man.
Domestic/Tame Animals
Any of the various animals which live and are born and reared under the control and care of man,
lacking the instinct to roam freely.