Land Titles and Deeds Llb-2

Submitted to: Atty. Ariel Bacatan

Submitted by: Julius Jefferson S. Estoque

TITLE BY RIGHT OF ACCRETION (PD 1529 Sec. 14, par. 3)

Article 457 of Civil Code provides that to the owners of lands adjoining the
banks of rivers belong the accretion which they gradually receive from the
effects of the current of the waters.
Adopted from the Law of the Waters, this provides that the accretion
resulting from the gradual deposit by or sedimentation from the waters
belongs to the owners of the land bordering on streams, torrents, lakes, or
rivers.
Three requisites must concur:
o that the deposit is gradual and imperceptible
o that it be made through the effects of the current of the water
o that the land where accretion takes place is adjacent to the banks of
rivers
In the absence of evidence that the change in the course of the river was
sudden or that it occurred through avulsion, the presumption is that the
change was gradual and caused by accretion and erosion.
i. ALLUVION MUST BE THE EXCLUSIVE WORK OF NATURE
requirement that the deposit should be due to the effects of the
current of the river is indispensable
a riparian owner then doesnt acquire the additions to his land
caused by special works expressly intended or designed to bring
about accretion
ii. REASON FOR THE LAW ON ACCRETION
Right to any land or alluvium deposited by the river is to

compensate the riparian owner of the danger of loss that he suffers

because of the location of his land
Law on accretion is necessarily essential in the study of Land titles and
deeds because it is one of the elements that a riparian owner may acquire
title over the property..
As held by the Supreme Court in the case of Republic vs Santos III, et. al G
.R. No. 160453 that by law, accretion - the gradual and imperceptible
deposit made through the effects of the current of the water- belongs to
the owner of the land adjacent to the banks of rivers where it forms. The
drying up of the river is not accretion. Hence, the dried-up river bed

Land Titles and Deeds Llb-2

Submitted to: Atty. Ariel Bacatan
Submitted by: Julius Jefferson S. Estoque

belongs to the State as property of public dominion, not to the riparian

owner, unless a law vests the ownership in some other person.