PROPERTY CASE DOCTRINES

PRESCRIPTION

Mere declaration by the government that a land of public

domain is already alienable and disposable would not suffice
for purposes of registration. There must be an official
declaration that the property is no longer intended for
public use, public service, or for the development of
national wealth.

It is not the notorious, exclusive and uninterrupted possession

and occupation of an alienable and disposable public land for the
mandated periods that converts it to patrimonial. The
indispensability of an official declaration that the property
is now held by the state in its private capacity or placed within
the commerce of man for prescription to have any effect
against the state cannot be overemphasized.

G1: ACQUISITIVE / EXTINCTIVE PRESCRIPTION

1. CALICDAN V. CEDAA

Good Faith of the Possessor consists in the reasonable

belief that the person from whom he received the thing was the
owner thereof, and could transmit ownership.

Just Title when the adverse claimant came into possession of
the property through one of the legal modes for the acquisition
of ownership or other real rights, but the grantor was not the
owner or could not transmit.

Tax Declarations + Actual possession of the Land

constitutes strong evidence of ownership of the land occupied.

3. REPUBLIC V. CHING

2. REPUBLIC V. CORTEZ

Only private properties may be acquired thru prescription

and only those properties, which are not for public use, public
service or intended for the development of national wealth, are
considered private.

There is nothing in the Civil Code that bars a person from
acquiring patrimonial property of the state through ordinary
acquisitive prescription, nor is there any apparent reason to
impose such rule. Lands of public domain that are patrimonial
in character are susceptible of acquisitive prescription.

Period of acquisitive prescription would only begin to run from

the time that the state officially declares that the public
dominion property is no longer intended for public use,
public service, or for the development of national wealth.

It is doctrinal that, under the Regalian Doctrine, all lands of

the public domain pertain to the state and the latter is the
foundation of any asserted right to ownership in land; Before
an applicant for land registration can adduce evidence of open,
continuous, exclusive and notorious possession and occupation of
property in question, he must first prove that the land
belongs to the alienable and disposable lands of public
domain.

Prescription is recognized as a mode of acquiring
ownership of patrimonial property. However, public domain
lands become only patrimonial property not only with the
declaration that these are alienable or disposable. There must
also be an express government manifestation that the
property is already patrimonial or no longer retained for
public service or the development of national wealth. And
only when the property has become patrimonial can the
prescriptive period for acquisition of property of public
dominion begin to run.

CHINO LEE
BATCH 2015 C VINI, VIDI, VICI

AQUILA LEGIS FRATERNITY REVIEWER: PROPERTY VIVENCIO ABANO

4. HEIRS OF RESTAR V. HEIRS OF CICHON

While action to demand partition of a co-owned property does

not prescribe, a co-owner may acquire prescription where
there exists a clear repudiation of co-ownership, and the
co-owners are apprised of the claim of adverse and
exclusive ownership.

The statutory period of prescription commences when a person
who has neither title nor good faith, secures a tax
declaration in his name and may, therefore, be said to have
adversely claimed the ownership of the lot.

6. MARIANO V. PETRON CORPORATION

The more than two decades lapse puts this case well within the
territory of the 10 year prescriptive bar to suits based
upon a written contract under Article 1144(1) of the Civil
Code.

While tax declarations and receipts are not conclusive evidence
of ownership and do not prove title to the land, nevertheless,
when coupled with actual possession, they constitute
evidence of great weight and can be a basis of claim of
ownership through prescription.

G2: PRESCRIPTION OF ACTIONS

5. VDA. DE GUALBERTO V. GO

An action for re-conveyance based on an implied constructive

trust must perforce prescribe in 10 years from the issuance
of the Torrens Title over the property. This rule applies
only when the plaintiff or the person enforcing the trust is not
in possession of the property.

An action for re-conveyance of real property based on an
implied constructive trust is not barred by the 10 - year
prescriptive period only if the plaintiff is in actual,
continuous and peaceful possession of the property
involved.
CHINO LEE
BATCH 2015 C VINI, VIDI, VICI