Libro Segundo · Título II Capítulo IX. De la accesión

Natural and civil fruits belong to the owner of the thing that produces them.

Natural fruits are the spontaneous productions of the land, the offspring of animals and other products obtained with or without human industry.

Only those that are manifest, produced or born are deemed natural fruits.

With respect to animals, it suffices that they are in the mother's womb. The offspring of animals belongs exclusively to the owner of the female, unless there is a stipulation to the contrary.

That which is joined to or incorporated into a thing belongs to the owner thereof, in accordance with the following provisions.

Every construction, sowing, planting or work carried out on or below the soil is presumed to have been made by the owner at his expense and to belong to him.

The owner of the land who has made constructions, plantations or works with another's materials must pay the owner the value thereof, and shall also be obligated, in case of bad faith, to the payment of damage and losses; but the owner of the materials has no right to take them away, unless he can do so without destroying the constructed work or without the plantations perishing.

The owner of the land on which building, sowing or planting in good faith is carried out shall have the right to make the work, sowing or planting his own, upon prior payment of the corresponding compensation; or to compel the person who built or planted to pay him the price of the land, and the person who sowed, only its rent.

Whoever in bad faith builds, plants or sows on another's land loses what was built, planted or sown, without having the right to claim any compensation from the owner of the soil, nor to retain the thing.

The owner of the land on which construction has been carried out in bad faith may request demolition of the work and restoration of things to their original state, at the builder's expense.

When there is bad faith, not only on the part of the person who builds, but also on the part of the owner of the land, this circumstance shall be deemed compensated and the rights of the one and the other shall be settled in accordance with what is established for the case of having proceeded in good faith.

It is understood that there is bad faith on the part of the builder, planter, or sower, when he carries out the planting, building, or sowing on land belonging to another, without previously requesting the owner's consent in writing.

Bad faith on the part of the owner shall be deemed to exist whenever the building, the sowing, or the planting were made in his sight or with his knowledge and acquiescence and he did not oppose them.

If the materials, plants or seeds belong to a third party who has not acted in bad faith, the owner of the land is subsidiarily liable for the value of those objects, provided that the following two circumstances concur:

1°.That the person who in bad faith used the materials, plants or seeds has no property with which to answer for their value; and

2°.That what was built, planted or sown benefits the owner of the land.

The provisions of the preceding article shall not apply if the owner makes use of the right granted to him by Article 663.

Lands joined to the maritime-terrestrial zone by the accessions and siltings caused by the sea are in the public domain. When, as a consequence of such accessions and as a result of the withdrawal of the sea, the interior line delimiting said zone advances toward the sea, the surplus lands from what was the former maritime-terrestrial zone shall become the property of the Nation.

The islands already formed or that may form in the maritime-terrestrial zone and in the rias and mouths are property of the nation. But if these islands form on land of private ownership, they shall continue to belong to the owners of the dismembered estate or estates.

What the sea casts up and has no known owner is of public domain, except as provided in the title relating to occupation and in special laws.

Lands accidentally flooded by the waters of lakes, or by streams, rivers and other currents, shall continue to be the property of their respective owners.

The beds of rivers left abandoned by the natural variation of the course of the waters belong to the owners of the riparian properties throughout the respective length. If the abandoned bed separated estates of different owners, the new dividing line shall run equidistant from one and the other.

When in a navigable or floatable river, varying naturally in direction, a new channel opens in a private estate, this channel shall enter the public domain. The owner of the estate shall recover it whenever the waters again leave it dry, either naturally or by works legally authorized for that purpose.

Public channels that are left dry as a consequence of works authorized by special concession shall form part thereof, if nothing to the contrary is established in the conditions under which it was made.

When the current of a stream, torrent or river severs from its bank a known portion of land, and transports it to the opposite or lower estates, the owner of the estate that bordered the severed bank retains ownership of the incorporated portion of land; but if within the term of six months he does not exercise his right, he shall lose it in favor of the owner of the land to which the torn-away portion shall have been added.

If the known portion of land segregated from a bank remains isolated in the bed, it continues to belong to the owner of the land whose bank was segregated. The same shall occur when, a river dividing into streams, it surrounds and isolates some lands.

The islands that, by successive accumulation of upstream deposits, are formed in rivers belong to the owners of the banks or shores nearest to each one, or to those of both banks if the island is situated in the middle of the river, it then being divided longitudinally in half.

If a single island thus formed is farther from one bank than from the other, the owner of the nearer bank shall be solely and entirely its owner.

The accretion that they gradually receive by accession or sedimentation of the waters belongs to the owners of the lands bordering on streams, torrents, rivers and lakes.

Anyone may collect and save animals, timber, fruits, movables and other products of industry swept away by the currents of public waters or submerged therein, immediately presenting them to the local authority, which shall order their deposit or their sale at public auction, when they cannot be preserved. The find shall be announced immediately, and if within three months there is a claim by the owner, the object or its price shall be delivered to him, upon prior payment of the conservation expenses and the salvage fee, which shall consist of 10 percent. Upon expiration of that time limit without the owner having claimed, he shall lose his right, and everything shall be returned to the person who saved it, upon prior payment of the conservation expenses.

The brushwood, branches and firewood floating in the waters or deposited by them in the channel or on public-domain land belong to the first person who collects them. Those left on privately owned land belong to the owner of the respective property.

Trees uprooted and transported by the current of the waters belong to the owner of the land where they come to rest, if their former owners do not claim them within one month, who shall pay the expenses incurred in collecting the trees or placing them in a safe place.

Objects submerged in public channels continue to belong to their owners, but if within the term of six months they do not remove them, they shall belong to the persons who carry out the extraction, with prior permission of the authority. If the submerged objects offer obstacles to the currents or to transit, the authority shall grant the owners a reasonable term, upon the expiration of which without their having made use of their right, extraction shall proceed as with abandoned property.

The owner of objects submerged in waters of private ownership shall request from the owner thereof permission to extract them; and in the event that the latter denies it, the authority shall grant permission, upon prior bond for damage and losses.

The owners of estates bordering on public watercourses have liberty to place defenses against the waters on their respective banks, by means of plantings, pilings or revetments, whenever they deem it convenient.

The owners of lagoons or marshy and waterlogged lands who wish to drain or reclaim them may extract from public lands the earth and stone indispensable for the embankment and other works.

When two movable things belonging to different owners are joined in such a manner that they come to form a single thing, without bad faith intervening, the owner of the principal thing acquires the accessory thing, paying its value.

As between two incorporated things, the one of greater value is deemed principal.

If the classification cannot be made in accordance with the rule established in the preceding article, the object whose use, perfection or adornment has been achieved by the union of the other shall be deemed principal.

In painting, sculpture and embroidery; in writings, printed matter, engravings and lithographs, the board, the metal, the stone, the canvas, the paper or the parchment is deemed accessory.

When joined things can be separated without detriment, and subsist independently, the respective owners have the right to demand separation.

When things cannot be separated without the thing deemed accessory suffering deterioration, the owner of the principal thing shall also have the right to request separation; but shall be obligated to indemnify the owner of the accessory thing, provided that the latter has proceeded in good faith.

When the owner of the accessory thing is the one who has made the incorporation, he loses it if he has acted in bad faith; and he is, moreover, obliged to indemnify the owner of the principal thing for the losses that have resulted to him from the incorporation.

If the owner of the principal thing is the one who has acted in bad faith, the owner of the accessory thing shall have the right to be paid its value and to be indemnified for damage and losses, or to have the thing belonging to him separated, even if the principal thing must be destroyed for that purpose.

If the incorporation is made by any of the owners, in the view or with the knowledge and acquiescence of the other, without the latter objecting, the respective rights shall be settled in accordance with the provisions of Article 686.

Whenever the owner of the material used is entitled to compensation, he may demand that it consist in the delivery of a thing equal in value and in all its circumstances to the one used, or in the price thereof, as fixed by experts.

If two things of the same or different kind are mixed by the will of their owners or by chance, and the things are not separable without detriment, the owner in whose possession the confusion or mixture has occurred may acquire for himself the mixed or confused thing, reimbursing the other owner the proportional value of the share corresponding to him. If the mixture occurs in the possession of a third party, each owner shall acquire a proportional right to the share corresponding to him, based on the value of the things mixed or confused.

If by the will of one alone, but in good faith, two things of the same or different kind are mixed or commingled, the rights of the owners shall be governed by the provisions of the preceding article; unless the owner of the thing mixed without his consent prefers compensation for damage and losses.

Whoever in bad faith makes the mixture or confusion loses the mixed or confused thing that was his property and, in addition, remains obligated to compensation for the losses caused to the owner of the thing or things with which the mixture was made.

Whoever in good faith used material belonging to another, in whole or in part, to form a thing of a new species, shall acquire ownership of the work, provided that the artistic merit thereof exceeds in price the material, whose value he shall indemnify to the owner.

When the artistic merit of the work is inferior in price to the material, the owner of the latter shall make the new species his own and shall be entitled, in addition to claiming compensation for damage and losses, with the value of the work deducted from the amount thereof, to appraisal by experts.

If the new thing was made in bad faith, the owner of the material used has the right to keep the work, without paying anything to the person who made it; or to require from the latter that he pay him the value of the material and indemnify him for the losses resulting to him.

Bad faith, in cases of mixture or confusion, shall be determined in accordance with the provisions of Articles 665 and 666 of this Code.

When the thing becomes common among the owners of the materials from which it was formed, each of them may request its sale for the account of the interested parties.