Art 414. All things which are or may be the object of appropriation are considered either:
- Immovable or real property; or
- Movable or personal property.
Things
- Objects external to man
- Includes both material objects and rights:
- Corporeal objects (can be perceived by the senses)
- Incorporeal objects (objects which have only an intellectual or juridical existence)
Property, Defined
- Defined from the Latin word “proprius” (i.e. belonging to one or one’s own
- Traditional sense: property extends only to those things which are possessed and found in the possession of man.
- Civil Code: Property refers to things which are susceptible of appropriation.
- It is not only confined to things which are already appropriated or possessed by man but also extends to those susceptible of such appropriation, although not yet appropriated.
- Things which cannot be subjected to human control or by reason of sheer physical impossibility cannot be considered a property.
- Sun, stars, ocean etc.
- Forces of nature (lightning or rain)
Requisites for a thing to be considered a property
- Susceptibility of appropriation
- While a things outside the commerce of men cannot be the object of a contract, it can be considered a property (i.e. properties of public dominion)
- Utility
- It can serve as a means to satisfy human needs
- Substantivity or Individuality
- The thing must have an autonomous and separate existence, and not simply a part of a whole.
- Diamond attached to the ring – one property
- Diamond is separated from the ring – two separate property