Tangible & Intangible Rights and Obligations

Posted on Nov 26, 2024 in Law & Jurisprudence

Tangible and Intangible Rights

Tangible Rights

Tangible rights pertain to real, perceptible objects, such as a house or a book.

Intangible Rights

Intangible rights consist of abstract rights, such as credits or easements.

Tangible Assets

Tangible assets are divided into movable and immovable.

Movable Assets

These assets can be transported from one place to another, including animate objects (e.g., animals) and inanimate objects.

Immovable Assets (Real Property)

These are things that cannot be transported from one place to another, such as land, mines, and things permanently attached to them (e.g., buildings, trees).

Intangible Things

Rights in rem

Rights held against a thing, regardless of a specific person. These include domain, inheritance, usufruct, easements, pledge, and mortgage. These rights give rise to real actions.

Personal Rights (Credits)

Rights that can be claimed against specific people due to agreements or legal provisions. These rights give rise to personal actions.

Personal rights, like census, can be directed against the censuario even if not in possession of the associated real estate.

This demonstrates the dual nature of rights, depending on the objective.

Sources of Obligations

  1. Contract
  2. Quasi-Contract
  3. Crime
  4. Unintentional Tort
  5. Law

Quasi-Contract

A wrongful act that generates unconventional obligations. Examples include unpaid agency, informal agreements, and quasi-community contracts.

Types of Movable Property

  1. Movable by Nature (as previously mentioned)
  2. Movable by Anticipation: Things intended for permanent use with a building but can be separated without damage (e.g., paving slabs, plumbing pipes, farm tools).

Aspects of Real Estate

Geographical

  • Urban
  • Non-urban (Rural)

By Destination

The purpose of the land.

Properties by Adhesion

Items that are movable by nature but permanently attached to a building.

Properties by Destination

Items that are movable by nature but intended for permanent use with the property (e.g., farm equipment). These can exist separately from the property.

Requirements for Properties by Destination

  • Intended for use and benefit of the property
  • Permanent attachment

Art. 1830: The buyer is obligated to receive the thing at the agreed-upon place and time, or, failing that, as stipulated by law. Refusal without just cause or delay in receiving the delivered item makes the buyer liable for risks, conservation costs, and damages to the seller. If the item is movable, the seller may request its deposit with the buyer. This applies to property sold with estate by destination and adhesion.

Art. 570. Items permanently intended for the use, cultivation, and processing of a building are considered immovable property, even if separable without detriment. Examples include: paving slabs, plumbing pipes, farm tools, fertilizer, industrial machinery fixed to the floor, and animals kept in structures attached to the ground.

Leasing Agricultural Property

Requires two witnesses, a solemn public document, and a statement of actual or anticipated rent income.

Difference Between Movable and Immovable Property

Movable Property

  • Consensual: Agreement on price and terms
  • Tradition: Delivery, including symbolic delivery
  • Art. 670: Islands formed in the maritime-terrestrial zone and rivers belong to the nation, unless formed on privately owned land.
  • Transfer of ownership title
  • Acquisition limitation: 2 years

Immovable Property

  • Solemnity: Notarial deed
  • Tradition: Real estate registration
  • Prescription: 5 years
  • Action for recovery: Domain
  • Possessory actions

Property Law

The right we have over a thing, regardless of any particular person. Real rights include domain, inheritance, usufruct, use, habitation, active servitudes, pledge, and mortgage.

Real Rights

  • Immovable: Inheritance, domain, usufruct, use, habitation, active servitudes, mortgage
  • Movable: Inheritance, domain, pledge, usufruct

Types of Goods

  • Consumer Goods: For direct and immediate consumption
  • Productive Assets: Used to produce other goods
  • Consumable Goods: Destroyed by first use
  • Non-consumable Goods: Do not deteriorate with first use

Things can be objectively consumable or subjectively consumable.

Destruction (Natural or Civil)

  • Natural: Physical disappearance or alteration of nature
  • Civil: Deemed destroyed by law, e.g., things sold for their first use

Subjective Increase

Goods whose first use involves alienation or destruction, depending on the owner’s intent (e.g., goods sold in a store).

Contracts can determine whether goods are considered consumable or non-consumable. For example, in a lease, the goods are non-consumable as only enjoyment is granted. In a loan for use (commodatum), the non-consumable thing is returned.

Art. 1915: The lessee may make improvements to the leased property without altering its form.

Art. 1939: The lessee may terminate the lease with written notice to the landlord at least 30 days in advance for residential properties and 60 days for business premises, except as provided in Art. 1888.

Art. 1947: The legal interest rate equals the weighted average lending rate published by the banking system the day before its establishment, minus two percentage points. In cases of non-publication, doubt, or discrepancy, a final report is requested from the Superintendency of Banks.

Perishable and Deteriorating Goods

  • Perishable Goods: Tangible items that quickly become unfit for consumption
  • Deteriorating Goods: Things that gradually decay or become less palatable

Fungible and Non-Fungible Goods

  • Fungible Goods: Interchangeable items of equal value
  • Non-Fungible Goods: Unique items that cannot be replaced by an equivalent

Payment

The provision of what is due.

Principal and Accessory Goods

  • Principal Goods: Exist independently
  • Accessory Goods: Depend on other things for existence

Divisible and Indivisible Goods

  • Divisible Goods: Can be split into homogeneous parts without significant loss of value
  • Physically Divisible: Can be separated without losing individuality (e.g., a bottle of soda)
  • Intellectually Divisible: Divided by ownership shares (e.g., two owners each have 50% of a horse)

Intangible assets are usually divisible, except for easements. Real property is generally physically divisible, except in cases like indigenous land law. Movable property is indivisible if its form is indivisible.

Requirements for Divisibility

  • No destruction of the thing
  • Resulting parts are homogeneous and of similar value

Art. 483 CPC: The depositary may sell, with judicial authorization but without prior appraisal, property subject to spoilage, damage, or difficult/costly conservation.

Art. 488. Altering the form of particular assets, borrowing, or disposing of non-perishable movable property is forbidden, unless such alienation is part of ordinary business or required for debt payment.

Singular and Universal Property

  • Singular Property: Represents a single unit, either simple (e.g., a horse) or complex (e.g., a house)
  • Universal Property: A group of individual things joined by a common purpose (e.g., an inheritance)
  • Universality of Fact: Movable property with a common economic destination (e.g., a business)
  • Universality of Law: A set of rights and obligations treated as a whole by law (e.g., inheritance, marital rights)

Present and Future Goods

  • Present Goods: Exist at the time of the contract
  • Future Goods: Do not yet exist at the time of the contract (e.g., crops yet to grow)

Art. 1813. Selling future goods is considered a conditional sale unless otherwise stated.

Marketable and Unmarketable Goods

  • Marketable Goods: Can be objects of private legal relations
  • Unmarketable Goods: Cannot be objects of private legal relations (e.g., public property, the sun, the moon, the sea, illegal drugs)

Art. 1461. Objects of a declaration of will can be existing or future things, provided they are marketable and determined. Quantity can be uncertain if rules or factors for determination are provided. The object must be physically and morally possible.

Art. 1464. Illicit objects of sale include: things not in trade, non-transferable rights, seized property (without court or creditor consent), and litigated property (without court permission).

Appropriable and Inappropriable Goods

  • Appropriable Goods: Susceptible to ownership rights
  • Inappropriable Goods: Res nullius (never owned) and res derelictae (abandoned)

Art. 590. All lands within territorial limits without an owner are state property.

Private Goods

Subject to private rights.

Art. 584. Productions of talent or wit are the property of their authors, governed by special laws.

Art. 597. New islands formed in navigable waters belong to the state.

National Goods

  • Fiscal Property: Owned by the nation but not for general use (e.g., government buildings)
  • National Goods for Public Use: Owned by the nation and for use by all inhabitants (e.g., streets, plazas)
  • Maritime Public Domain: Includes the territorial sea, contiguous zone, exclusive economic zone, and beaches
  • Fluvial and Lake Public Domain: Includes rivers and lakes
  • Land Public Domain: Includes roads and bridges
  • Air Public Domain: Airspace above land

Art. 593. The territorial sea extends 12 nautical miles from the baseline. The contiguous zone extends 24 nautical miles for customs, fiscal, immigration, and health enforcement. Waters within baselines are internal waters.

Art. 612. Fishermen may use the seashore for fishing activities, but must respect existing buildings and other fishermen’s rights.

Art. 613. Adjacent land up to 8 meters from the beach may be used for necessary activities, but must respect buildings and fences.

Art. 594. The beach is the area bathed by high tide.

Art. 595. All waters are national property for public use.

Art. 589. National assets are owned by the nation. Those for public use include streets, plazas, and the adjacent sea. State property is not for general public use.

Art. 592. Privately built bridges and roads on private land are not national assets, but their use is granted to all.

Generic and Specific Things

  • Generic Things: Determined by their kind, number, and quantity
  • Specific Things: Determined individually within their kind

Protective Actions of Domain

Actions for recovery address disputes over domain.

Art. 889. The domain action is used by the owner of a thing not in their possession to reclaim it.

This action also applies to real rights, except inheritance (which uses a petition of inheritance).

Art. 891. Other real rights can be claimed like domain, except inheritance.

Art. 1264. Heirs can claim inherited property, including things held by the deceased as depositary, borrower, etc.

Requirements for Domain Action

  • Owner does not possess the thing
  • Action is against the possessor
  • The thing is specifically claimed

Art. 700. Possession is holding a thing as owner, whether actually the owner or acting as such. The possessor is presumed owner until proven otherwise.

Art. 717. Possession by a successor begins anew unless they add their predecessor’s possession, with its qualities and defects.

Art. 924. Possession of registered rights is proven by inscription, and after one year, other evidence is inadmissible.

Art. 2517. Any action claiming a right is extinguished by adverse possession.

Loss of Possession

  • Movable: When the thing leaves the owner’s control
  • Immovable: When someone else registers the title

Publiciana Action

Recovery action for a regular possessor (acquired by ordinary prescription).

Art. 894. This action applies even without proven domain if possession was lost regularly and could have been acquired by prescription. It does not apply against the true owner or someone with equal or better right.

Art. 702. Regular possession comes from just title and good faith, though good faith need not persist. Irregular possession lacks one or both. Tradition is required for translaticio title. Forced surrender does not constitute tradition unless the title is registered.

Art. 728. Registered possession ceases with cancellation of registration, transfer of right, or judicial decree. Possession is not acquired by taking possession from a registered holder.

Art. 729. Seizing registered property illegally does not grant possession.

Art. 730. If the owner reclaims a usurped thing, possession is not lost unless the usurper alienates it. However, if the thing is registered, alienation without registration does not transfer possession.

Art. 2195. Precarious possession occurs when a thing is not lent for a specific service or return time, or when held without agreement and by the owner’s ignorance or tolerance.

Art. 895. Domain action is directed against the current possessor.

Art. 896. The possessor must declare the name and residence of the person on whose behalf they hold the thing.

Art. 897. Bad faith transfer of possession incurs liability for damages.

Art. 898. Domain action can be brought against the alienator for the price received, especially if alienation hindered recovery or was done in bad faith.

Art. 899. Domain action is not brought against heirs, but the possessor’s obligations for fruits or damages pass to them proportionally.

Art. 900. Action can be brought against a bad faith possessor even if they no longer possess the thing, but obligations and rights are based on their possession period. Payment of the thing’s value transfers claims on it. This also applies to good faith possessors who lose the thing through fault. These claims are not subject to warranty.

Art. 901. If a movable thing is at risk, the claimant can request its seizure or security for restitution.

Art. 902. The possessor continues to enjoy the property until a final judgment, but the claimant can take steps to prevent deterioration.

Art. 903. Domain action extends to the embargo of the price or exchange received by the possessor.

Art. 915. These rules apply to those improperly withholding possession in another’s name.

Art. 714. Mere possession is holding a thing on behalf of the owner, such as a pledgee, lessee, etc.

Art. 1345. A participant in a partition whose share is disturbed can claim reorganization or compensation from other participants. This action lapses in four years.

Art. 1578. Payment to a creditor is void if: the creditor lacks administrative power (unless the payment benefited them), the debt is under court order, or paid to an insolvent debtor in fraud of creditors.