BRANCHES, ROOTS AND FRUITS
E. LIABILITY IN CASE OF NUISANCE 1 WHO ARE LIABLE
Every successive owner or possessor of property who fails or refuses to abate a nuisance in that property started by a former owner or possessor is liable therefor in the same manner as the one who created it.
(NCC. 696)
E.2. LIABILITY OF CREATOR OF NUISANCE
He who creates a nuisance is liable for the resulting damages and his liability continues as long as the nuisance continues.
(1) There must be a breach of some duty on the part of the person sought to be held liable for damages resulting from a nuisance before an action will lie against him.
(2) No one is to be held liable for a nuisance which he cannot himself physically abate without legal action against another for that purpose.
(3) Where several persons, acting independently, cause damage by acts which constitute a nuisance, each is liable for the damage which he has caused or for his proportionate share of the entire damage.
E.3. LIABILITY OF TRANSFEREES
The grantee of land upon which there exists a nuisance created by his predecessors in title is NOT responsible therefore merely because he becomes the owner of the premises, or merely because he permits it to remain.
He shall be liable if he knowingly continues the nuisance. Generally, he is not liable for continuing it in its original form, unless he has been notified of its existence and requested to remove it, or has actual knowledge that it is a nuisance and injurious to the rights of others.
If the transferee cannot physically abate the nuisance without legal action against another person, then he shall not be liable for such nuisance.
E.4. NATURE OF LIABILITY
All persons who participate in the creation or maintenance of a nuisance are jointly and severally liable for the injury done.
If 2 or more persons who create or maintain the nuisance act entirely independent of one
another, and without any community of interest, concert of action, or common design, each is liable only so far as his acts contribute to the injury.
For solidary liability, there must be some joint or concurrent act or community of action or duty, or the several wrongful acts done at several times must have concurred in their effects as one single act to produce the injury complained of.
E.5. RIGHT TO RECOVER DAMAGES
The abatement of a nuisance does not preclude the right of any person injured to recover damages for its past existence. [NCC 697]Abatement and damages are cumulative remedies.
NO PRESCRIPTION
The action to abate a public or private nuisance is NOT extinguished by prescription.
[NCC. 1143(2)]
F. REGULATION OF NUISANCES F.1. PUBLIC NUISANCE
Remedies
The remedies against a public nuisance are:
(1) A prosecution under the Penal Code or any local ordinance;
(2) A civil action; or
(3) Extrajudicial abatement.
(a) It must be reasonably and efficiently exercised
(b) Means employed must not be unduly oppressive on individuals, and
(c) No more injury must be done to the property or rights of individuals than is necessary to accomplish the abatement.
(d) No right to compensation if property taken or destroyed is a nuisance.
Action for Abatement
(1) The district health officer shall take care that one or all of the remedies against a public nuisance are availed of.
(2) If a civil action is brought by reason of the maintenance of a public nuisance, such action shall be commenced by the city or municipal mayor.
(3) The district health officer shall determine whether or not abatement, without judicial proceedings, is the best remedy against a public nuisance.
(4) A private person may file an action on account of a public nuisance if it is especially injurious to him.
General rule: An individual has no right of action against a public nuisance. The abatement proceedings must be instituted in the name of the State or its representatives.
Exception: An individual who has suffered some special damage different from that sustained by the general public may maintain a suit in equity for an injunction to abate it, or an action for damages which he has sustained.
The action becomes a tort if an individual has suffered particular harm, in which case the nuisance is treated as a private nuisance with respect to such person.
Requisites of the right of a private individual to abate a public nuisance
(1) That demand be first made upon the owner or possessor of the property to abate the nuisance;
(2) That such demand has been rejected;
(3) That the abatement be approved by the district health officer and executed with the assistance of the local police; and (4) That the value of the destruction does not
exceed P3000.
Rules
UP LAW BOC PROPERTY CIVIL LAW
(1) The right must be exercised only in cases of urgent or extreme necessity. The thing alleged to be a nuisance must be existing at the time that it was alleged to be a nuisance.
(2) A summary abatement must be resorted to within a reasonable time after knowledge of the nuisance is acquired or should have been acquired by the person entitled to abate.
(3) The person who has the right to abate must give reasonable notice of his intention to do so, and allow thereafter a reasonable time to enable the other to abate the nuisance himself.
(4) The means employed must be reasonable and for any unnecessary damage or force, the actor will be liable. The right to abate is not greater than the necessity of the case and is limited to the removal of only so much of the objectionable thing as actually causes the nuisance.
(5) The property must not be destroyed unless it is absolutely necessary to do so.
F.2. PRIVATE NUISANCE
RemediesThe remedies against a private nuisance are:
(1) A civil action; or
(2) Extrajudicial abatement.
(a) The procedure for extrajudicial abatement of a public nuisance by a private person will also be followed.
(b) The person extrajudicially abating a nuisance liable for damages if:
(i) If he causes unnecessary injury; or (ii) If an alleged nuisance is later
declared by the courts to be not a real nuisance.
Remedies of the property owner
A person whose property is seized or destroyed as a nuisance may resort to the courts to determine whether or not it was in fact a nuisance.
(1) An action for replevin;
(2) To enjoin the sale or destruction of the property;
(3) An action for the proceeds of its sale and damages if it has been sold; or
(4) To enjoin private parties from proceeding to abate a supposed nuisance.
XI. Modes of Acquiring Ownership
(1) Occupation
(2) By operation of Law (3) Donation
(4) Tradition
(5) Intellectual Property (6) Prescription
(7) Succession
Mode is a specific cause which produces dominion and other real rights as a result of the co-existence of special status of things, capacity and intention of persons and fulfillment of the requisites of law.
Title is every juridical right which gives a means to the acquisition of real rights but in itself is insufficient to produce them.
It is not by contract but by delivery that the ownership of property is transferred (Non nudis pactis, dominia rerum transferentur).
Contracts only constitute titles or rights to transfer or acquisition of ownership, while delivery is the mode of accomplishing the same.
Mode Title
Directly and
immediately
produces a real right.
Serves merely to give the occasion for its acquisition or existence.
Cause Means
Proximate cause Remote cause
Mode Title Essence of the right,
which is to be created or transmitted.
Means whereby that
“essence” is
transmitted.
A. OCCUPATION
Note: Ownership of land cannot be acquired by