Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Grande vs. CA
Grande vs. CA
Grande vs. CA
SUMMARY: Owners of a parcel of land filed a suit The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the
for quieting of title and recovery of possession over Calalungs and upheld the decision of the Court of
a portion of property that was added to the original Appeals.
parcel of land via accretion. The defendants claim
ownership by acquisitive prescription, being in The Supreme Court acknowledged that by
open, continuous and undisturbed possession of Article 457 of the New Civil Code and Article 366
the property for over 30 years prior to the filing of of the Old Civil Code, the Grandes are the owners
this case. of the alluvial property. However, this does not
operate to automatically include the alluvial
DOCTRINE: Alluvial deposits become part of the property under OCT No. 2892. While ownership is
property to which it becomes attached, and governed by the Civil Code, imprescriptibility of
ownership of the alluvial portion belongs to the registered land is provided in the registration law.
owner of the attached property. However, this land As the Grandes never sought to have the alluvial
is not automatically covered by the Torrens title of property titled, it is considered unregistered land.
the land owned prior to the accretion, and is
considered unregistered land, making it The Supreme Court upheld the findings of
susceptible to acquisitive prescription. the Court of Appeals on the possession of the
Calalungs of the property since 1933-1934,
FACTS: openly, continuously and adversely, under a claim
of ownership up to the filing of the action in 1958.
Petitioners Ignacio, Eulogia, Alfonso, The Court pointed out that it is the provisions of Act
Eulalia, and Sofia Grande filed a suit for quieting of No. 190, particularly Sec. 41, that governs this
title and recovery of possession over a parcel of case, since the provisions of the Old Civil Code
land that came about through alluvial deposits from were not yet in effect. Sec. 41 provides an
the Cagayan River. acquisitive prescriptive period of only ten years,
meaning the Calalung acquired ownership as early
Their original lot, (issued in 1934) provides as 1943-1944.
their northeastern boundary as the Cagayan River.
It is to this boundary that the accretion occurred.
The Grandes allege that they have been in
possession of this property until 1948, when
defendants Domingo and Esteban Calalung
entered the land on a claim of ownership.