CHAPTER 3

Property in Relation to the Person to Whom It Belongs

ARTICLE 419. Property is either of public dominion or of private ownership. (338)

ARTICLE 420. The following things are property of public dominion:

(1) Those intended for public use, such as roads, canals, rivers, torrents, ports and bridges constructed by the State, banks, shores, roadsteads, and others of similar character;

(2) Those which belong to the State, without being for public use, and are intended for some public service or for the development of the national wealth. (339a)

ARTICLE 421. All other property of the State, which is not of the character stated in the preceding article, is patrimonial property. (340a)

ARTICLE 422. Property of public dominion, when no longer intended for public use or for public service, shall form part of the patrimonial property of the State. (341a)

ARTICLE 423. The property of provinces, cities, and municipalities is divided into property for public use and patrimonial property. (343)

ARTICLE 424. Property for public use, in the provinces, cities, and municipalities, consist of the provincial roads, city streets, municipal streets, the squares, fountains, public waters, promenades, and public works for public service paid for by said provinces, cities, or municipalities.

All other property possessed by any of them is patrimonial and shall be governed by this Code, without prejudice to the provisions of special laws. (344a)

ARTICLE 425. Property of private ownership, besides the patrimonial property of the State, provinces, cities, and municipalities, consists of all property belonging to private persons, either individually or collectively. (345a)

Provisions Common to the Three Preceding Chapters

ARTICLE 426. Whenever by provision of the law, or an individual declaration, the expression “immovable things or property,” or “movable things or property,” is used, it shall be deemed to include, respectively, the things enumerated in Chapter 1 and in Chapter 2.

Whenever the word “muebles,” or “furniture,” is used alone, it shall not be deemed to include money, credits, commercial securities, stocks and bonds, jewelry, scientific or artistic collections, books, medals, arms, clothing, horses or carriages and their accessories, grains, liquids and merchandise, or other things which do not have as their principal object the furnishing or ornamenting of a building, except where from the context of the law, or the individual declaration, the contrary clearly appears. (346a)