GR L 4012; (March, 1908) (Digest)
G.R. No. L-4012
MAXIMO CORTES Y PROSPERO, petitioner-appellant, vs. THE CITY OF MANILA, respondent-appellee.
March 25, 1908
FACTS:
Maximo Cortes y Prospero applied for the registration of a parcel of land in Binondo, Manila, with an area of 1,172.21 square meters, including buildings thereon, which he acquired by purchase in 1894. The City of Manila opposed the application, alleging errors in the plan and technical description, specifically claiming that an excess area of 33.40 square meters was part of the Meisic Creek, a public waterway, and thus belonged to the City. The City sought to deny registration of this specific portion. The lower court sustained the City’s opposition, ordering the registration of Cortes’ original lot but excluding the disputed 33.40 square meter portion. Cortes appealed, asserting his right to the entire area, including the disputed part, which he claimed was formed by alluvion and over which he had exercised acts of ownership by planting shrubs.
ISSUE:
Whether the 33.40 square meter portion of land, gradually formed by alluvion from the Meisic Creek, belongs to Maximo Cortes y Prospero by right of accretion or to the City of Manila as public land.
RULING:
The Supreme Court reversed the decision of the lower court. The Court ruled that the 33.40 square meter portion of land, having been gradually formed by alluvion as a result of the current in the Meisic Creek, rightfully belongs to Maximo Cortes y Prospero by virtue of the right of accretion. The Court cited Article 84 of the Law of Waters (1866) and Article 366 of the Civil Code, both of which provide that accretions gradually received by the banks of rivers from the effects of currents belong to the owners of the estates bordering thereon.
The Court found no evidence that the addition to the property was artificially made by the owner. It emphasized that such latent, incessant, and spontaneous increases caused by nature’s deposition of sediment belong to the riparian owner. This right of accretion is a just compensation for the risks and damages riparian owners face from the destructive force of water. Thus, the Court ordered that the entire land, including the portion added by accretion up to the water line of the Meisic River, be recorded in the registry of property in favor of Maximo Cortes y Prospero.