By will of owners:

Who may constitute the easement:

- Every owner or a tenement or a piece of land may establish the easements he
may deem suitable and best [688]
Note: if an owner constitutes an easement over his own property and
makes such easement available to the general public, said owner may not
arbitrarily discriminate against certain persons by not letting them use the
easement.
Rules:
1. If the land or tenement is in usufruct, the owner may impose any servitude
without the consent of the usufructuary, provided they will not injure the right of
the usufruct. (689)
2. If the naked ownership of a tenement or piece of land belongs to one person and
the beneficial ownership belongs to another,
Both owners must consent to constitute a perpetual voluntary easement
3. If the land or tenement is co-owned and undivided, all co-owners must consent to
constitute an easement:
a. Consent given by some only = must be held in abeyance until the last one
of all the co-owners shall have expressed his conformity. (691)
b. But the consent given by one of the co-owners separately from the others
shall bind the grantor and his successors not to prevent the exercise of the
right granted.
Consent continuing:
Once a co-owner has given his consent to the imposition of a
servitude, it is not necessary for him to give a new consent
when the other co-owners later give the consent;
Rights and Obligations of Voluntary Easement
1. The rights of the Dominant estate and obligations of the Servient estate
shall be determined by:
a. The title constituting the easement (692)
b. Possession of an easement, if it was acquired by prescription in
proper cases (692)
c. In default of the first two, such provisions of the Civil Code
(particularly on legal easements) as are applicable thereto (692)
2. Abandonment. If the owner of the servient estate should have bound
himself, upon the establishment of the easement, to bear the cost of the
work required for the use and preservation thereof, he may free himself
from this obligation by renouncing his property to the owner of the
dominant estate.
By legal easements:
1. Easements imposed by law have for their object either public use or the
interest of private persons (634)
2. All matters concerning easements established for public or communal
use shall be governed by the special laws and regulations related to
them and in the absence thereof, the provisions of this Title. (635)

3. Easements established by law for private persons/private use shall be

governed by the provisions of this Title (without prejudice to general or
local laws and ordinances for general welfare)
These easements may be modified by the agreement of interested
parties, whenever the law does not prohibit it or injury is suffered
by a third person.
By prescription
Continuous and apparent easements may be acquired by:
1. Virtue of a title (620)
a. Title means a juridical act or provision sufficient to create the
encumbrance either mortis causa or inter vivos
2. Prescription of 10 years (620) The time of possession shall be computed
through:
a. Positive easements: from the day on which the owner of the
dominant estate, or the person who may have made use of the
easement, commenced to exercise it upon the servient estate
b. In negative easements: from the day on which the owner of the
dominant estate forbade, by an instrument acknowledged before a
notary public, the owner of the servient estate, from executing an
act which would be lawful without the easement (621)
To warrant prescription: possession must be adverse and
not by mere tolerance of the owner of the property

Tolentino: a negative easement = non-apparent easement

but: according to 622 ( continuous non-apparent easements, and
discontinuous ones, whether apparent or not, may be acquired
only by virtue of a title)
Thus, it should not be able to be acquired by prescription but 621
provides for the computation of its prescriptive period.
Some writers believe that this second part of the article should be
considered not written
Effort to reconcile it: GR: non-prescriptible and the exception is when
some conditions concur: such as the formal act of the dominant owner,
the ambiguity of the possession of the easement disappears and
prescription becomes possible
o Other theory: negative easements can be apparent, thus can be
acquired by prescription
o Digeo and Manresa: negative servitudes which are a result of positive
servitudes

EXTINGUISHMENT
Easements are extinguished by:
1. By merger in the same person of the ownership of the dominant and servient
estates (631)

2.

3.

4.
5.

6.

a. But alienation of dominant and servient estates to different persons is

not one of the grounds for the extinguishment of the easement
b. Easement is not extinguished when the owner of the dominant estate
becomes merely a co-owner of the servient estate
i. Why? Because there are still other persons who may be
prohibited or restricted in their use of the servient estate they coown due to the encumbrance imposed by the dominant estate.
ii. What if the co-owner of dominant estate and owner of servient
estate?
By non-user for ten years (631)
a. With respect to discontinuous easements, this period shall be computed
from the day on which they ceased to be used,
b. With respect to continuous easements, from the day on which an act
contrary to the same took place
Either or both estates fall into such condition that the easement cannot be
used
a. But it shall revive the subsequent condition of the estates or either of
them should again permit its use, unless:
i. When the use becomes possible: sufficient time for prescription
has elapsed (10 years)
Expiration of the term or the fulfillment of the condition, if easement is
temporary or conditional
Renunciation of the owner of the dominant estate
a. Renunciation of the owner of servient pursuant to 693 constitutes a
merger
b. Express renunciation is required// must be specific, clear, and expressed
Redemption agreed upon between the owners of the dominant and servient
estates

Other causes (sir might ask this)

1. Abandonment of the servient tenement
2. Eminent domain

General Rules:
1. Nulli res sua servi: no one can have a servitude over ones own property
2. Servitus in faciendo consistere nequit: a servitude cannot consist in doing:
a. Although some easements seem to impose a positive prestation upon
the owner of the servient estate, in reality, the primary obligation is still
negative
3. Servitus servitutes esse non potes: there can be no servitude over another
servitude

4. A servitude must be excercised civilitierin a way least burden some to the

owner of the land
5. A servitude must have a perpetual clause
Relevance of Classifications?
1. Determines what easements can be acquired by prescription
a. Continuous and apparent easements may be acquired by a prescription
of 10 years
2. Determines what easements can be acquired by title
a. Continuous and nonapparent easements, and discontinuous ones can
only be acquired by virtue of a title
b. Existence of an apparent sign between two estates, established or
maintained by the owner of both, shall be considered as a title in order
that the easement may continue actively or passively unless:
i. At the time ownership of the two estates is divided, the contrary
should be provided in the title of conveyance of either of them; or
ii. The sign should be removed before the execution of the deed.
3. Determines how to compute for the prescriptive periods
a. Positive easements --> from the day the owner of D first made use of
the easement or commenced to exercise it upon the servient estate
b. Negative easements --> from the day owner of D forbade (by an
instrument acknowledged before a notary public), the owner of the
servient estate from executing an act which would otherwise be lawful
without the easement