Spanish Civil Code

Laws shall be binding in the Peninsula, the adjacent Islands, the Canaries, and African territory, subject to Peninsular legislation, twenty days after their promulgation, if it is not otherwise provided in them.

• The promulgation is understood to be made upon the day of the termination of the insertion of the law in the (Official) Gazette.

Ignorance of the law does not excuse from compliance with the same.

Laws shall not have a retroactive effect, unless the contrary is provided in them.

Acts executed against provisions of law are null, except in the cases in which the same law orders their validity.

• Rights conceded by the laws may be renounced, provided they are not contrary to public interest or order or prejudicial to a third person.

Laws are abrogated only by other subsequent laws, and the disuse or any custom or practice to the contrary shall not prevail against their observance.

Any tribunal which refuses to give sentence on the pretext of silence, obscurity, or insufficiency of the laws shall incur responsibility therefor.

• When there is no law exactly applicable to the point in controversy, the custom of the place shall be applied, and, in default thereof, the general principles of law.

If, in the laws, months, days or nights are referred to, it will be understood that months have thirty days, days twenty four hours, and nights from the setting to the rising of the sun.

• If the months are designated by their names, the number of days which they respectively contain shall be computed.

Penal laws, police laws, and those of public security are binding on all those who reside in Spanish territory.

Laws relating to family rights and obligations, or to the status, condition, and legal capacity of persons are binding on Spaniards, even when residing in a foreign country.

Personal property is subject to the laws of the nation of the owner; real property to the laws of the country in which it is situated.

• Nevertheless, legal and testamentary successions, in respect to the order of succeeding as well as to the amount of the successional rights and the intrinsic validity of their provisions shall be regulated by the laws of the nation of the person whose succession is considered, whatever may be the nature of the property and the country in which it may be found.

• Biscayanes, although they may reside in towns, shall continue to submit, in respect to the property they possess in the level lands, to law 15, title 20 of the Fuero of Vizcaya.

The forms and solemnities of contracts, wills, and other public instruments are governed by the laws of the country in which they are executed.

• When such instruments are authorized by diplomatic or consular officials of Spain in a foreign land, the solemnities required for their execution by Spanish laws shall be observed.

• Notwithstanding the provisions of this and the preceding article, prohibitive laws concerning persons, their acts or property, and those which have for their object the public order and good morals, shall ot become ineffective by laws or sentences dictated or by regulations or conventions agreed upon in a foreign country.

Provisions under this title in as far as they determine the effects of the laws, statutes, and general rules for their application are binding in every province of the Kingdom. The provisions contained in title 4, book I, are similarly binding.

• In all other matters, the provinces and territories, in which local law (derecho foral) is in force, shall preserve it, for the present, in its entirety without suffering any alteration in its existing juridical regime, whether written or customary, by the publication of this Code which shall be enforced only as supplementary law in default of that which may be considered as such supplementary law by their special laws.

Notwithstanding the provisions of the preceding article, this Code shall go into effect in Aragon and in the Balearic Islands at the same time as in the provinces, not under local law, in so far as it may not oppose those provisions, local or customary, which are actually in force.

In accordance with the provision of art. 12, what is established in arts. 9. 10, and n, respecting persons, acts, and property of Spaniards in a foreign land, and that of foreigners in Spain, is applicable to persons, acts, and property of Spaniards in territories or provinces having different civil legislation.

Family rights and obligations, those relating to the status, condition, and legal capacity of persons, and those of testamentary or intestate succession, declared in this Code, are applicable:

• 1

  To persons born in common law (derecho comun) provinces or territories of parents subject to local law, if the latter, during the minority of the children, or the same children within the year following their majority or emancipation, declare it is their will to subject themselves to the Civil Code.

• 2

  To the children of a father, and, if he does not exist or is unknown, of the mother belonging to provinces or territories subject to common law, even when born in provinces or territories where local law is in force.

• 3

  To those who, proceeding from provinces or territories having local law, should have gained a residence in places subject to common law.

• For the effects of this article, a residence will be gained; by a residence of ten years in provinces or territories subject to common law, unless the interested party, before the termination of this period, manifests his will to the contrary; or by a residence of two years, whenever the interested party manifests this to be his will.

• Both manifestations should be made before a municipal judge for the corresponding inscription in the Civil Registry.

• In every case, the wife shall follow the condition of the husband; and the children, not emancipated, that of their father, and, in his default, that of their mother.

• The provisions of this article are of reciprocal application to Spanish provinces and territories having different civil legislation.

In matters which are governed by special laws, the deficiency thereof shall be supplied by the provisions of this Code.

• Article 17

  The following are Spaniards:

  • 1

    Persons born in Spanish territory.

  • 2

    Children of a Spanish father or mother, although they may have been born

    out of Spain.

  • 3

    Foreigners who may have obtained letters of naturalization.

  • 4

    Those who, without them, may have gained a residence in any place in the

    Monarchy.

• Article 18

  Children, while they remain under the parental power (patria potestas), have the nationality of their parents.

  • In order that those born of foreign parents in Spanish territory may enjoy the benefits granted to them by no. I of art. 17, it shall be an indispensable requisite that the parents declare, in the manner and before the officials specified in art. 19, that they choose, in the name of their children, Spanish nationality, renouncing any other.

• Article 19

  Children of a foreigner, born in Spanish dominion, should declare, within the year following their majority or emancipation, if they desire to enjoy the quality of Spaniards which art. 17 concedes to them.

  • Those who are in the Kingdom shall make this declaration before the official in charge of the Civil Registry of the town in which they reside; those who reside in a foreign land, before one of the consular or diplomatic agents of the Spanish government; and those who are in a country in which the government has no agent shall address the Spanish Minister of State.

• Article 20

  The quality of a Spaniard is lost by acquiring naturalization in a foreign country, or by accepting employment from another government, or by entering the armed service of a foreign power without permission of the King.

• Article 21

  A Spaniard who loses this quality by acquiring naturalization in a foreign country can recover it, upon returning to the Kingdom, by declaring before an official in charge of the Civil Registry of the domicil which he elects that such is his will, in order that the official may make the corresponding inscription therein, and by renouncing the protection of the flag of such country.

• Article 22

  A married woman follows the condition and nationality of her husband.

  • A Spanish woman who marries a foreigner, shall, upon dissolution of the marriage, recover Spanish nationality by fulfilling the requisites expressed in the previous article.

• Article 23

  Any Spaniard, who loses this quality by accepting employment of any other government, or by entering the armed service of a foreign power without the King's permission, shall not recover Spanish nationality without previously obtaining the royal authorization.

• Article 24

  Any person, born in a foreign country of a Spanish father or mother, who may have lost Spanish nationality on account of the parents having lost it, may also recover it by complying with the conditions prescribed by art. 19.

• Article 25

  In order that foreigners who have obtained letters of naturalization or gained a residence in any place in the Monarchy may enjoy Spanish nationality, they have to previously renounce their former nationality, swear to the Constitution of the Monarchy, and inscribe themselves as Spaniards in the Civil Registry.

• Article 26

  Spaniards who change their domicil to a foreign country, where they may be considered as natives without other conditions than that of residence in it, in order to preserve their Spanish nationality, shall be required to manifest that such is their will before the Spanish diplomatic or consular agent who shall inscribe them in the Registry of Spanish residents, as well as their consorts, if they are married, and any children which they may have.

• Article 27

  Foreigners enjoy in Spain the rights which the civil laws concede to Spaniards with the exception of what is provided in art. 2 of the Constitution of the State or in international treaties.

• Article 28

  Corporations, institutions, and associations recognized by law and domiciled in Spain shall enjoy Spanish nationality, provided they possess the character of juridical persons in accordance with the provisions of the present Code.

  • Associations domiciled in a foreign land shall have in Spain the consideration and rights which treaties or special laws may determine.

• Chapter First  Natural Persons
  • Article 29

    Birth determines personality; but the conceived child is considered as born for all the effects favorable to it, provided that it be born with the conditions which are expressed in the following article.

  • Article 30

    For civil effects, the foetus shall only be considered as born when it may have a human figure and shall live twenty four hours entirely separated from the mother (seno materno).

  • Article 31

    Priority of birth, in case of double parturition, gives to the first born the rights which the law recognizes in primogeniture.

  • Article 32

    Civil personality is extinguished by the death of a person.

    • Minority, insanity or imbecility, state of being deaf and dumb, prodigality,

      and civil interdiction are only restrictions upon juridical personality.

    • Those who are in any of these conditions are susceptible of rights and even obligations when such rights or obligations arise from the facts or the relations between the property of the incapacitated and a third person.

  • Article 33

    If there is doubt, between two or more persons called to succeed

    each other, which of them has died first, he, who alleges the prior death

    of one or the other, shall be obliged to prove it; in default of proof,

    it will be presumed that they both died at the same time, and the transmission

    of rights from one to the other will not take place.

  • Article 34

    In respect to the presumption of the death of an absent person and its effects, the provisions of title 8 of this book shall rule.

• Chapter Second  Juridical Persons
  • Article 35

    The following are juridical persons:

    • 1

      Corporations, associations, and institutions of public interest recognized by law.

      • Their personality begins from the very moment in which, in accordance with law, they shall have become validly constituted.

    • 2

      Associations of private interests, whether they may be civil, mercantile or industrial, to which the law concedes proper personality, independent of that of each one of the associates.

  • Article 36

    The associations, to which no. 2 of the previous article refers, shall be governed by the provisions relative to the contract of association, according to the nature of the same.

  • Article 37

    The civil capacity of corporations shall be regulated by the laws which have created or recognized them, those of associations by their statutes; and those of institutions by the rules of their establishment, duly approved by administrative authority, when such requirement is necessary.

  • Article 38

    Juridical persons can acquire and possess property of every class, as well as contract obligations and enforce civil and criminal actions, in conformity with the laws and rules of their constitution.

    • The Church shall be governed, in this particular, by what has been agreed between both powers; and the establishments of instruction and beneficence by the provisions of the special laws.

  • Article 39

    When corporations, associations, and institutions have ceased to

    act, because of the expiration of the periods during which they should legally

    exist, or by having realized the ends for which they were constituted, or

    because it has become impossible to apply to such ends the activity and the means at their disposal, their

    property shall receive the application which the laws or their statutes

    or the clauses of their foundation have assigned to them in anticipation

    of such cases.

    • When nothing has been previously established, the property shall be applied

      to the realization of similar purposes in the interests of the region, province,

      or municipal district which should have principally reaped the benefits

      of the extinguished institutions.

• Article 40

  For the enforcement of the rights and the fulfillment of civil obligations, the domicil of natural persons is the place

  of their usual residence; and, in certain cases, that determined by the Law of Civil Procedure.

  • The domicil of diplomatic residents, who by reason of their duties in a foreign

    land enjoy the rights of extra-territoriality, shall be the last domicil

    which they had when in Spanish territory.

• Article 41

  When neither the law which has created or recognized

  them, nor the statutes or rules of their foundation shall fix the domicil

  of juridical persons, it shall be understood that they have it at the place

  where their legal representation is established or where they exercise the

  principal functions for which they were established.

• Chapter First  General Provision
  • Section First  Forms of Marriage
    • Article 42

      The law recognizes two forms of marriage, the canonical, which all who profess the Catholic religion should contract, and the civil, which shall be celebrated in the manner provided in this Code.

  • Section Second  Provisions Common to Boths Forms of Marriage
    • Article 43

      Future espousals do not cause obligation to contract marriage. No tribunal shall entertain a complaint in which their fulfillment is claimed.

    • Article 44

      When the promise has been made in a public or private document by a person of age, or by a minor, assisted by the person whose consent is necessary in order to celebrate the marriage, or when the banns have been published, the one who refuses to marry, without just cause, shall be obliged to indemnify the other party for the expenses which he or she may have incurred by reason of the promised marriage.

      • An action in order to recover the indemnity for expenses, to which the previous paragraph refers, can be exercised only within a year, counted from the day of the refusal to celebrate the marriage.

    • Article 45

      Marriage is forbidden:

      • 1

        To the minor who has not obtained consent and to a person of age who has not asked the advice of the persons to whom it pertains to authorize one or the other, in the cases provided for by law.

      • 2

        To the widow, during the three hundred and one days following the death of her husband, or before child birth if she should have been left pregnant, and to the woman whose marriage may have been declared null, under the same circumstances and limitations, to be counted from her legal separation.

      • 3

        To the guardian and his or her descendants with respect to persons whom such guardian may have or may have had under charge, until the guardianship has terminated and the accounts of the same have been approved, except in the cases where the father of the person, subject to guardianship, has authorized the marriage in a will or in a public instrument.

    • Article 46

      The consent, referred to in no. 1 of the preceding article, ought to be granted to the legitimate children by the father; in his default, or where he is impeded, the power to grant it devolves, in this order; upon the mother, the paternal and maternal grandparents, and, in default of all of them, upon the family council.

      • Recognized natural children or children legitimated by royal concession should ask such consent of those who have recognized or legitimated them, of their ascendants, and of the family council, in the order stated in the preceding paragraph.

      • Adopted children shall ask such consent of the adopting father, and, in his default, of the persons of the natural family upon whom it may devolve.

      • Other illegitimate children should obtain the consent of their mother, when she is lawfully known, that of the maternal grandparents, in similar cases, and, in default of the above, that of the family council.

      • It pertains to the heads of foundling institutions to give consent for marriage to those educated therein.

    • Article 47

      Children of age are obliged to ask the advice of the father, and, in his default, of the mother. If they should not have obtained it, or it should he unfavorable, the marriage cannot be celebrated until three months after the petition is made.

    • Article 48

      The consent and the favorable advice for the celebration of a

      marriage should be proven, upon the latter being asked, by a document

      authorized by a civil or ecclesiastical Notary or the Municipal Judge

      of the petitioner's domicil.

      • When the consent has been asked in vain, the lapse of time, to which the

        preceding article refers, shall be proven in the same manner.

    • Article 49

      None of those called to give their consent or advice

      is obliged to make known the reasons for granting or denying it, nor is

      there any remedy against such dissent.

    • Article 50

      When, notwithstanding the prohibition of art. 45, the persons comprehended within it get married, their marriage shall be valid; but the contracting parties, without prejudice to the provisions of the Penal Code, shall remain subject to the following rules:

      • 1

        The marriage shall be understood as contracted with the absolute separation of property, and each consort shall retain the dominion and administration of that which belong to him or her, making as his or her own all the fruits, although with the obligation of proportionally contributing to the support of the marriage charges.

      • 2

        Neither one of the consorts shall receive from the other anything by donation or by will.

        • The provisions of the two preceding rules shall not apply in the cases of no. 2 of art. 45, when dispensation has been obtained.

      • 3

        When one of the consorts is a minor, not emancipated, he shall not receive the administration of his property until he attains majority.

        • In the meantime, he shall only have a right to support which shall not exceed the net income from his property.

      • 4

        In the cases of no. 3 of art. 45, the guardian shall, besides, lose the administration of the property of the ward during her minority.

    • Article 51

      Civil or canonical marriage shall produce no civil effects, when either one of the consorts is already lawfully married.

    • Article 52

      Matrimony is dissolved by the death of one of the consorts.

  • Section Third  Proof of Marriage
    • Article 53

      Marriages celebrated before this Code went into effect shall be

      proven in the manner established by the former laws. Those contracted

      afterwards shall be proven only by the certification of the record of the Civil Registry, unless the books

      thereof have not existed or have disappeared or a question is pending

      before the courts, in which cases all kinds of proof are admissible.

    • Article 54

      In the cases referred to in paragraph second of the

      previous article, the constant possession of the status of the parents,

      united to the certifications of the births of their children as legitimate

      ones, shall be one of the means of proof of the marriage of the parents,

      if it is not shown that one of the two was bound by another previous marriage.

    • Article 55

      A marriage contracted in a foreign country, where such acts are not subject to a regular or authenticate registration, may be proven by any of the means of proof admitted by law.

  • Section Fourth  Rights and Obligations Between Husband and Wife
    • Article 56

      The consorts are obliged to live together, to be faithful to and mutually help each other.

    • Article 57

      The husband is obliged to protect the wife and the latter to obey the husband.

    • Article 58

      The wife is obliged to follow her husband wherever

      he may establish his residence. The tribunals, nevertheless, may, with

      just cause, exempt her from this obligation when the husband changes his

      residence beyond the seas or to a foreign country.

    • Article 59

      The husband is the administrator of the property of the conjugal

      society, except when stipulated to the contrary, and that provided in

      art. 1384.

      • When he is under eighteen years of age, he cannot administer without consent

        of his father and, in his default, without that of the mother, and, in

        default of both, without that of his guardian.

      • Neither can he appear in a suit in court without the assistance of said

        persons.

      • In no case, until he has attained majority, can the husband, without the

        consent of the persons, mentioned in the preceding paragraph, borrow money,

        burden nor alienate the real property.

    • Article 60

      The husband is the representative of his wife. She cannot, without his permission, appear in a suit by herself or through an attorney.

      • Nevertheless, she does not require such permission to defend herself in a criminal proceeding or for bringing suit or defending herself in suits with her husband, or when she may have obtained habilitation in conformity with what the law of Civil Procedure may provide.

    • Article 61

      Neither can the wife without the permission or power

      of her husband acquire (property) by an onerous or lucrative title, alienate

      her property or bind herself, except in the cases and with the limitation

      established by law.

    • Article 62

      Acts, executed by the wife, contrary to the provisions of the

      preceding articles, are null and void, except when they involve things

      which by their nature are destined for the ordinary consumption of the

      family, in which case, purchases made by the wife shall be valid.

      • Purchases of jewels, furniture and precious objects, made, without the

        permission of the husband, shall only be confirmed when he may have consented

        that his wife should have the use and enjoyment of such objects.

    • Article 63

      The wife, without permission of the husband, can:

      • 1

        Execute a will.

      • 2

        Exercise the rights and fulfill the duties which pertain to her in

        respect to legitimate and recognized natural children whom she may have

        had by another, and in respect to the property of the same.

    • Article 64

      The wife shall share the honors of the husband,

      except those which may be strictly and exclusively personal, and shall

      retain them as long as she does not contract a new marriage.

    • Article 65

      Only the husband and his heirs can claim the nullity of the acts executed by the wife without competent permission or authorization.

    • Article 66

      What is established in this section is understood

      without prejudice to the provisions of the present Code, about absence,

      incapacity, prodigality, and interdiction of the husband.

  • Section Fifth  Effects of Nullity of Marriage and Divorce
    • Article 67

      The civil effects of petitions and decrees about

      the nullity of marriage and about divorce can only be obtained before

      the ordinary tribunals.

    • Article 68

      After the petitions, which are referred to in the

      preceding article, are interposed and admitted, the following provisions

      shall be adopted during the pendency of the suit:

      • 1

        To separate the consorts in every case.

      • 2

        To place the wife under protection in the cases and in the form provided

        by the Law of Civil Procedure.

      • 3

        To place the children under the care of one or both of the consorts,

        as may be proper.

      • 4

        To provide for the support of the wife and the children who do not

        remain under the power of the father.

      • 5

        To decree the necessary measures to prevent the husband, who may have

        given cause for the divorce, or against whom the petition for nullity

        of the marriage has been instituted, from causing injury to the wife in

        the administration of her property.

    • Article 69

      Marriage contracted in good faith produces civil effects, although it may be declared null and void.

      • When good faith has existed on the part of one of the consorts alone,

        it shall produce civil effects only as to this one and the children.

      • Good faith is presumed, if the contrary is not shown. When bad faith has

        existed on the part of both consorts, the marriage shall only produce

        civil effects in respect to the children.

    • Article 70

      When the nullity of the marriage has been finally

      decreed, the sons over three years of age shall remain under the care

      of the father, and the daughters under the care of the mother, if there

      should have been good faith on the part of both consorts.

      • When good faith may have existed on the part of only one of the consorts,

        the children of both sexes shall remain under this one's power and care.

      • When both are guilty of bad faith, the court shall decide as to the disposition

        of the children in the form provided for in paragraph second of no. 2

        of art. 73.

      • The sons and daughters, under three years of age, shall remain under the

        care of the mother, in every case, until they complete this age, unless

        on account of special reasons the sentence has disposed otherwise.

    • Article 71

      The provisions of the first and second paragraphs of

      the preceding article shall not be effective, if the parents, by common

      agreement, shall provide otherwise for the care of the children.

    • Article 72

      The final decree of nullity shall produce, in respect to the property

      of the marriage, the same effects as the dissolution by death; but the

      consort who has acted in bad faith shall have no rights to the profits

      of the conjugal society (gananciales).

      • When both have acted in bad faith, that shown by one shall be a set off against the other.

    • Article 73

      A decree of divorce shall produce the following effects:

      • 1

        The separation of the consorts.

      • 2

        The children to remain or be put under the power and protection of the innocent consort.

        • When both are guilty, a guardian shall be provided for the children in conformity with the provisions of this Code.

        • Nevertheless, when the decree has not provided otherwise, the mother, in every case, shall have in her care the children under three years of age.

        • Upon the death of the innocent consort, the guilty one shall recover the parental power and his or her rights, when the cause which gave origin for the divorce should have been adultery, violence to the person, or grave acts of contumely (injurias graves).

        • When the causes are different, a guardian shall be appointed for the children.

        • The deprivation of the parental power and of its rights shall not exempt the guilty consort from the fulfillment of the obligations which this Code imposes upon him or her in respect to the children.

      • 3

        The guilty consort shall lose all that may have been given or promised him or her by the innocent one or by any other person in consideration for such one; and the innocent consort shall keep all that he has received from the guilty one, being able, besides, to claim forthwith all that may have been promised by the guilty one.

      • 4

        The separation of the property of the conjugal society, and the loss of the administration of that of the wife, if the husband should possess it, and is the one who gave cause for the divorce.

        • The retention by the innocent husband of the administration, if he should have it, of the property of the wife who shall only have the right to be supported.

    • Article 74

      Reconciliation determines the suit for divorce and leaves, without subsequent effects, the decree dictated in respect thereto; but the consorts must give notice of it to the tribunal who has or may have cognizance of the suit.

      • The effects of the decree shall subsist in respect to the children, without

        prejudice to the provision of the preceding article, when it is founded

        on the attempt or connivance of the husband or of the wife to corrupt

        the sons or to prostitute their daughters, in which case, if the sons

        and daughters still continue under the parental power, the tribunals shall

        adopt convenient measures in order to protect them from corruption or

        prostitution.

• Chapter Second  Canonical Marriage
  • Article 75

    The requisites, form, and solemnities for the

    celebration of canonical marriage shall be governed by the provisions of

    the Catholic Church and of the Holy Council of Trent, accepted as laws of

    the Kingdom.

  • Article 76

    Canonical marriage shall produce all the civil effects in respect

    to the persons and property of the consorts and their descendants.

  • Article 77

    A municipal judge or other state official shall be present at the

    act of celebration of the canonical marriage with the sole object of verifying

    the immediate inscription of it in the Civil Registry.

    • For this object, the contracting parties are obliged to give notice in writing

      to the respective Municipal Judge, twenty four hours, at least, before the

      day, hour, and place where the marriage is to be celebrated, incurring, if they do not do so, a fine of

      from five to eighty pesetas.

    • The Municipal Judge shall give a receipt for the notice from the contracting

      parties. Should he decline to give it, he shall incur a fine, which shall

      not be less than twenty nor exceed one hundred pesetas.

    • The celebration of the canonical marriage shall not be proceeded with without

      the presentation of said receipt to the parochial priest.

    • If the marriage is celebrated without the presence of the Municipal Judge

      or his representative , notwithstanding that the contracting parties may

      have advised him of it, the transcription of the certificate of the canonical

      marriage to the Civil Registry shall be done at his expense, besides he shall pay a fine which

      shall not be less than twenty nor exceed one hundred pesetas. In this case,

      the marriage shall produce all its civil effects from the moment of its

      celebration.

    • If the contracting parties should be to blame for not having given notice

      to the Municipal Judge, they can remedy the defect, asking for the inscription

      of the marriage in the Civil Registry.

    • In this case, the marriage shall produce no civil effects, except from its

      inscription.

  • Article 78

    Those who contract canonical marriage in articulo

    mortis shall give notice to the official in charge of the Civil Registry,

    at any time whatever prior to its celebration, and prove, in any manner

    whatever, that they have fulfilled this duty.

    • The penalties imposed upon contracting parties who omit this requisite shall

      not be applicable to the case of marriage in articulo mortis when it is

      shown that it was impossible to give timely notice.

    • In every case, in order that the marriage may produce civil effects from

      the date of its celebration, the sacramental certificate shall be inscribed

      in the Registry within ten days next following.

  • Article 79

    The secret marriage of conscience, celebrated before the church, is not subject to any formality of the civil order, neither

    shall it produce civil effects, except from the moment of its publication

    by virtue of its inscription in the Registry. This marriage, shall, nevertheless,

    produce civil effects from its celebration, if both contracting parties,

    of common accord, shall ask the bishop who may have authorized it for a

    copy of the entry made in the secret Registry of the bishopric, and shall

    directly send it, with the proper secrecy to the Direccion General of the Civil Registry asking for its inscription.

    • For this purpose the Direccion General shall keep a special and secret Registry

      with the necessary precautions that the contents of such inscriptions may

      not be known, until the interested parties ask that they may be given publicity

      by transferring the same to the Municipal Registry of their domicil.

  • Article 80

    The cognizance of suits for nullity and divorce, in case of canonical marriages, belong to the ecclesiastical tribunals.

  • Article 81

    When a suit for divorce or nullity of marriage is commenced before the ecclesiastical tribunal, it belongs to the civil tribunal to dictate, upon the petition of the party interested, the dispositions referred to in art. 68.

  • Article 82

    A final decree for nullity or divorce of canonical

    marriage shall be inscribed in the Civil Registry, and shall be presented

    to the ordinary tribunal in order to ask for its execution as to the part

    relating to civil effects.

• Chapter Third  Civil Marriage
  • Section First  Capacity of Contracting Parties
    • Article 83

      The following cannot contract marriage:

      • 1

        Males, until they have attained the full age of fourteen, and females until they have attained the full age of twelve.

        • Marriage contracted by person under puberty, shall, nevertheless, be ipso facto validated, without the necessity of an express declaration, if a day after having arrived at the legal age of puberty, they should have lived together without having brought suit against its validity, or if the woman should have conceived before the legal age of puberty or before having established such suit.

      • 2

        Those who were not in the full exercise of their reason at the time of contracting marriage.

      • 3

        Those who suffered from physical, absolute or relative impotency for the purposes of generation, prior to the celebration of the marriage, in a patent, perpetual or incurable manner.

      • 4

        Those ordained in sacris and those professed in an approved religious canonical order, bound by a solemn pledge of chastity, except those who may have obtained the corresponding canonical dispensation.

      • 5

        Those that are already lawfully married.

    • Article 84

      Neither can the following contract marriage between themselves:

      • 1

        The ascendants or descendants by legitimate or natural consanguinity or affinity.

      • 2

        Collaterals by legitimate consanguinity up to and including the fourth degree.

      • 3

        Collaterals by legitimate affinity up to and including the fourth degree.

      • 4

        Collaterals by natural consanguinity or affinity up to and including the second degree.

      • 5

        The adopting father and mother and the adopted; the latter and the surviving consort of the adopters, and the adopters and the surviving consort of the adopted.

      • 6

        The legitimate descendants of the adopter with the adopted, while the relation of adoption lasts.

      • 7

        Adulterers who have been condemned by a final sentence.

        • Those who have been condemned as authors or author and accomplice of the death of the consort of any of the parties.

    • Article 85

      The govennent, with just cause, can, on petition of a

      party, dispense the inpediment included in no. 2 of art. 45; the third

      and fourth degrees of collateral relationship by legitimate consanguinity;

      the impediments growing out of legitimate or natural affinity between

      collaterals, and those referring to the descendants of the adopter.

  • Section Second  Celebration of Marriage
    • Article 86

      Those who, in conformity with art. 42, desire to contract marriage in the manner detemined in this Code, shall present to the Municipal Judge of their domicil a declaration signed by both contracting parties, in which appears:

      • 1

        The names, surnames, ages, professions, domicils or residences of the contracting parties.

      • 2

        The names, surnames, professions, domicils or residences of the parents.

      • Certificates of birth and of the status of the contracting parties, the consent or advice, if required, and dispensations, when necessary, shall accompany this declaration."

    • Article 87

      Marriages shall be celebrated personally or by a

      proxy to whom a special power has been granted; but the presence of the

      contracting party who is domiciled or resides in the district of the Judge

      who is to authorize the marriage shall always be necessary.

      • The name of the person with whom the marriage is to be celebrated shall

        be expressed in the special power, and such power shall be valid if, before

        its celebration, the person so authorized should not have been notified

        in an authentic form of the revocation of the power.

    • Article 88

      When the Municipal Judge, selected for the celebration of the marriage, should not be at the time (of the district) of two declarations shall be presented, one contracting party, expressing which of the two Judges they have chosen for the celebrations of the marriage, and, in both courts, the proceedings which are established in the following articles shall be observed.

    • Article 89

      After the petition has been ratified by both parties, the Municipal Judge shall order that edicts or proclamations shall be posted for fifteen days announcing the pretention with all the details, indicated in art. 86 and requiring those who have information of any impediment thereto to denounce it.

      • Similar edicts shall be sent to the Municipal Judges of the towns in which

        the interested parties may have lived or been domiciled, during the last

        two years, requiring that they be posted in the place of the holding of

        their public court for the period of fifteen days, and that, after the

        lapse of this time, they should be returned with a certification of said

        requisite have been fulfilled and whether or not any impediment has been

        denounced.

    • Article 90

      Soldiers in active service who may intend to contract marriage

      shall be dispensed from publishing such edicts outside of the place where

      they reside, if they present certificates that they are unmarried, issued

      by the commanding officer of the military body to which they belong.

    • Article 91

      When the interested parties are foreigners, and have

      not resided two years in Spain, they shall prove, by a certificate in

      due form given by competent authority, that in the territory where they

      have had their domicil or residence, during the last two years, publication

      has been made of the marriage which they intend to contract with all the

      solemnities which are required in said place.

    • Article 92

      In all other cases, the government can dispense with the publication of the banns on account of serious causes, properly approved.

    • Article 93

      Notwithstanding what is provided in the preceding articles, the Municipal Judge shall authorize the marriage of a person

      who is in imminent danger of death, whether he is domiciled in the place

      or is a transient.

      • This marriage shall be considered as conditional, until the previous single

        status of the contracting parties be legally established.

    • Article 94

      Paymasters of war vessels and captains of merchantmen shall authorize

      marriages which are celebrated on board (ship) in imminent danger of death.

      • These marriages shall also be considered as conditional.

    • Article 95

      The provision of the preceding article is applicable to the commanders

      of military bodies in the field in default of a municipal judge, respecting

      members of the same who intend to celebrated marriage, in articulo mortis.

    • Article 96

      When the fifteen days, which are referred to in art. 89, have elapsed without any impediment having been denounced, and

      the Municipal Judge. has no knowledge of any such, he shall proceed with

      the celebration of the marriage in the manner and form prescribed in the

      Code.

      • When a year elapses from the publication of the banns without the marriage

        taking place, the marriage shall not be celebrated without a new publication.

    • Article 97

      When, before the celebration of the marriage, any

      person should appear opposing it and alleging a lawful impediment, or

      the Municipal Judge should have knownedge of any such, he shall suspend

      the celebration of the marriage, until the truth or falseness of the impediment

      is established in a final sentence.

    • Article 98

      All those who have knowledge of a pretention of a marriage are obliged to denounce any impediment known to them.

      • Such denouncement having been made, it shall be transmitted to the Public

        Attorney, who, if he finds any legal foundation therefor, shall establish

        opposition to the marriage.

      • Only private parties who may have an interest in preventing the marriage

        shall by themselves formalize the opposition and in both cases such opposition

        shall be followed in conformity with the Law of Civil Procedure, giving

        it the form of an incidental question (tramitacion de los incidences).

    • Article 99

      When, by a final sentence, the alleged impediments are declared false, he, who taking them as a basis formalized in his name

      the opposition to the marriage, remains obliged to make indemnity for

      damages and injuries.

    • Article 100

      The marriage shall be celebrated by the contracting parties appearing

      before the Municipal Judge, or one of them and the person to whom the

      absentee may have granted a special power to represent him, accompanied

      by two witnesses of lawful age and without legal impediments.

      • Forthwith, the Municipal Judge, after reading arts. 56 and 57 of this

        Code, shall ask each one of the contracting parties if they persist in

        the resolution to celebrate the marriage, and if he must actually perform

        it; and, if both reply affirmatively, he shall drawn up the act of marriage

        with all the circumstances necessary to make it appear that the requirements,

        provided in this section, have been complied with.

      • The act shall be signed by the Judge, the contracting parties, the witnesses

        and the Secretary (clerk) of the Court.

      • Consuls and vice-consuls shall exercise the functions of municipal judges

        in marriages of Spaniards, celebrated in foreign countries.

  • Section Third  Nullity of Marriage
    • Article 101

      The following marriages are null:

      • 1

        Those celebrated between persons to whom arts. 83 and 84 refer, except in cases of dispensation.

      • 2

        Those contracted by error as to the person, or by compulsion or serious fear which avoids the consent.

      • 3

        Those contracted by the abductor with the abducted, while the latter is in the former's power.

      • 4

        Those which are celebrated without the intervention of a competent municipal judge or of the person who must authorize it in his place, and without the presence of the witnesses, required by art. 100.

    • Article 102

      The action to ask for the nullity of the marriage belongs to the consorts, to the Public Attorney, and to any persons whatever who may have interest in it.

      • The cases of abduction, error, force or fear are excepted, in which cases

        only the consort, who may have suffered from it, can exercise it; and

        that of impotency, in which the action belongs to one or the other consort

        and to the persons who may have an interest in the nullity.

      • The action lapses, and the marriage shall be confirmed, in their respective

        cases, when the consorts having lived together during six month after

        the error has disappeared or after the force or the cause of the fear

        has ceased, or if, after the abducted party having recovered liberty,

        he or she should not have interposed a demand for nullity during said

        term.

    • Article 103

      The civil tribunals shall take cognizance of the suits

      for nullity of marriages, celebrated in conformity with the provisions

      of this chapter, shall adopt the measures, indicated in art. 68, and shall

      give sentence definitely.

  • Section Fourth  Divorce
    • Article 104

      Divorce only produces the suspension of the life in common of the consorts.

    • Article 105

      The legitimate causes for divorce are:

      • 1

        Adultery on the part of the wife, in every case, and on the part of the husband, when public scandal or disgrace of the wife results from it.

      • 2

        Personal violence actually inflicted or grave acts of contumely (injurias graves).

      • 3

        Violence exercised by the husband over the wife in order to oblige her to change her religion.

      • 4

        The proposal of the husband to prostitute his wife.

      • 5

        The atempts of the husband or wife to corrupt their sons or to prostitute their daughters, and the connivance in their corruption or prostitution.

      • 6

        The condemnation of a consort to cadena perpetua (1) or to reclusion perpetua (2).

    • Article 106

      Only the innocent consort can petition for divorce.

    • Article 107

      The provision of art. 103 shall be applicable to suits for divorce and their incidents.

• Chapter First  Legitimate Children
  • Article 108

    Children, born after one hundred and eighty days next following the celebration of marriage and before three hundred

    days next following its dissolution or the separation of the consorts, shall

    be presumed legitimate children.

    • Against this presumption no other proof shall be admitted than that of the

      physical impossibility of the husband to have had access to his wife, during

      the first one hundred and twenty days of these three hundred next preceding

      the birth of the child.

  • Article 109

    A child shall be presumed to be legitimate, even

    though the mother should have declared against its legitimacy, or should

    have been condemned as an adulteress.

  • Article 110

    The child, born within one hundred and eighty days

    next following the celebration of a marriage, shall be presumed to be legitimate,

    if any of the following circumstances exist:

    • 1

      If the husband knew, previously to the marriage, that his wife was pregnant.

    • 2

      If he, being present, has consented that in the record of the birth his name should be given to the child, delivered by his wife.

    • 3

      If he has expressly or tacitly recognized the child as his own.

  • Article 111

    The husband or his heirs can disavow the legitimacy

    of the child, born after the expiration of three hundred days next following

    the dissolution of the marriage or the actual legal separation of the consorts;

    but both the son and the mother shall also have a right to verify, in such

    cases, the paternity of the husband.

  • Article 112

    The heirs can contest the legitimacy of the child only in the following cases:

    • 1

      If the husband has died before the expiration of the term fixed for instituting his action in court.

    • 2

      If he dies after presenting the complaint and without having withdrawn it.

    • 3

      If the child was born after the death of the husband.

  • Article 113

    The action to contest the legitimacy of the child

    shall be instituted within two months next following the inscription of

    the birth in the Registry, should the husband be in the same place, or,

    in certain cases, (if) any one of his heirs (should be present).

    • When they are absent, the term shall be three months if they reside in Spain,

      and six (months) if without Spain. When the birth of the child has been

      concealed, the term shall commence to be counted from the date of the discovery

      of the fraud.

  • Article 114

    Legitimate children have the right:

    • 1

      To bear the family names of the father and the mother.

    • 2

      To receive support from the same, from their ascendants, and, in certain cases, from his brothers in accordance with art. 143.

    • 3

      To legitime the and other successional rights recognized in them by this Code.

• Chapter Second  Proofs of the Filiation of Legitimate Children
  • Article 115

    The filiation of legitimate children is proven

    by the record of the birth, inscribed in the Civil Registry, or by an authentic

    instrument, or a final sentence in the cases to which arts. 110 to 113 of

    the preceding chapter refer.

  • Article 116

    In default of the documents, stated in the preceding

    article, filiation shall be proven by the constant posession of the status

    of a legitimate child.

  • Article 117

    In default of the records of birth, authentic documents, a final sentence, or posession of status, legitimate filiation may be proven by any other means, provided there is a commencement of proof in writing coming from both parents, either conjointly or severally.

  • Article 118

    The action to claim its legitimacy belongs to the child during all

    his life and shall be transmitted to its heirs, should he die during minority

    or be a lunatic. In such cases, the heirs shall have a term of five years

    for instituting the action.

    • The action already instituted by the child is transmitted by its death to

      the heirs, if it has not before then become void.

• Chapter Third  Legitimated Children
  • Article 119

    Only natural children can be legitimated. Natural children are those born out of marriage of parents who, at the date of the conception of the child, could have married with or without dispensation.

  • Article 120

    Legitimation may be obtained:

    • 1

      By the subsequent marriage of the parents.

    • 2

      By Royal Concession.

  • Article 121

    Children can only be considered as legitimated by a

    subsequent marriage, when they have been recognized by the parents before

    or after the celebration of such marriage.

  • Article 122

    Those legitimated by subsequent marriage shall enjoy the same rights as legitimate children.

  • Article 123

    Legitimation shall produce its effects in any case from the date of the marriage.

  • Article 124

    The legitimation of the children who have died before the celebration of the marriage shall benefit their descendants.

  • Article 125

    For the legitimation by Royal Concession the following requirements are necessary:

    • 1

      That legitimation! by subsequent marriage may not be possible.

    • 2

      That it may be asked by the parents or by one of them.

    • 3

      That the father or mother asking for it has no legitimate children, nor children legitimated by subsequent marriage, nor descendants of the same.

    • 4

      That if the party asking for it is married, he has to obtain the consent of the other consort.

  • Article 126

    Legitimation, by Royal Concession may also be

    obtained by the child whose deceased father or mother has shown in his or

    her will or in a public instrument a desire to legitimate it, provided the

    condition stated in no. 3 of the preceding article is complied with.

  • Article 127

    Legitimation by Royal Concession entitles the legitimated child.

    • 1

      To bear the name of the father or mother who has asked for it.

    • 2

      To receive support from the same in the form expressed in art. 143.

    • 3

      To the hereditary share prescribed in this Code.

  • Article 128

    The legitimation may be contested by those believing that their rights may be injured when it may be granted to persons not having the legal status of natural children, or when the requirements set forth in this chapter do not exist.

• Chapter Fourth  Illegitimate Children
  • Section First  Recognition of Natural Children
    • Article 129

      A natural child may be recognized by the father and mother conjointly

      or by only one of them.

    • Article 130

      In case the recognition is made by only one of the

      parents, it shall be presumed that the child is a natural one, if the

      party recognizing it had, at the time of the conception, legal capacity

      to contract marriage.

    • Article 131

      The recognition of a natural child shall be made in the record of birth, by will, or by any other public instrument.

    • Article 132

      When the father or mother alone shall make the

      recognition, he or she shall not reveal the name of the person, the other

      parent of the child, nor express any circumstance by which it may be discovered.

      Public officials shall not authorize any document infringing such a prescription. If notwithstanding this prohibition,

      they should make it, they will incur a fine of 125 to 500 pesetas, and

      besides the words containing such revelation shall be stricken out.

    • Article 133

      A child of age cannot be recognized without his consent. When the recognition of the minor is not made in the record of

      birth or in a will, the judicial approval, after a hearing of the Public Attorney, shall be required.

      • The minor may, in any case, contest the recognition within four years

        next following is majority.

    • Article 134

      The recognized natural child has rights:

      • 1

        To bear the name of the person recognizing him.

      • 2

        To receive support from the same in accordance with art. 143.

      • 3

        To receive, in the proper case, the hereditary share provided for in this Code.

    • Article 135

      The father is obliged to recognize the natural child in the following cases:

      • 1

        When an incontrovertible paper written by him, expressly recognizing his paternity, is in existence.

      • 2

        When the chid is in continuous possession of the status of a natural child of the defendant father, justified by direct act of the same father or his family.

    • In cases of violation, ravishing or rape, the provisions prescribed in the Penal Code shall be followed in what refers to the recognition of the issue."

    • Article 136

      The mother shall be obliged to recognize the natural child:

      • 1

        When the child is, in relation to the mother, included in any of the cases set forth in the preceding article.

      • 2

        When the fact of the delivery and the identity of the child are fully proven.

    • Article 137

      The actions for the recognitsion of natural children can be instituted only during the life of the presumed parents, except in the following cases:

      • 1

        If the father or mother have died during the minority of the child, in which case, it may commence the action before the expiration of the first four years after its majority.

      • 2

        If, after the death of the father or mother, some document, before unknown, should be discovered in which the child is expressly recognized.

        • In this case the action should be commenced within six months next following the discovery of such document.

    • Article 138

      The recognition made in favor of a child which does not reunite the condition of the second paragraph of art. 119, or in which

      the prescriptions of this section have not been complied with may be contested

      by those to whom it may cause injury.

  • Section Second  Other Illegitimate Children
    • Article 139

      Illegitimate children not having the legal status of natural children

      shall only have the right to claim support from their parents in accordance with art. 143.

    • Article 140

      The right to support, referred to in the preceeding article, can only be claimed:

      • 1

        If the paternity or maternity is inferred from the final sentence rendered in a criminal or civil proceeding.

      • 2

        If the paternity or maternity is shown in an incontrovertible document, from the father or mother, in which the filiation is expressly recognized.

      • 3

        In reference to the mother, whenever the fact of the delivery and the identity of the child are fully proven.

    • Article 141

      With exception of the cases expressed in nos. 1 and 2 of the preceding article, no complaint shall be admitted in court the

      purpose of which may be to investigate either directly or indirectly the

      paternity of illegitimate children who have not the legal status of natural

      children.

• Article 142

  It is understood by support all that is indispensable for maintenance,

  residence, clothing and medical assistance, according to the social standing

  of the family.

  • Support includes also the education and instruction of the party receiving

    it when he is a minor.

• Article 143

  The following are obliged to support each other reciprocally to the whole extent specified in the preceding article:

  • 1

    The consorts.

  • 2

    Legitimate ascendants and descendants.

  • 3

    Parents and children legitimated by Royal Concession and the legitimate descendants of the same.

  • 4

    Parents and the recognized natural children, and the legitimate descendants of such children.

  • Parents and illegitimate children not having the legal condition of natural

    children, owe each other, as support, all the help required for their subsistence.

    Parents, besides, are bound to bear the expenses of the elementary instruction

    of the children and of teaching them a profession, art, or office.

  • Brothers also owe to legitimate brothers, even when only on the mother's

    or father's side, the necessary help for living, when by a physical or moral

    defect or for any other cause not chargeable to the recipient, he may not

    be able to procure his maintenance. In this help is comprised, in proper cases,

    the indispensable expenses for paying the elementary instruction and for the

    learning of a profession, art, or office.

• Article 144

  The claim for support, when proper, and two or more are obliged to give it, shall be made in the following order:

  • 1

    To the consort.

  • 2

    To the descendants in the nearest degree.

  • 3

    To the ascendants in the nearest degree also.

  • 4

    To the brothers.

  • Between descendants and ascendants, the graduation shall be regulated by the

    order in which they are called to the legitimate succession of the person

    entitled to support.

• Article 145

  Whenever the obligation of giving support falls on two or more persons, the payment of the pension shall be divided among them

  at a rate in proportion to their respective capitals.

  • However, in case of urgent necessity and in special circumstances, the Judge

    may oblige only one of them to pay it provisionally, without prejudice to

    his right to claim from the other obligated parties the shares that correspond

    to them.

  • When two or more persons entitled to it claim support, at the same time, from

    the same person legally bound to give it and such person has not sufficient

    means to bear the expense of all, the order established in the preceding article

    shall be observed, unless the persons claiming the support are the consort and a child

    subject to the parental power, in which case, the latter shall be preferred

    to the former.

• Article 146

  The amount of support, in the cases included in the four classes of art. 143, is to be proportioned to the capital or means of

  the person giving it and to the necessities of the recipient.

• Article 147

  Support, in the cases to which the preceding article refers, shall be increased or reduced according to the increase or decrease

  suffered by the necessities of the recipient and the fortune of the person

  obliged to give it.

• Article 148

  The obligation to give support shall be binding from the moment that the person having right to claim it may require it for his

  maintenance, but it shall be paid only from the date of the claim.

  • Payment shall be made monthly, in advance, and, when the recipient dies, his

    heirs shall not be obliged to refund whatever shall have been received in

    advance.

• Article 149

  The person obliged to give support may, at his option, satisfy it, either by paying the pension that may be fixed or by receiving

  and maintaining in his own home the person having the right to the same.

• Article 150

  The obligation to support ceases with the death of the person obliged to give it, even if he pays it in compliance with a final

  sentence.

• Article 151

  The right to support can not be renounced or transferred to a third

  party. Neither can it be set off against what the recipient owes to the party

  obliged to give it.

  • But pensions in arrears for support may be set off and renounced and the right

    to claim them may be transferred by a title with or without consideration.

• Article 152

  The obligation to give support shall cease:

  • 1

    By the death of the recipient.

  • 2

    When the fortune of the person obliged to pay it is reduced to the state where he cannot pay it without disregarding his own necessities and those of his family.

  • 3

    When the recipient is able to exercise an office, profession or industry or has obtained employment or improved his fortune in such a manner that the pension for support may not be necessary for his maintenance.

  • 4

    When the recipient, be he a forced heir or not, commits any offence which may cause disinheritance.

  • 5

    When the recipient is a descendant of the person obliged to give support, and such necessity is caused by bad conduct or by want of attention to work, while such cause exists.

• Article 153

  The preceding dispositions are applicable to all other cases in which, by this Code, by testament or by stipulation, a right

  to support may arise, with the exception of what is stipulated, ordered bi

  the testator, or prescribed by law for the special case under consideration.

• Chapter First  General Provision
  • Article 154

    The father, and, in his default, the mother has power over their

    legitimate children, not emancipated, and the children are bound to obey

    the parents while they remain under such power and always pay them respect

    and reverence.

    • Recognized natural children and adopted minors are under the power of the father or the mother who recognizes or adopts them, and

      are under the same obligations that are referred to in the preceding paragraph.

• Chapter Second  Effects of Parental Power in Respect to the Persons of the Children
  • Article 155

    The father, and, in his default, the mother has, in respect to their children, not emancipated:

    • 1

      The duty of maintaining them, to keep them in their company, educate and instruct them in proportion to their means, and represent them in the exercise of all actions that may contribute to their benefit.

    • 2

      The right to correct and punish them moderately.

  • Article 156

    The father, and, in his default, the mother may ask for the help of the gubernative authorities which must be given to them

    in support of their own authority over children, not emancipated, either

    in the interior of the home or for the detention and even for the retention

    of the same in establishments for instruction or in institutions legally

    authorized to receive them.

    • They can also claim the interference of the Municipal Judge for imposing

      on their children, up to one month of detention in an institution for correctional

      purposes; the order of the father or mother with the vise of the judge shall

      be sufficient for carrying into effect such detention.

    • The provisions of the two preceding paragraphs include children, either legitimate, legitimated, natural recognized or adopted.

  • Article 157

    When the father or mother have contracted a second marriage, and the child has been begotten in a former marriage, they shall

    be bound to state to the Judge the causes on which they base their decision

    to punish him and the Judge shall hear the child in a personal appearance

    and decree or deny the detention without any further remedy. The same thing

    shall be observed when the child, not emancipated, exercises any charge

    or office, even when the parents have not contracted a second marriage.

  • Article 158

    The father, and, in his default, the mother shall pay for the maintenance of the detained child but they shall have no intervention

    in the conduct of the institution where he is detained; they can only have

    him released when they deem it proper.

• Chapter Third  Effect of Parental Power in Respect to Property of the Children
  • Article 159

    The father, or, in his default, the mother is the legal administrator of the property of the children who are under their power.

  • Article 160

    The property which the child, not emancipated,

    has acquired, or may acquired by his work or industry or by any lucrative

    title belongs to the child in ownership, and in usufruct to the father or

    mother who has him in his or her power and company, but if the child with

    the consent of the parents lives independently of them , he shall be considered as emancipated for

    all effects in respect to said property and shall hold the domain, usufruct,

    and administration of it.

  • Article 161

    The ownership and usufruct of what the child acquires with the captial of his parents belong to the latter. But should the parents

    expressly assign to him the whole or a part of the benefits which he may

    obtain, such benefits shall not be chargeable to him as (a part of) the

    inheritance.

  • Article 162

    The property or rents donated or left by will to the child, not emancipated, for the expense of his education and instruction

    belong to him in ownership and usufruct, but the father or the mother shall

    have the administration thereof, if no other proviso has been made in the

    donation or bequest in which case the will of the donors shall be strictly

    complied with.

  • Article 163

    The parents have, in respect to the property of the children, the usufruct or administration of which belongs to them, the obligations

    of every usufructuary or administrator, and the special obligations established

    by section third, title third of the Law of Mortgage.

    • An inventory shall be made with the intervention of the Public Attorney

      of all property of the children in which the parents have the administration

      only, and on petition of the same attorney, the Judge may decree the deposit

      of the stocks, bonds, etc., (valores mobiliarios) belonging to the child.

  • Article 164

    The father or the mother, in proper cases, shall not alienate the real property belonging to the child, the usufruct or administration

    of which belongs to the parents, nor incumber the same, unless for justified

    causes of utility or necessity and with previous authorization of the Judge

    of the domicil, upon consultation with the Public Attorney, without prejudice to

    the provisions which, in reference to the effects of transmission, are established

    by the Law of Mortgage.

  • Article 165

    Whenever, in any matter, the father or mother may have an interest in opposition to that of the children, not emancipated,

    a next friend (defensor) shall be appointed for the children who is to represent

    them in or out of court.

    • The Judge, on petition of the father or the mother or the minor himself,

      or the Public Attorney, or of any other person capable of appearing in court,

      shall appoint, as the next friend, the relative of the minor to whom the

      legitimate guardianship should belong in such cases, and, in default of

      the above, to another relative or any other person.

  • Article 166

    The parents who recognize or adopt do not acquire the usufruct of the property of the children, recognized or adopted, neither

    shall they have the administration of such property, unless they give bond

    for security of it to the satisfaction of the Judge of the domicile of the

    minor or of such persons who must concur in the adoption.

• Chapter Fourth  Means of Determining the Parental Power
  • Article 167

    Parental Power is determined:

    • 1

      By the death of the parents or of the child.

    • 2

      By emancipation.

    • 3

      By the adoption of the child.

  • Article 168

    The mother who contracts a second marriage, loses her parental power over her children, unless her deceased husband, father

    of them, should have in his will expressly anticipated that his widow could

    remarry and had ordered that, in such a case, she was to keep and exercise

    the parental power over his children.

  • Article 169

    The father, and, in similar cases, the mother loses the power over the children:

    • 1

      When, by a final sentence in criminal cases, the deprivement of said right is imposed on him as a penalty.

    • 2

      When, by a final sentence in a suit for divorce, such a declaration is made, and during the time that the effects of the same are in force.

  • Article 170

    The parental power is suspended by incapacity or

    absence of the father or, in similar cases, of the mother, when such causes

    are judicially declared, and also by civil interdiction.

  • Article 171

    The court can deprive the parent of the parental

    power or suspend the exercise of the same, when they treat their children

    with excessive cruelty, or if they give them corrupting orders, advice,

    or examples. In these cases they can also deprive the parents, either totally

    or partially of the usufruct of the property of the child, or adopt such

    measures as they may deem convenient for the interests of the same.

  • Article 172

    If the widowed mother, who has remarried becomes

    once more a widow, she will recover from that moment her power over all

    the children, not emancipated.

• Chapter Fifth  Adoption
  • Article 173

    Persons who are in the full exercise of their civil rights and over

    forty five years of age can adopt. The adopter must be at least fifteen

    years older than the adopted.

  • Article 174

    Adoption is forbidden:

    • 1

      To clergmen.

    • 2

      To those having legitimate or legitimated descendants.

    • 3

      To the guardian respecting his ward, until his accounts have been finally approved.

    • 4

      To the consort without the consent of the other consort. Consorts may

      adopt conjointly, and, with the exception of this case, nobody can be adopted

      by more than one person.

  • Article 175

    The adopted may bear together with the name of his family that of the adopter by so stating it in the deed of adoption.

  • Article 176

    The adopter and the adopted owe support to each other. This obligation is understood without injury to the preference right of the recognized natural children and of the ascendants of the adopter to be supported by the same.

  • Article 177

    The adopter acquires no right to inherit from the

    adopted. Neither does the adopted acquire any right to inherit from the

    adopter, unless by will, excepting when the adopter in the deed of adoption

    has obliged himself to institute him as an heir. This obligation shall produce

    no effect when the adopted dies before the adopter. The adopted retains all the rights belonging to

    him in his original (natural) family excepting those referring to the parental

    power.

  • Article 178

    The adoption shall be made with judicial authorization and it must

    necessarily state the consent of the adopted, when of age; when a minor,

    that of the persons who must give consent to the minor's marriage, and,

    when incapable, that of the guardian. The Public Attorney is to be heard about this matter and the Judge,

    after taking the steps he may consider necessary, shall approve the adoption,

    if according to law, and he believes it beneficial for the adopted.

  • Article 179

    After the adoption is finally approved by the Judge, a deed is to be executed, and in it shall be stated the condition under

    which it has been done, and it shall be inscribed in the corresponding Civil

    Registry.

  • Article 180

    The minor or the incapable, who has be en adopted may contest the adoption within four years next following his majority or

    the date from which his incapacity has disappeared.

• Chapter First  Provisional Measures in Case of Absence
  • Article 181

    When a person has disappeared from his domicil and his whereabouts

    is unknown and he has not left any attorney to manage his property, the

    Judge, on petition of a lawful party or the Public Attorney, may appoint some person to represent

    him in whatever may be necessary.

    • The same thing shall be done, when under similar circumstances, the power

      conferred by the absentee becomes void.

  • Article 182

    After the appointment referred to in the preceding chapter has been made, the Judge shall take the necessary measures to secure

    the rights and interests of the absentee and shall determine the powers,

    duties, and remuneration of the appointee, regulating them, according to

    circumstances, by the provisions established about guardians.

  • Article 183

    The consort who absents himself shall be represented by the one present, whenever they are not legally separated.

    • If the consort is a minor, a guardian shall be appointed in the usual form.

    • In default of the consort, the absentee shall be represented by the parents, children or grandparents, in the order established in art. 220.

• Chapter Second  Declaration of Absence
  • Article 184

    When two years have elapsed without any news having been received about the absentee, or from the receipt of the last news, and five years, in case the absentee has left a person in charge of the administration of his property, then the absence may be declared.

  • Article 185

    The declaration of absence may be demanded by:

    • 1

      The consort who is present.

    • 2

      The heirs instituted in his testament and who present a trustworthy copy of the same.

    • 3

      The relations who are to inherit in case of intestacy.

    • 4

      Those having in the property of the absentee some right subordinate to the condition of his death.

  • Article 186

    The judicial declaration of absence shall produce no effect until six months after its publication in the official papers.

• Chapter Third  Administration of Property of the Absentee
  • Article 187

    The administration of the property of the absentee is to be granted, according to the order established in art. 220, to the persons specified therein.

  • Article 188

    The wife of the absentee, if of age, can freely dispose of any property belonging to her; but she cannot alienate, barter or mortgage

    the husband's own property, neither that of the conjugal society, unless

    under judicial authorization.

  • Article 189

    When the administration belongs to the children of the absentee and they are minors, a guardian shall be provided for them

    who shall take charge of the property with legal formalities.

  • Article 190

    The administration shall cease in any of the following cases:

    • In these cases the administrator shall cease in the discharge of his duties

      and the property shall be placed at the disposal of those having a right

      to it.

• Chapter Fourth  Presumption of the Death of the Absentee
  • Article 191

    After thirty years have elapsed from the disappearance of the absentee

    or since the last news was received about him, or ninety years from his

    birth, the Judge, on petition of an interested party, shall declare the presumption of his death.

  • Article 192

    The sentence declaring the presumption of death of an absentee shall not go into effect until after six month, to be counted from its publication in the official papers.

  • Article 193

    After the sentence of the presumption of death has been declared final, succession to the estate of the absentee shall be opened and its distribution shall be made with the formalities of testamentary or intestate proceedings, according to the case.

  • Article 194

    Should the absentee appear, or, if without appearance, his existence be proven, then he shall recover his property in the condition in which it is found and the value of that sold, or that acquired with such value; but he can claim neither the fruits nor the rents.

• Chapter Fifth  Effects of Absence Upon the Eventual Rights of the Absentee
  • Article 195

    The person claiming a right belonging to another person, whose existence

    is not recognized, is bound to prove that such other person existed at the

    time in which his existence was necessary to acquire such right.

  • Article 196

    Notwithstanding what is prescribed in the preceding article, when a succession has been opened, and an absentee is called to

    it, the share of the absentee shall accrue to his coheirs, unless there

    is some person having rights of his own to claim it. - Both the former and

    the latter in such cases must make an inventory of said property with the

    intervention of the Public Attorney.

  • Article 197

    The prescription of the preceding article is to be understood as not impairing the actions of petition of inheritance or other

    rights belonging to the absentee, his representatives, and persons holding

    rights under him. Such rights shall not be extinguished, except by the lapse

    of time fixed for prescription. In the inscription to be made in the Registry

    of real property, which may accrue to the co-heirs, it shall be expressly

    stated that they are to remain subject to the provisions of this article.

  • Article 198

    Those who have taken possession of the estate shall become owners of the fruits received by them in good faith, while the absentee

    does not appear and his rights are not claimed by his representatives or

    holders of rights under him.

• Chapter First  General Provisions
  • Article 199

    The object of guardianship is the custody of the person and property

    or only the property of those who, not being under parental power , are

    incapable of governing themselves.

  • Article 200

    The following are subject to guardianship:

    • 1

      Minors not legally emancipated.

    • 2

      Insane and demented persons, though they may have lucid intervals, and the deaf and dumb who do not know how to read and write

    • 3

      Those who have been declared prodigal by a final sentence.

    • 4

      Those who are suffering the penalty of civil interdiction.

  • Article 201

    Guardianship shall be exercised by a single guardian under the vigilance

    of a protutor (vigilant guardian) and the family council.

  • Article 202

    The charges of guardian and protutor can not to be renounced unless for a lawful cause duly shown.

  • Article 203

    Municipal Judges of the places in which persons subject to guardianship reside shall provide for their custody and for their personal property until a guardian shall be appointed, when there is no other person charged with these duties under the law.

    • Should they not comply herewith they shall be liable for the damages, accruing on this account, to minors or to incapable persons.

  • Article 204

    Guardianship is conferred:

    • 1

      By testament.

    • 2

      By law.

    • 3

      By the family council.

  • Article 205

    The guardian shall not enter upon the discharge of his duties until

    his appointment has been inscribed in the Registry of guardianships.

• Chapter Second  Testamentary Guardianship
  • Article 206

    The father may appoint a guardian and a protutor for his minor children

    or for those of age who are incapable, be they legitimate or recognized

    as natural or for some of his illegitimate children whom he is obliged to

    support, as provided in art. 139.

    • The mother has similar rights, but if she has contracted a second marriage,

      the appointment made by her for the children of her first marriage shall

      not be effective without the approval of the family council.

    • In any case it shall be necessary that the person appointed guardian m protutor

      shall not be subject to the authority of any other person.

  • Article 207

    A guardian may also be appointed for minors or incapables by the person leaving them an inheritance or an important legacy.

    The appointment, however, shall produce no effect until the family council

    has decided to accept the inheritance or legacy.

  • Article 208

    The father as well as the mother may appoint a guardian for each of their children, and make different appointments in

    order that the appointees may be substituted one for another.

    • In case of doubt, it shall be understood that a single guardian has been

      appointed for all the children, and the charge shall be conferred upon the

      first of these named in the appointment.

  • Article 209

    If different persons should have appointed a guardian for the same minor, the charge shall devolve upon:

    • 1

      The one chosen by the father or mother.

    • 2

      The one appointed by the stranger who has instituted the minor or an incapable as his heir, if the amount of the inheritance is important.

    • 3

      The one who has been chosen by the person leaving and important legacy.

    • If there is more than one guardian in nos. 2 and 3, specified in this article, the family council shall declare which one is to be preferred.

  • Article 210

    When the guardian is in the discharge of his duties and the one appointed by the father appears, the guardianship is to be immediately

    transferred to the latter. If the guardian who appears is the one appointed

    by a stranger, specified in nos. 2 and 3 of the preceding article, he will

    limit himself to the administration of the property, which belonged to the

    person who appointed him, until the incumbent guardian vacates.

• Chapter Third  Legitimate Guardianship
  • Section First  Guardianship of Minors
    • Article 211

      Legitimate guardianship of minors, not emancipated, belongs solely:

      • 1

        To the paternal grandfather.

      • 2

        To the maternal and grandfather.

      • 3

        To the paternal and maternal grandmothers, in the same order, while they remain in widowhood.

      • 4

        To the eldest of the male brothers of full blood, and, in default of them, to the eldest of the brothers on the paternal or maternal side.

      • The guardianship, to which this article refers, does not apply to illegitimate children.

    • Article 212

      Heads of foundling institutions are the guardians of those kept and educated therein. The representation in court of such officials as guardians shall be assumed by the Public Attorney.

  • Section Second  Guardianship of the Insane and the Deaf and Dumb
    • Article 213

      No guardians (curators) shall be appointed for insane, demented, and deaf and dumb persons, when of age, without a previous declaration having been made that they are incapable of managing their property.

    • Article 214

      This declaration may be asked for by the consort and the relatives of the person presumed to be incapable who may have

      rights to succeed him, in case of intestacy.

    • Article 215

      The Public Attorney must demand it:

      • 1

        When the person is a raving maniac.

      • 2

        When none of the persons mentioned in the preceding article are in

        existence, or when they do not make any use of the rights granted to them

        by it.

      • 3

        When the consort and the heirs of the person presumed to be incapable are minors or have not the personality required to appear in court.

      • In all these cases, the court shall appoint a next friend (curator) for

        the person presumed to be incapable who does not wish or is not able to

        defend himself. In all other cases, the Public Attorney shall be their

        defender.

    • Article 216

      The courts before declaring the incapacity shall hear the family council and shall personally examine the persons denounced

      as incapable.

    • Article 217

      The relatives who have solicited the declaration of incapacity shall not be able to give information to the court as members

      of the family council, but they have the right to be heard by the council

      when they demand it.

    • Article 218

      The declaration of incapacity shall be made summarily. That which refers to the deaf and dumb shall fix the extent and limits of the guardianship, according to their degree of incapacity.

    • Article 219

      Against the decrees, determining the proceedings for incapacity, the interested parties may interpose a suit in the ordinary

      form. The next friend of the incapable shall, however, require for it

      special authorization from the family council.

    • Article 220

      Guardianship of the insane and the deaf and dumb belongs:

      • 1

        To the consort not legally separated.

      • 2

        To the father, and, in his default, to the mother.

      • 3

        To the children.

      • 4

        To the grandparents.

      • 5

        To the brothers and to the unmarried sisters with due preference to the double relationships stated in no. 4 of art. 211.

      • If there are children, brothers and sisters, the male shall be preferred to the female, and the oldest to the youngest.

      • When there are paternal and maternal grandparents, the male shall also be preferred, and in case they are of the same sex, those of the paternal line."

  • Section Third  Guardianship of Prodigals (Spendthrifts)
    • Article 221

      The declaration of prodigality must be made in a contradictory suit.

      • The sentence shall determine the acts which are forbidden to the incapable,

        the faculties which the guardian (curator) is to exercise in the name

        of the same, and the cases in which one or the other are bound to consult

        the family council.

    • Article 222

      The declaration, to which the preceding article refers, can be demanded only by the consort, and the forced heirs of the

      prodigal, and exceptionally by the Public Attorney, either by himself

      or on petition of some relative of the former, when they are minors or

      incapables.

    • Article 223

      When the defendant does not appear at the trial, he shall be represented by the Public Attorney, and, if the latter be a party

      thereto, by a next friend (curator) appointed by the court, without impairing

      what the Law of Civil Procedure prescribes in proceedings in contempt.

    • Article 224

      The declaration of prodigality does not deprive the prodigal of the marital and parental power, nor does it give to the guardian

      any power over the person of the prodigal.

    • Article 225

      The guardian shall administer the property of the children whom a prodigal may have had from a previous marriage.

      • The wife shall administer her dotal and paraphernal property, the property of the children in common, and that of the conjugal

        society. She will need a judicial authorization to sell them.

    • Article 226

      The acts of a prodigal, previous to the petition for interdiction, cannot be contested on account of prodigality.

    • Article 227

      The guardianship of the prodigal belongs:

      • 1

        To the father, and, in his default, to the mother.

      • 2

        To the paternal and maternal grandparents.

      • 3

        To the eldest of the emancipated male children.

  • Section Fourth  Guardianship To Persons Suffering Interdiction
    • Article 228

      When the sentence, in which the penalty of interdiction is interposed,

      has become final, the Public Attorney shall demand that arts. 203 and 293 shall be complied with. If he fails

      to do it, he shall be liable for the damages and injuries caused thereby.

      • The consort and the intestate heirs of one so interdicted may also demand it.

    • Article 229

      Such guardianship shall be limited to the administration of the

      property and to the representation in court of the interdicted person.

      • The guardian (curator) of the interdicted person shall be obliged, furthermore,

        to care for the person and property of the minors or the incapables, who

        are under the power of the person subject to interdiction, until another

        guardian is provided for them.

      • The wife of the interdicted person shall have parental power over their common children while the interdiction lasts.

      • If she is a minor she shall act under the direction of her father and,

        in his default that of her mother, and in default of both, that of her

        guardian.

    • Article 230

      The guardianship of those suffering interdiction is granted in accordance with the order established in art. 220.

• Chapter Fourth  Guardianship by Appointment
  • Article 231

    When there are neither testamentary guardian, nor persons called by law to the exercise of a vacant guardianship, it is the duty of the family council to elect the guardian in all the cases mentioned in art 200.

  • Article 232

    A municipal judge, who may neglect calling a family council in any

    case in which a guardian ought to be provided for minors or incapables, shall be liable for the damage or injury

    caused by his negligence.

• Chapter Fifth  Protutors (Vigilant Guardians)
  • Article 233

    The family council is entitled to appoint a protutor when he has not been appointed by those who have a right to elect a guardian for minors.

  • Article 234

    The guardian can not begin to exercise guardianship, until a protutor has been appointed. If he fails to apply for this appointment,

    he shall be removed from the guardianship and shall be liable for the damages

    suffered by the minor.

  • Article 235

    The appointment of a protutor shall not be given to a relative of the same line as the guardian.

  • Article 236

    The protutor is obliged:

    • 1

      To supervise the inventory of the property of the minor and the constitution of the bond of the guardian, when it must be given.

    • 2

      To maintain the rights of the minor in and out of court whenever they are opposed to the interests of the guardian.

    • 3

      To call the attention of the family council to the management of the guardian, whenever he may consider it injurious to the person or interests of the minor.

    • 4

      To promote the meeting of the family council for the appointment of a new guardian when the guardianship may become vacant or abandoned.

    • 5

      To discharge all further duties provided by law.

    • The protutor shall be liable for the damages and injuries caused to the minor by his omission or neglect to comply with such duties.

    • The protutor may attend the deliberations of the family council and take part in them, but he has no right to vote."

• Chapter Sixth  Persons Unable to be Guardians and Protutors, and the Removal of the Same
  • Article 237

    The following cannot be guardians or protutors:

    • 1

      Persons subject to guardianship.

    • 2

      Those who have been punished for the crimes of robbery, theft, fraud, forgery, corruption of minors, or public scandal.

    • 3

      Those condemned to any corporal punishment, until the sentence expires.

    • 4

      Those who have been legally removed from a former guardianship.

    • 5

      Persons of bad conduct, or having no visible means of support.

    • 6

      Bankrupts and insolvents, not discharged.

    • 7

      Women, with the exception of the cases in which they are expressly called by law.

    • 8

      Those who, at the time of taking charge of the guardianship, have a law suit pending with the minor in regard to his civil status.

    • 9

      Those in litigation with the minor in regard to the ownership of his property, unless the father and, in his default, the mother, being aware of it, have disposed otherwise.

    • 10

      Those indebted to the minor in large sums, unless they have been appointed by the father and, in his default, by the mother with knowledge of the debt.

    • 11

      The relatives mentioned in the second paragraph of art. 293, and the testamentary guardian when they have not complied with the duties imposed on them by said article.

    • 12

      Professed members of monastic orders.

    • 13

      Foreigners not residing in Spain.

  • Article 238

    The following shall be removed from guardianship:

    • 1

      Those, who after having qualified, come under one of the classes of incapacity mentioned in nos. I, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 12, and 13, of the preceding article.

    • 2

      Those who have assumed the administration of the guardianship without

      having the family council convened nor having asked for the appointment

      of a protutor or without having given bonds, in cases in which they are

      required to give them, and having omitted to inscribe the mortgage bond.

    • 3

      Those who have not made the inventory within the term and in the manner prescribed by law or have not made it faithfully.

    • 4

      Those who have not behaved properly in the discharge of the guardianship.

  • Article 239

    The family council shall not declare the incapacity of guardians and protutors or resolve upon their removal,without summoning

    and hearing them if they appear.

  • Article 240

    After the incapacity has been declared or the removal has been agreed on by the family council, such decision shall be

    considered final and the vacant guardianship shall be filled, if the guardian

    does not present his claims before the court within fifteen days next following

    the day on which the resolution has been communicated to him.

  • Article 241

    When the guardian institutes a judicial contention, the council shall litigate it, at the expense of the minor; but the members thereof may be personally condemned to pay the costs, if they have acted with notorious malice.

  • Article 242

    When the resolution of the family council is favorable to the guardian, and has been unanimously adopted, there shall be no remedy against it.

  • Article 243

    If by causes of incapacity, the guardian does not enter upon the discharge of his duties, the family council shall attend

    to the duties of the guardianship, until a final resolution is agreed upon

    about the impediment.

    • When the guardian has already entered upon the discharge of his duties and

      the family council has declared his incapacity and resolved to remove him,

      the decision which they may take to provided for the care of the guardianship,

      in case a law suit should be instituted, shall not be executed without a previous judicial approval.

• Chapter Seventh  Excuses For Not Accepting Guardianship and Protutorship
  • Article 244

    The following may be excused from guardianship and protutorship.

    • 1

      Ministers of the crown.

    • 2

      Presidents of the Co- legislative Houses, of the Council of State, of

      the Supreme Court, of the Supreme Council of War and Navy, and of the Court

      of Accounts of the Kingdom.

    • 3

      Archbishops and bishops.

    • 4

      Magistrates, Judges and officials of the Public Attorney's office.

    • 5

      Those who exercise authority immediately depending on the government.

    • 6

      Those in active military service.

    • 7

      Clergymen with curate charges.

    • 8

      Those having under their power five legitimate children.

    • 9

      Those that are so poor that they cannot attend to the guardianship without impairing their livelihood.

    • 10

      Those who in consequence of continuous ill health or because of inability to read or write cannot well fulfill the duties of the charge.

    • 11

      Persons over sixty years of age.

    • 12

      Those who are already guardians or protutors of another person.

  • Article 245

    Persons, not relatives of the minor or incapable, are not bound to accept the guardianship, if, within the territory of the court appointing the guardian, there are relatives within the sixth degree who may fulfill the charge.

  • Article 246

    The person excused, on petition of the guardian or protutor, may be compelled to accept the guardianship as soon as the cause

    of the exemption has ceased.

  • Article 247

    An excuse, which has not been alleged before the family council in meeting held for the purpose of deciding upon the guardianship,

    shall not be acceptable.

    • If the guardian has not been present at the meeting of the council, nor

      has previously been made aware of his appointment, he must allege the excuse

      within the ten days next following the date on which he has been notified

      of it.

  • Article 248

    If the causes of exemption are subsequent to the acceptance of the guardianship, the term for alleging them shall begin to

    be counted from the day on which the guardian may have become aware of the

    same.

  • Article 249

    The resolution on which the family council rejects the excuse may be contested before the court within the term of fifteen days.

    • The resolutions of the family council shall be maintained by the same, at

      the expense of the minor; but if they should be affirmed, the person promoting

      the suit shall be condemned to the payment of the costs.

  • Article 250

    During the suit on account of excuses, the one presenting them shall be bound to exercise the guardianship. If he does

    not do so, the family council shall appoint some person to substitute him,

    and the substituted shall be liable for the action of the former in case

    the excuses are not sustained.

  • Article 251

    The testamentary guardian who may excuse himself from the guardianship shall lose whatever may have been left to him by the

    person who voluntarily appointed him.

• Chapter Eight  Bonds of Guardians
  • Article 252

    The guardian before he assumes the guardianship shall give bond

    as security for the performance of his duties.

  • Article 253

    The bond must be secured either by mortgage or by pledge.

    • Personal bond shall be accepted only when it is impossible to give bond,

      as above stated. The security given by the bondsmen shall not prevent the

      adoption of any decision proper for the good keeping of the property of

      the minor or incapable.

  • Article 254

    The bond shall secure:

    • 1

      The value of any personal property which may come into the possession

      of the guardian.

    • 2

      The rents or profits which the property of the minor or incapable may produce during one year.

    • 3

      The profits which the minor may receive from mercantile or industrial undertakings during one year.

  • Article 255

    The guardian may have recourse to the courts against any resolution of the family council fixing the amount or qualifying the bond, but he shall not enter upon the discharge of his duties without having given the bond required.

  • Article 256

    Whilst the bond is being executed the protutor shall perform the acts of administration which the family council may consider indispensable for the safe keeping of the property and the collection of its proceeds.

  • Article 257

    The mortgage bond shall be inscribed in the Registry of Property.

    The pledge bond shall be made by the deposit of effects or values in one of the public institutions authorized for this purpose.

  • Article 258

    The inscription or deposit shall be demanded:

    • 1

      By the guardian.

    • 2

      By the protutor.

    • 3

      By any of the members of the family council.

    • Those omitting to do it shall be liable for the damage and injury resulting therefrom.

  • Article 259

    The bond maybe increased or reduced, during the exercise of the guardianship, according to the changes which may occur in

    the capital of the minor or the incapable and in the values upon which the

    bond is based.

    • The bond shall not be totally cancelled until after the accounts of the

      guardianship are approved and the guardian has extinguished all the liabilities

      of his management.

  • Article 260

    The following are exempted from giving bond for guardianship:

    • 1

      The father, the mother, and the grandparents, when called upon to be

      the guardian of their descendants.

    • 2

      The testamentary guardian, released by the father or, in his default,

      by the mother from such duty. This exception shall cease, when, subsequently

      to his appointment, causes unknown to the testator may arise which render

      the bond indispensable in the judgment of the family council.

    • 3

      The guardian, appointed without bonds, by strangers who may have instituted

      the minor or incapable as his heir or left him a legacy for a large amount.

      In this case the exemption shall be limited to the property or rents of

      which the inheritance or legacy consists.

• Chapter Ninth  Exercise of the Guardianship
  • Article 261

    The family council shall place the guardian and the protutor in possession.

  • Article 262

    The guardian represents the minor or incapable in

    all civil acts with the exception of those which the latter can execute

    by himself alone by express provision of law.

  • Article 263

    Minors and incapables, subject to guardianship, owe respect and obedience to the guardian. He may punish them moderately.

  • Article 264

    The guardian is obliged:

    • 1

      To maintain and educate the minor or incapable in accordance with his

      condition and in strict subjection to the dispositions of his parents or,

      in default of these, with those adopted by the family council.

    • 2

      To endeavor that the insane, demented, or deaf or dumb may acquire or

      recover their capacity, by whatever means their capital may furnish.

    • 3

      To make an inventory of the property which the guardianship may cover within the terms fixed for this purpose by the family council.

    • 4

      To administer the estate of the minor or incapable with all the diligence of a good father of a family.

    • 5

      To ask in due time the authorization of the family council for everything that he may not do without such authorization.

    • 6

      To solicit the intervention of the protutor in all the cases which the law may deem it necessary.

  • Article 265

    The inventory shall be made with the intervention of the protutor and with the assistant ; of two witnesses chosen by the

    family council. The council shall decide, considering the importance of

    the capital, if the inventory is, in addition, to be authorized by a Notary.

  • Article 266

    The jewelry, valuable furniture, publict effects, and merchantile and industrial values, which in the judgement of the family council are not to remain in possession of the guardian, shall be

    deposited in an institution established for this purpose.

    • All other personal and self-moving (semovientes) property, if it is not

      appraised, shall be appraised by experts appointed by the family council.

  • Article 267

    The guardian, who having been summoned for this purpose through a Notary by the protutor or by the witnesses, should not

    enter in the inventory the credits he holds against the minor, shall be

    understood as renouncing them.

  • Article 268

    When the will of the person who made the appointment of the guardian provides nothing about the alimentary pension to be allotted

    to the minor or incapable, the family council, after inspecting the inventory,

    shall decide the part of the rents or proceeds which shall be allotted for

    such purpose.

    • This resolution may be modified in proportion to the increase or decrease of the inheritance of the minors or incapables or the

      change their condition may suffer.

  • Article 269

    The guardian requires to be authorized by the family council:

    • 1

      To impose on the minor the punishment referred to in no. 2, art. 155, and in art. 156.

    • 2

      To give to the minor a profession or particular avocation when that has not been decided by the parents, and to modify any disposition that they had made in this respect.

    • 3

      To place the incapable in a sanitarium, unless the guardianship is exercised by the father, mother or a son.

    • 4

      To follow the commercial or industrial calling to which the incapable, or his ascendants or the ascendants of the minor had pursued.

    • 5

      To alienate or encumber any property constituting the capital of the minor or incapable or to make contracts or act subject to inscription.

    • 6

      To invest any balance of money remaining each year, after meeting the obligations of the guardianship.

    • 7

      To cause the distribution of the inheritance or of any other thing which the minor or incapable may hold in common.

    • 8

      To withdrawn from investment any sums producing interest.

    • 9

      To loan and borrow money.

    • 10

      To accept without the benefit inventory any inheritance or to repudiate such inheritance or donations.

    • 11

      To incur extraordinary expenses in connection with tenements, the administration of which is included under the guardianship.

    • 12

      To compromise and submit to arbitration the questions in which the minor or incapable may be interested.

    • 13

      To institute suits in the name of persons subject to guardianship, and to maintain the remedies of appeal and nullity (casacion) against the sentences in which they may have been condemned. Demands or remedies in verbal suits are excepted.

  • Article 270

    The family council cannot empower the guardian to sell or encumber the property of the minor or incapable, unless it be

    for causes of necessity or utility which the guardian has to duly prove.

    • This power shall be exercised in regard to specified things.

  • Article 271

    The family council before granting authorization to encumber real property or constitute real rights in favor of third persons,

    may previously hear the opinion of experts about the conditions of the encumbrances

    and possibilities of bettering them.

  • Article 272

    In respect to real property, rights to be inscribed, jewelry or furniture, the value of which is over 4000 pesetas, any sale

    thereof is to be made at public auction with the intervention of the guardian

    or protutor.

    • Stock listed on exchanges, either public, commercial or industrial shall

      be sold by a stock agent or a commercial broker.

  • Article 273

    The guardian is liable for the legal interest on the capital of the minor, when by his omission or negligence, it shall remain

    unproductive or without investment.

  • Article 274

    The authorization to settle or compromise through arbitrators shall be requested in writing and therein the guardian shall

    explain all the conditions and advantages of the settlement.

    • The family council may hear the opinion of one or more lawyers, according

      to the importance of the matter, and may grant or deny such authorization.

      In case of granting it, it shall be so stated in the minutes.

  • Article 275

    Guardians are forbidden:

    • 1

      To donate or renounce things or rights belonging to minors or incapables. The donations made on account of marriage by minors, with the approval of the persons who are to give their consent to the marriage, shall be valid, provided they do not exceed the limits fixed by law.

    • 2

      To collect from the debtor of the minor or incapable, without the intervention of the protutor, sums over 5,000 pesetas, unless they are interests, rents, or fruits.

      • Payments made without complying with this requirement shall be profitable to the debtors, only when they can prove that the money received has been invested for the benefit of the minor or incapable.

    • 3

      To pay themselves, without the intervention of the protutor, any sums due them.

    • 4

      To buy himself, or through another person, the property of the minor or incapable, unless he has been expressly authorized to do so by the family council."

  • Article 276

    The guardian is entitled to compensation from the property of the minor or incapable:

    • When it has not been fixed by those who appointed the testamentary guardian;

      or when the guardians are legitimate or appointed by court, the family council

      shall fix it, taking in consideration the importance of the estate and the

      work to be undertaken in its administration.

    • In no case shall the compensation be less than 4% nor more than 10% of the

      net rents or proceeds of the estate.

    • The guardian may ask a remedy from the courts against the resolution fixing

      his compensation.

  • Article 277

    Should the family council maintain its resolution, the council shall then litigate at the expense of the minor or incapable.

  • Article 278

    The guardianship is determined:

    • 1

      By the minor attaining the age of twenty- three years, by habilitation as to age, and by adoption.

    • 2

      By the cessation of the causes originating the same in cases of persons incapable, subject to interdiction, or prodigals.

• Chapter Tenth  Accounts of the Guardianship
  • Article 279

    Collateral relatives of the minor or incapable, and strangers, who have not obtained the charge of guardian, with the assignment

    of proceeds for support, shall render to the family council yearly accounts

    of their administration.

    • The accounts, after being examined by the protutor and audited by the council,

      shall be deposited with the clerk of the court where the guardianship has

      been registered.

    • In case the guardian does not agree to the resolution of the council, he

      may apply to the courts before which the interests of the minor or incapable

      shall be defended by the protutor.

  • Article 280

    The guardian, who may be replaced by another, as well as his heirs, shall be obliged to render a general account of his guardianship

    to the one taking his place; such account shall be examined and audited

    in the form prescribed in the preceding article. The new guardian shall

    be liable for the damages and injuries to the minor, if he does not claim

    and examine the accounts of his predecessor.

  • Article 281

    When the guardianship terminates, the guardian or his heirs are obliged to render account of his administration to the person

    who has been under his guardianship or to his representatives or those holding

    rights under him.

  • Article 282

    The general accounts of the guardianship shall be audited and reported upon by the family council within a term not exceeding six months, (after the receipt of the same).

  • Article 283

    The accounts are to be accompanied by their vouchers. The only expenses

    which need not be vouched for are the petty expenses for which a diligent father of a family does not generally

    ask a receipt.

  • Article 284

    The expenses of rendering the accounts shall be borne by the minor or incapable.

  • Article 285

    Until fifteen days after the rendering of the accounts with the

    vouchers, the persons holding rights under the minor or the minor himself,

    if of age, cannot enter into any agreement with the guardian which may have

    relation to the administration of the guardianship.

    • The family council without detriment to the agreement which the interested

      parties may make between themselves, after the expiration of this term,

      shall denounce to the courts any wrongful act which may have been committed

      by the guardian in the exercise of the guardianship.

  • Article 286

    The balance shown by the general account, either in favor of or against the guardian, shall bear legal interest. In the first

    case, from the time the minor is asked for the payment of the balance, after

    the delivery of his property.

    • In the second case, from the date of rendering the accounts, if they have been presented within the legal term, and, if not,

      from the expiration of such term.

  • Article 287

    The actions, reciprocally belonging to the guardian and the minor on account of the exercise of the guardianship, are extinguished

    five years after the termination of the same.

• Chapter Eleventh  Registration of Guardianship
  • Article 288

    There shall be in the courts of the First Instance one or several books in which entries shall be made of the guardianships,

    constituted within the year, within their respective territories.

  • Article 289

    These books shall be in the custody of a judicial clerk who shall make the entries free of cost.

  • Article 290

    The registration of each guardianship shall contain:

    • 1

      The name, family name, age, and domicil of the minor or incapable, and

      the extent and limit of the guardianship, when the incapacity has been judicially

      declared.

    • 2

      The name, family name, profession, and domicil of the guardian, and the

      statement of whether he is a testamentary or legitimate guardian or is appointed

      by court.

    • 3

      The date on which the guardianship has been conferred, and the day on

      which the bond, required from the guardian, has been constituted, stating,

      in such cases, the kind of property on which it has been based.

    • 4

      The alimentary pension which has been assigned to the minor or incapable or the declaration of the compensation of proceeds for support.

  • Article 291

    At the foot of each inscription, at the beginning of the judicial year, it shall be recorded whether the guardian has rendered

    an account of his administration, if he is obliged to do so.

  • Article 292

    The judges shall examine every year such registries and shall take the necessary steps in each case to defend the interests

    of the person subject to guardianship.

• Section First  Manner of Constituting
  • Article 293

    If the Public Attorney or Municipal Judge should become informed that in the territory within their jurisdiction are

    found any of the persons to which art. 200 refers, the first shall ask,

    and the second shall order of his own motion, or upon the petition of the

    Public Attorney, as the case may be, the constitution of a family council.

    • The following persons are obliged to notify the Municipal Judge of any fact

      which give cause for a guardianship, as soon as they have knowledge of it:

      the testamentary guardian, the relatives who are called to the legitimate

      guardianship, and those that, according to law, are members of the council; and they are liable, should they not do so, to an indemnity for damages

      and injuries (caused thereby).

    • The Municipal Judge shall summon the persons who should compose the family

      council, stating to them the object of the meeting, and the day, hour, and

      place in which it shall be held.

  • Article 294

    The family council shall be composed of the persons whom the father, or, in proper cases, the mother may have appointed in the

    testament, and, in default of them, of the male ascendants and descendants,

    and the brothers and husbands of the living sisters of the minor or incapable,

    whatever their number may be. If they are less than five, this number shall

    be completed with the nearest male relatives of both the paternal and maternal

    lines, and, in the event that they do not exist or that they are not bound

    to form part of the council, the Municipal Judge shall appoint, instead,

    honest persons, preferring the friends of the parents of the miner or incapable.

    • If there be no ascendants, descendants, brothers or husbands of living sisters,

      the Municipal Judge shall constitute the council with the five nearest male

      relatives of the minor or incapable, and, when there are no relatives in

      part or at all, he will substitute them with honest persons, preferring always the friends of the

      parents.

  • Article 295

    In equal degrees, preference shall be given to the eldest relatives in forming the family council.

  • Article 296

    The courts may remedy the nullity which may be caused by the non-observance of the preceding articles, if not due to fraud

    nor causing damage to the person or property of the person subject to guardianship,

    but taking care to amend the error committed in the formation of the council.

  • Article 297

    The relatives of the minor or incapable, called by law, who do not reside within 30 kilometres of the court having jurisdiction

    over the guardianship, shall not be obliged to form a part of the council

    but they may be members of the council, if they willingly accept the charge,

    for which purpose they shall be summoned by the Municipal Judge.

  • Article 298

    The causes which excuse, disable, and give reason for the removal of guardians and protutors apply to the members of the family

    council. Neither can persons excluded from this charge by the father or,

    in his default, by the mother in their wills, be members of it.

  • Article 299

    The guardian and protutor shall not be, at the same time, members of the family council.

  • Article 300

    The meeting for the formation of the family council shall be presided over by the Municipal Judge. The parties summoned are

    obliged to appear in person or by a special attorney who shall never represent

    more than one person. If they do not appear, the Judge may impose on them

    a fine not exceeding 50 pesetas.

  • Article 301

    After the family council has been constituted by the Municipal Judge, it shall proceed to prescribe all the measures required

    for the custody of the person and property of the minor or incapable and

    to constitute the guardianship.

  • Article 302

    The family council for natural children shall be constituted, under the same rules as that for legitimate children but members

    thereof shall be appointed from the relatives of the father or mother who

    have recognized them.

    • The council for illegitimate children shall be constituted by the Municipal

      Attorney, who shall be the president, and four honest neighbors.

  • Article 303

    The administration of every Institute of Beneficence shall have over the orphans, under its care, all the faculties belonging

    to the guardian and to the family council.

• Section Second  Manner of Proceeding of the Family Council
  • Article 304

    The member elected by the other members shall be president of the council:

    • To the president belongs:

      • 1

        To convoke the council, whenever he thinks it convenient or on petition

        of the members, of the guardian, or of the protutor, and to preside over

        its deliberations.

      • 2

        To draw up and to state the basis of the resolutions, giving therein

        the opinion of each of the members who shall authorize the minutes by signing

        the same.

      • 3

        To execute the resolutions.

  • Article 305

    The family council shall not adopt resolutions about matters submitted to it, unless, at least, three members are present.

    • Resolutions shall always be adopted by a majority of the voters. The vote

      of the president shall decide in case of a tie.

  • Article 306

    The members of the family council are obliged to attend the meetings of the same for which they may be summoned. Should they

    not attend, nor present any lawful excuse, the president of the council

    shall give notice to the Municipal Judge who may impose on them a fine not

    exceeding 50 pesetas.

  • Article 307

    No member of the family council shall attend its meetings nor vote when it has to deal with a matter in which he, his ascendants,

    descendants, or consort has any interest, but he may be heard, if the council

    deems it proper.

  • Article 308

    The guardian and the protutor are bound to attend the meetings of the family council, whenever convoked, but have no vote.

    They may also attend whenever the council meets on their petition.

    • The person subject to guardianship, who is over fourteen years of age, has

      a right to be present and to be heard.

  • Article 309

    The family council shall take cognizance of the affairs for which they are competent, in accordance with the provisions

    of this Code.

  • Article 310

    The members, who have dissented from the majority in voting on any resolution, may appeal to the Judge of the First Instance, as also may the guardian or protutor or any relative of the minor or other

    party interested in the decision, with the exception of the case in art. 242.

  • Article 311

    On the determination of the guardianship, and the consequent dissolution of the family council, the latter shall deliver the minutes of its sessions to the person who has been subject to guardianship or to the person who represents his rights.

  • Article 312

    The members of the family council are liable for the damages which the person subject to guardianship may suffer on account of

    their malice or culpable neglect.

    • The members dissenting from the resolution, causing such injury, shall be

      exempted from this liability.

  • Article 313

    The family council shall be dissolved in the same cases in which the guardianship is extinguished.

• Chapter First  Emancipation
  • Article 314

    Emancipation takes place:

    • 1

      By the marriage of the minor.

    • 2

      By majority.

    • 3

      By concession of the father or mother exercising the parental power.

  • Article 315

    Marriage produces lawful emancipation with the limitations contained in art. 59 and in rule third of art. 50.

  • Article 316

    Emancipation, referred to in no. 3 of art. 314, shall be granted by public deed or by appearance before the Municipal Judge which appearance is to be inscribed in the Civil Registry and, meanwhile, shall not produce any effect against third parties.

  • Article 317

    Emancipation enables the minor to control his person and property, as if of age, but, until he attains his majority, he cannot

    borrow money on loan, neither encumber nor sell real property without the

    consent of the father, and, in his default, of the mother, and, in default

    of both, without that of a guardian. Neither can he appear in court without

    the assistance of said persons.

  • Article 318

    In order that emancipation may take place by concession of the father or mother, it is required that the minor be over eighteen years of age and consent to it.

  • Article 319

    Emancipation once granted cannot be revoked.

• Chapter Second  Majority
  • Article 320

    Majority commences after attaining twenty three years of age. A person of age is qualified for all acts of civil life, with the exceptions established by this Code in special cases.

  • Article 321

    Notwithstanding what is prescribed in the preceding article, unmarried daughters of age, but under twenty-five years, cannot

    leave the parental home without permission of the father or mother in whose

    company they live, unless on account of marriage or when the father or mother

    have contracted another marriage.

  • Article 322

    The minor, orphan of both parents, may obtain the benefit of majority by the consent of the family council, approved by the

    President of the territorial Audiencia of the district, after the Public

    Attorney has been heard.

  • Article 323

    For (granting) the concession and approval stated in the preceding article, it is required:

    • 1

      That the minor be over eighteen years of age.

    • 2

      That he consents thereto.

    • 3

      That it is considered advantageous to the minor.

    • The authorization (habilitacion) shall be inscribed in the Registry of guardianships and entered in the Civil Registry.

  • Article 324

    The provisions of art 317 apply to the minor who has obtained authorization of majority.

• Article 325

  Acts, relating to the civil status of persons, shall be inscribed in the registry designated for such purpose.

• Article 326

  The registry of civil status shall contain the inscriptions or entries of births , marriages , emancipations, recognitions,

  and legitimations, deaths, naturalizations, and residences (vecindad) and

  shall be under the charge of municipal judges or other officials of the civil

  order in Spain, and, in foreign countries, of consular or diplomatic agents.

• Article 327

  The minutes of the registry shall be evidence of the civil status and any other evidence can be admitted only when such minutes

  have never existed or the books of registry have disappeared or when a contention

  arises in court.

• Article 328

  It is not necessary that a newly born child should be presented to the official in charge of the registry for inscription of

  birth; the declaration of the person obliged to make it shall be sufficient.

  • This declaration shall embrace all the requirements of law and shall be subscribed

    to by the deponent or two witnesses, at his request, if he cannot sign.

• Article 329

  In canonical marriages, it shall be the duty of the contracting parties to furnish to the official representing the State, who

  attends the celebration, all the data required for its inscription in the

  Civil Registry.

  • Those referring to banns , impediments and their disposition are excepted and not required to be entered in the Registry.

• Article 330

  Naturalization shall have no legal effects, until it is inscribed in the Registry, whatever the evidence proving it and the date on which it has been granted may be.

• Article 331

  Municipal Judges and those of the First Instance, in proper cases, may punish the infractions of the provisions about the Civil Registry with a fine of 20 to 100 pesetas, when they do not constitute a crime or a misdemeanor.

• Article 332

  The law of June 17, 1870, shall continue in force in so far as it is not modified by the preceding articles.

• Preliminary Provision
  • Article 333

    All things which are or may be an object of appropriation are considered, either as personal or real property.

• Chapter First  Real Property
  • Article 334

    Real property consists of:

    • 1

      Lands, buildings, roads, and constructions of every kind adherent to the soil.

    • 2

      Trees, and plants, and ungathered fruits, while they are not separated from the land and form an integral part of the real property.

    • 3

      All that is attached to real property, in a fixed manner, in such a way that it cannot be separated from it without breaking the matter or causing injury to the object.

    • 4

      Statues, reliefs, paintings or other objects of use or ornament placed in a building and on lands or tenements by the owner of the same in such a manner as to reveal the intent of attaching them in a permanent way to the tenement.

    • 5

      Machinery, vessels, instruments, or implements,

      intended by the owner of the tenement for the industry or works that he

      may carry on in a building or tenement and which directly tend to meet the

      necessities of the same industry or works.

    • 6

      Vivaries for animals, pigeon-houses, beehives, fish-ponds or beds for

      similar purposes, when the owner has placed or kept them with the intent

      of maintaining the same attached to the tenement and forming a permanent

      part thereof.

    • 7

      Manures intended for the cultivation of lands when they are on the place where they are to be employed.

    • 8

      Mines, quarries, and slag lands, while the matter forms part of the beds, and waters, either running or stagnant.

    • 9

      Docks, and constructions, which, though floating, are intended by their purposes and conditions to remain at a fixed place in a river, lake or on a coast.

    • 10

      Administrative concessions for public works, and easements, and other real rights attached to real property.

• Chapter Second  Personal Property
  • Article 335

    Personal property is considered anything susceptible of appropriation

    and not contained in the preceding chapter, and, in general, any thing which

    can be carried from place to place without impairing the real property to

    which it may be attached.

  • Article 336

    As personal property are also considered; rents or pensions, either for life or hereditary, in favor of a person or family,

    provided they do not encumber real property with a real charge, also purchased

    public offices, contracts for public services, and bonds and certificates

    representing mortgage loans.

  • Article 337

    Personal property is either consumable (fungibles) or non-consumable (no fungibles).

    • To the first ceass belongs those which can not be used, in a manner appropriate

      to their nature, without consuming them; all others belong to the second

      class.

• Chapter Third  Property in Respect to Ownership
  • Article 338

    Things pertain to public domain or to private ownership.

  • Article 339

    To public domain belong:

    • 1

      Those intended for public use, as roads, canals, rivers, torrents, ports,

      and bridges, constructed by the State, and banks, shores, road steads, and

      others of a similar character.

    • 2

      Those belonging exclusively to the State, not for common use, and which

      are designed for some public service, or the development of the national

      wealth, as walls, fortresses, and other works for the defence of the territory,

      and mines, whilst their concession has not yet been granted.

  • Article 340

    All other property belonging to the State which has not the conditions, stated in the preceding article, is considered as private

    property.

  • Article 341

    Property of the public domain, when it is no longer dedicated to general uses or to the necessities of the defence of the territory,

    shall become a part of the property of the State.

  • Article 342

    Property of the Royal Patrimony is governed by its special law, and in all matters, not prescribed there in for it, by the

    general provisions established by this Code about private property.

  • Article 343

    The property of provinces and of towns is divided into property of public use and patrimonial property.

  • Article 344

    Property for public use in provinces, and towns, comprises the provincial and town roads, the squares, streets, fountains,

    and public waters, the walks, and public works for general service, paid

    for by the same towns or provinces.

    • All other property, possessed by either of them, are patrimonial, and shall

      be governed by the prescriptions of this Code, unless otherwise ordered

      by special laws.

  • Article 345

    Besides the patrimonial property of the State, of the provinces, and of the towns, cohich belonging to private parties, either individually or collectively, is property of private ownership.

• Provisions Common to the Three Preceding Chapters
  • Article 346

    Whenever by provision of the laws or by an individual declaration,

    the expression "real things or real property" is used, or "personal things

    or personal property" it shall be understood as comprised in them, respectively,

    those enumerated in chapter first and in chapter second.

    • Whenever the word personal (muebles), alone, is used, then, it shall not

      be understood as including: money, credits, commercial effects, values,

      jewels, scientific or artistic collections, books, medals, arms, clothing,

      riding beasts, or carriages and their harnesses, breadstuffs, liquids (caldos)

      and merchandise or other tings, the principal employment of which is to furnish or ornament rooms,

      with the exception of the cases in which, by the contexture of the law or

      of the individual disposition, the contrary clearly appears.

  • Article 347

    Whenever, in a sale, legacy or donation or any other disposition in which reference is made to personal or real things, their possession or ownership is transferred with every thing they may contain, there shall not be understood as comprised in the transfer; money values, credits, and actions, the titles to which are contained in the thing transferred, unless the intention is clearly shown of including such values and rights in the transfer.

• Chapter First  Ownership in General
  • Article 348

    Ownership is the right to enjoy and dispose of a thing, without

    further limitations than those established by the laws.

    • The owner has actions against the holder and the possessor of the thing

      to recover it.

  • Article 349

    No one shall be deprived of his property, unless it be by competent authority and with justified cause for public utility, and

    never until he has previously been properly indemnified.

    • If this requirement has not been complied with, the judges shall protect,

      and in proper cases, replace the condemned party in possession.

  • Article 350

    The owner of a parcel of ground is owner of its surface and everything

    under it, and he can make thereon any works, plantations, and excavations

    which may be convenient for him, without injury to the easements and subject

    to what is prescribed by the laws about mines and waters and by Police Regulations.

  • Article 351

    Hidden treasures belong to the owner of the land on which they are found.

    • However, when the discovery is made on property belonging to a stranger

      or to the State and by chance, one half of it shall be adjudged to the finder.

    • If the thing discovered is of interest to the sciences or arts, the State

      can acquire it at its just value which shall be distributed in accordance

      with what has been prescribed.

  • Article 352

    By treasure is understood, in its legal effects, hidden or unknown deposits of money, jewelry, or other precious objects, the lawful ownership of which is not proven.

• Chapter Second  Right of Accession
  • General Provision
    • Article 353

      Ownership of property gives a right by accession to everything which is produced by it or which is either naturally or artificially united to or incorporated with it.

  • Section First  Right of Accession in Respect to What is Produced by Property
    • Article 354

      To the owner belong:

      • 1

        Natural fruits.

      • 2

        Industrial fruits.

      • 3

        Civil fruits.

    • Article 355

      Naturally fruits are the spontaneous products of the soil, and the brood, and all other produce of animals.

      • Industrial fruits are those produced by land of any kind through cultivation or labor.

      • Civil fruits are rents of buildings, receipts for leases of lands, and

        the amount of perpetual or life rents, and other similar returns.

    • Article 356

      The receiver of fruits is obliged to pay the expenses incurred by a third party in their production, gathering, and preservation.

    • Article 357

      Only those which are in sight or appearing are considered as natural or industrial fruits.

      • As to animals, it is sufficient if they are in the womb of the mother,

        though yet unborn.

  • Section Second  Right of Accession in Respect to Real Property
    • Article 358

      Whatever is built, planted or sown on another's land, and the

      improvements or repairs made on it belong to the owner of the land, subject to what is prescribed in the

      following articles.

    • Article 359

      All works, sown grounds, and plantings are presumed to be made

      by the owner, and, at his expense, unless the contrary is proven.

    • Article 360

      The owner of the land who shall make on it, by himself or through another person, plantings, constructions or works,

      with material belonging to another person, is bound to pay for their value;

      and should he have acted in bad faith, he shall also be obliged to indemnify

      said person for damages and injuries caused thereby. The owner of the

      materials shall have a right to remove them, only in case he can do it

      without injury to the work constructed, and, when by doing it, the plantings,

      constructions, and work done, shall not be destroyed.

    • Article 361

      The owner of the land on which somebody has built, sown, or planted, in good faith, is entitled to appropriate, as his own,

      the work, sowing or planting by previously paying the indemnity specified

      in arts. 453 and 454 or to oblige the person who has built or planted

      the same to pay to him the value of the land and to oblige him, who sowed,

      to pay the corresponding rents.

    • Article 362

      He, who builds, plants, or sows, in bad faith, on another's land, loses what he has built, planted, or sown without right to any indemnity.

    • Article 363

      The owner of the land on which any one has built, planted, or sown, in bad faith, may exact the demolition of the work or

      the removal of the planting or sowing, and the replacing of everything

      in its former condition, at the expense of him who built, planted or sowed.

    • Article 364

      When there has been bad faith, not only on the part of him who built, sowed or planted on another's land, but also on the

      part of the owner of such land, the right of both shall be the same as

      though both had acted in good faith.

      • Bad faith on the part of the owner is understood, whenever the act has

        been executed in his presence with his knowledge and forbearance and without

        opposition.

    • Article 365

      If the materials, plants or seed belong to a third party, who has not acted in bad faith, the owner of the land shall be

      liable subsidiarily for their value, but only in the event that the person

      who used them has no means to pay for the same.

      • This prescription shall have no force, if the owner make use of the rights

        given him by art. 363.

    • Article 366

      The augmentation which the banks of a river gradually receive from the effects of currents of waters, belongs to the

      owner of the land adjacent to such banks.

    • Article 367

      The owners of tenements, adjacent to ponds or lakes, do not acquire the land left dry by the natural decrease of waters,

      nor lose those inundated by them in extraordinary floods.

    • Article 368

      When the current of a river, rivulet or torrent cuts off from the tenement on its bank a known portion of land and transfers

      it to another tenement, the owner of the tenement to which the cut off

      part belong retaines the ownership of the same.

    • Article 369

      Trees, uprooted and carried away by currents of waters, belong to the owner of the land upon which they are carried, if

      the former owners do not claimed them within the term of a month.

      • If such owner claims them, then they must pay all the expenses caused

        by the collecting and securing them in a safe place.

    • Article 370

      The beds of rivers, which remain abandoned because the course of the water has naturally changed, belong to the owners of

      the riparian lands, throughout their respective extents. If the abandoned

      bed has divided tenements belonging to different owners, the new dividing

      line shall be run at equal distance therefrom.

    • Article 371

      Islands formed in the sea, adjacent to the coast of Spain, and in navigable or floatable rivers belong to the State.

    • Article 372

      When in a navigable and floatable river, which changes its course by natural causes, a new bed is opened through a private

      tenement , this bed shall become public domain. The owner of the tenement

      shall recover it, in the event of the waters leaving it again dry, naturally

      or through work legally authorized for this purpose.

    • Article 373

      Islands which, through successive accumulations of descending alluviums, are slowly formed in rivers, belong to the owners

      of the banks or shores nearest to each of them or to those of both shores,

      if the island is in the middle of the river, and then shall be divided

      longitudinally in halves. If only one island thus formed be more distant

      from one bank than from the other, then the owner of the nearest bank

      shall be the sole owner of it.

    • Article 374

      When the current of a river divides itself into branches, leaving a tenement or a part of it isolated, the owner of the

      same retains his property. He also retains it, if a portion of the land

      is rendered isolated by the current.

  • Section Third  Rights of Accession in Respect to Personal Property
    • Article 375

      When two personal things, belonging to different owners, are united in such a way that they become a unit without bad faith on the part of either owner, the owner of the principal thing acquires the accessory one upon indemnifying its former owner for its value.

    • Article 376

      When two things are incorporated, the principal shall be considered the one to which the other had been united as an ornament or for its use and perfection.

    • Article 377

      When it is not possible by following the rules of the preceding article to determine which of the two incorporated things

      is the principal one, the thing of the greater value shall be considered

      as such, and between two things of equal valuer that of the greater volume.

      • In paintings and sculptures, in writings, printed matter, prints, engravings,

        and lithographs, the board, metal, stone, canvass, paper or the parchment

        shall be considered as accessory things.

    • Article 378

      When things united can be separated without injury, their respective

      owners may claim their separation.

      • However, when the thing adjoined for the use, embellishment or perfection

        of another is much more precious than the principal thing, the owner of

        the first may demand their separation, though the thing to which it is

        joined may suffer some damage.

    • Article 379

      When the owner of the accessory thing has made the incorporation,

      in bad faith, he shall lose the thing incorporated and shall be obliged to indemnify the owner of the principal

      thing for the damages he may have suffered.

      • When the one acting in bad faith is the owner of the principal thing,

        the owner of the accessory shall have the right to choose between being

        paid by the first for the value for the thing or to have the thing, belonging

        to him, separated, though it may be necessary for such purpose to destroy

        the principal one, and besides, in both cases, an indemnity for damages

        and injury may be recovered.

      • If any of the owners have made the incorporation in the presence, with

        the knowledge and forbearance and without opposition from the other, their

        respective rights shall be determined in the manner provided for such

        cases where both had acted in good faith.

    • Article 380

      Whenever the owner of materials, used without his consent, has a right to an indemnity, he may exact that such indemnity

      consist in the delivery to him, either of a thing equal in quality and

      value and in all respects to the one employed or in its price, according

      to appraisement by experts.

    • Article 381

      When by the will of their owners, two things of equal or different kinds are mixed, or if the mixture is made by chance,

      and, in this last case, are not separable without injury, each owner shall

      acquire a right proportional to the part belonging to him with consideration

      as to the values of the things mixed or confounded.

    • Article 382

      When by the will of only one of the owners, but, in good faith, two things of equal or different kinds are mixed or confounded,

      the rights of the owners shall be determined by the provisions of the

      preceding article.

      • When the one making the mixture or confusion acted, in bad faith, he will

        lose the thing belonging to him, mixed or confounded, besides being obliged

        to indemnify the owner of the thing with which he made the mixture for

        the damage caused thereby.

    • Article 383

      He who, in good faith, wholly or partially used material belonging to another party in making a work of a new kind, may

      make the work his own upon indemnifying the owner of the material for

      the value of the same.

      • When this (material) is more precious than the work on which it was used

        or superior in value, the owner of it may at his option become owner of

        the new thing by paying the price of the labor or claiming an indemnity

        for the material.

      • When in the making of the new work, there has been bad faith, the owner

        of the material has the right, either to keep the work without paying

        any thing to the author or claiming from him an indemnity for the value

        of the material and the damages he may have suffered.

• Chapter Third  Fixing Boundaries and Placing Land Marks
  • Article 384

    Every owner has the right to fix the boundaries of his property by giving notice thereof to the owners of adjoining tenements.

    • The same right belongs to those having real rights.

  • Article 385

    The demarkation shall be made in accordance with the titles of each owner, and, when in default of sufficient title, from what may appear from the possession held by the contiguous owners.

  • Article 386

    When the titles do not specify the boundary or area belonging to each owner, and the question cannot be determined by the possession

    or by other means of proof, the demarkation shall be made by dividing the

    land in dispute in equal shares.

  • Article 387

    When the titles of the contiguous owners show an area, larger or smaller than that comprised in the total of said land, the increase or decrease shall be distributed in proportion.

• Chapter Fourth  Right of Enclosing Agricultural Lands
  • Article 388

    Every owner may close or fence his tenements with walls, ditches, live or dead hedges or in any other manner without injury to the easements existing thereon.

• Chapter Fourth  Right of Enclosing Agricultural Lands
• Chapter Fifth  Unstable Buildings and Trees About to Fall
  • Article 389

    When a building, wall, column or any other construction is in danger of falling, the owner is obliged to demolish it or to do whatever is necessary to prevent its falling. Should the owner of the ruinous work not do it, the authorities may have it demolished at the expense of the owner.

  • Article 390

    When a large tree threatens to fall in such a way as to cause damage to another person's tenement or to persons passing through

    a public or private way, the owner of the tree shall be obliged to pull

    it down and take it away; should he not do so, it shall be done at his expense

    by order of the authorities.

  • Article 391

    In the cases of the two preceding articles, should the tree or building fall, the provisions of arts. 1907 and 1908 shall be enforced.

• Article 392

  There is community of property when the ownership of a thing or of

  a right belongs to different persons undividedly.

  • In default of contracts or of special provisions, communities shall be governed

    by the provisions of this title.

• Article 393

  The share of the participants in the benefits, as well as in the charges, shall be proportionate to their respective interests.

  • The interests belonging to the participants shall be presumed equal until the contrary is proven.

• Article 394

  Every participant may use the things, held in common, provided he uses them in accordance with their office and in such

  a way as not to injure the interests of the community nor prevent the co-participants

  from utilizing them according to their rights.

• Article 395

  Every participant shall have a right to oblige a co-participant to contribute to the expenses of keeping the thing or right

  held in common; only the party renouncing the share belonging to him in the

  ownership can exempt himself from this obligation.

• Article 396

  When the different stories of a house belong to different owners, if the titles do not specify the conditions under which

  they must contribute to the necessary expenses thereof, and there is no stipulation

  about it, the following provisions shall be observed:

  • 1

    The main and party walls, the roof, and other things of use in common shall

    be preserved at the expense of all the owners in proportion to the value of

    their stories.

  • 2

    Every owner shall pay the cost of maintaining the floor of his story. The

    floor of the porch, front door, common yard, and hygienic works, common to

    all, shall be paid pro rata by all the owners.

  • 3

    The stairs from the porch to the first story shall be paid for pro rata

    by all the owners, with the exception of the owner of the ground floor; the

    stairs from the first to the second story shall be paid for by all, excepting

    the owners of the ground floor and first story, and successively so on.

• Article 397

  None of the owners shall, without consent of the others, make any change in the common property though benefits for all may

  accrue thereby.

• Article 398

  The resolution of the majority of the part-owners as to the management

  and better enjoyment of the thing held in common shall be binding (on all).

  • There shall be no majority, unless the resolution has been made by the part-owners

    representing a majority of the interests which constitutes the object of the

    community.

  • If there is no majority or the resolution of the same is seriously injurious

    to the parties interested in the thing held in common, the Judge, on petition

    of any part-owner, shall decree what may be proper including the appointment

    of an administrator.

  • When a part of the things privately belong to one or to some of the part-owners

    and the remainder in common, the preceding prescription shall only apply to

    the latter.

• Article 399

  Each one of the part-owners shall have absolute ownership of his part and in the fruits and benefits belonging to it, and

  he, therefore, may sell, assign, or mortgage it, and even substitute another

  person in its enjoyment, unless personal rights are involved. But the effect

  of the sale or mortgage, in what refers to the part-owner, shall be limited

  to the share which may be allotted to him in the distribution on the determination

  of the community.

• Article 400

  No part-owner shall be obliged to remain a party to the community. Each of them may ask, at any time, the division of the thing

  held in common.

  • However, the stipulation of keeping the thing undivided for a stated period

    of time, not exceeding ten years, shall be valid. This term may be extended

    by a new agreement.

• Article 401

  Notwithstanding what is provided in the preceding article, the part-owners cannot compel a division of the thing held in common

  to be made when by so doing they may render it unserviceable for the use for

  which it was intended.

• Article 402

  The division of a thing held in common may be made by the parties in interest or by arbitrators or compromisers appointed at the will of the part-owners.

  • In case it is made by arbitrators or compromisers, they shall divide it into

    parts proportional to the rights of each part-owner endeavoring to avoid payments

    of balances in cash as far as possible.

• Article 403

  The creditors or assignees of the part-owners may concur in the division of the property, held in common, and object to any

  division made without their concurrence. But they cannot object to the division

  already made, except in the cases of fraud or when they have made it, notwithstanding

  the opposition formally interposed in order to prevent it, but they shall always

  leave the rights of the debtor or assignee intact to maintain its validity.

• Article 404

  When the thing is essentially indivisible and the part-owners cannot agree that it be adjudged to one of them who shall indemnify

  the others, then it shall be sold and the proceeds be distributed.

• Article 405

  The division of property held in common shall not cause injury to a third party who shall retain the rights of mortgage, easements,

  or any other real rights belonging to him before the division was made. The

  personal rights belonging to a third party against the community shall also

  remain in force notwithstanding the division.

• Article 406

  The rules, relating to the division of estates, shall apply to the divisions among the part-owners.

• Chapter First  Waters
  • Section First  Ownership of Waters
    • Article 407

      To the public domain belong:

      • 1

        Rivers and their natural beds.

      • 2

        Continuous or intermittent waters from sources or brooks running in their natural beds and the beds themselves.

      • 3

        Waters rising continuously or intermittently in lands en the same public domain.

      • 4

        Lakes and ponds formed by nature on public lands, and also their beds.

      • 5

        Rain water running through ravines or sandy beaches with their beds also belong to the public domain.

      • 6

        Subterranean waters existing on public lands.

      • 7

        Waters found within the zone of operation of public works, even when they are made by a grantee.

      • 8

        Waters flowing continuously or intermittently from tenements belonging to private parties, to the State, to the provinces or to towns from the moment they leave such tenements.

      • 9

        The waste waters of fountains, sewers, and public institutions.

    • Article 408

      To private dominion belong:

      • 1

        Waters, either continuous or intermittent, rising on private tenements as far as they run through them.

      • 2

        Lakes and ponds and their beds , when formed by nature on said tenements.

      • 3

        Subterranean waters found on the same.

      • 4

        Rain waters falling on private tenements as long as they remain within boundaries of the same.

      • 5

        The beds of flowing waters, continuous or intermittent, formed by rain

        water, and those of brooks crossing tenements which do not belong to the

        public domain. In every drain or acqueduct the water, the bed, the sloping

        bank, and the side-ways are considered as an integral part of the tenement

        or building for which the waters are intended. The owners of tenements,

        through which or along the boundaries of which the acqueduct passes, can

        allege no ownership over it, nor any right to profit by their beds or

        side-ways, unless they base their claim on title deeds, specifying the

        right or the ownership claimed by them.

  • Section Second  Profitable Use of Public Waters
    • Article 409

      The use of public waters is acquired:

      • 1

        By administrative concession.

      • 2

        By prescription of twenty years.

      • The limits of the rights and obligations of their uses shall be those

        shown, in the first case, by the terms of the concession; and, in the

        second, by the manner and form in which the waters have been used.

    • Article 410

      Every concession of use of waters is understood to be without injury to third parties.

    • Article 411

      The right to make use of public waters is extinguished by the forfeiture of the concession, and by the non-usage during twenty

      years.

  • Section Third  The Use of Waters of Private Ownership
    • Article 412

      The owner of a tenement which contains the source from which a

      brook rises, be it continuous or intermittent, may use its waters as far

      as they run through the tenement; after it leaves the tenement, it becomes public and its use

      is governed by the special law of waters.

    • Article 413

      The owner of a tenement which contains the source from which a

      brook rises, be it continuous or intermittent, may use its waters as far

      as they run through the tenement; after it leaves the tenement, it becomes public and its use

      is governed by the special law of waters.

    • Article 414

      No one may enter private property in search of waters or make use of them without permission from its owner.

    • Article 415

      The dominion which the proprietor of a tenement has over waters rising on his land cannot be exercised so as to interfere

      with the rights which the owner of an inferior tenement may have legally

      acquired to its use.

    • Article 416

      Every owner of a tenement has a right to construct on his property receptacles for rain water, provided he does no damage thereby to the public or a third party.

  • Section Fourth  Subterranean Waters
    • Article 417

      Only the owner of a tenement or another person, with his permission,

      may search for subterranean waters thereon.

      • The search for subterranean water on lands of the public domain can only

        be made with the permission of the administration.

    • Article 418

      Artesian waters, according to the special law of waters, belong to the persons who discovers the same.

    • Article 419

      When the owner of artesian wells abandons the same to their natural course, they become public domain.

  • Section Fifth  General Provisions
    • Article 420

      The owner of a tenement on which there are defensive works to

      check waters or on which, by the variation of their course, it may be

      necessary to reconstruct them, is bound, at his option, to make the necessary repairs or constructions

      or to permit that, without damage to him, the owners of the tenements,

      who suffer or are clearly exposed to suffer damages, should make such

      works.

    • Article 421

      The provisions of the preceding article apply to the cases in which it may be necessary to clear a tenement from the material,

      the accumulation or fall of which may obstruct the course of waters with

      injury or danger to a third party.

    • Article 422

      All the proprietors who participate in the benefits arising from the works, to which the preceding articles refer, shall be

      bound to contribute to the expenses of their construction in proportion

      to their interests. Those, who by their own fault may have caused the

      damages, shall be responsible for such expenses.

    • Article 423

      The ownership and use of waters belonging to corporations or private parties are subject to the law of expropriation

      for causes of public utility.

    • Article 424

      The provisions of this title shall not cause injury to rights previously acquired nor to the private ownership which the proprietor of waters, drains, fountains or sources have to use, sell or to barter, as private property.

    • Article 425

      Anything not expressly determined by the provisions of this chapter shall be governed by the special law of waters.

• Chapter Second  Mineral Ores
  • Article 426

    Any Spaniard or foreigner may freely make prospect pits or excavations, not exceeding ten metres in length or depth, for the purpose of discovering ores on land belonging to the public domain; but they must previously give notice thereof to the local authorities. On land belonging to private parties no prospect pits can be sunk unless the permission of the owner or the party representing him has been previously obtained.

  • Article 427

    The limits of the rights mentioned in the preceding article, the previous formalities, and the conditions for their exercise,

    the designation of the matters which are to be considered as ores, and the

    determination of the rights belonging to the owner of the land and to the

    discoverer of the ores, in case of grants, shall be governed by the special

    law of mines.

• Chapter Third  Intellectual Property
  • Article 428

    The author of any literary, scientific or artistic work has the right to profit by it and dispose of it at his will.

  • Article 429

    The law of intellectual property determines the persons to whom such right belongs, the manner of exercising it, and the period of its duration. In cases not provided for nor determined by such special law, the general rules about ownership, established by this Code, shall govern.

• Chapter First  Possession and Its Kinds
  • Article 430

    Natural possession is the holding of a thing or the enjoyment of a right by some person. Civil possession is the same holding or enjoyment joined to the intent of having the thing or right as his own.

  • Article 431

    Possession of things or rights is exercised, either by the same person who holds and enjoys them or by another in his behalf.

  • Article 432

    Possession in things and rights may be held in one of two different ways, either as that of the owner or as that of the holder

    of the things or rights to keep and enjoy them when the ownership belongs

    to another person.

  • Article 433

    Any person who is not aware that there is in his title or in the manner of acquiring it any flaw, invalidating the same,

    shall be considered a possessor in good faith.

    • Possessors to the contrary are considered as possessors in bad faith.

  • Article 434

    Good faith is always presumed and any person averring bad faith on the part of the possessor is bound to prove it.

  • Article 435

    Possession, when acquired in good faith, does not lose such character, except in the cases and from the moment in which some

    act exists proving that the possessor is aware that he possesses the thing

    unlawfully.

  • Article 436

    It is presumed that the enjoyment of the possession is continued under the same understanding with which it was acquired, until

    the contrary is proven.

  • Article 437

    Only things and rights susceptible of being appropriated can be the objects of possession.

• Chapter Second  Acquisition of Possession
  • Article 438

    Possession is acquired, either by the material occupation of the thing or right possessed, or by the fact that the same remains subject to the action of our will, or by the proper act and legal formalities established for acquiring such a right.

  • Article 439

    Possession may be acquired by the same person who is to enjoy it, by his legal representative, by his attorney or by a

    third person, without any power therefor, but, in this last case, possession

    shall not be considered as acquired, until the person, in whose name the

    act of possession has been executed, has ratified the same.

  • Article 440

    He who repudiates an inheritance in a valid manner is understood

    as not having possessed it for a single moment.

    • The possession of hereditary property is understood as transferred to the

      heir without interruption and from the moment of the death of the testator,

      in case the inheritance be accepted.

  • Article 441

    In no case can possession be forcebly acquired while there is a possessor contesting it. The person, believing that he

    has a right or action to deprive any other of the holding of a thing, should

    ask help of competent authority, whenever the holder refuses to deliver

    it up.

  • Article 442

    The successor, by an hereditary title, shall not suffer the consequences

    of a faulty possession of his testator, unless it is proven that he was

    informed of the flaws affecting it; however, the effects of the possession

    in good faith shall not benefit him, but from the death of the testator.

  • Article 443

    Minors and incapables can acquire the possession of things, but they shall require the assistance of their lawful representatives to make use of the rights in their favor arising from the possession.

  • Article 444

    Acts merely tolerated and those clandestinely executed, and without knowledge of the possessor of a thing or with violence,

    do not affect the possession.

  • Article 445

    Possession, as a fact, cannot be recognized in two different personalities, unless in cases of indivision. Should a question

    arise about the fact of the possession, the actual possessor shall be preferred,

    the oldest, when two appear; if the date of the possession is the same,

    the one presenting a title; and when all these conditions are equal, the

    thing shall be placed in deposit or judicial keeping, until a decision is

    rendered through proper proceedings about the possession or the ownership thereof.

• Chapter Third  Effect of Possession
  • Article 446

    Every possessor has the right to be respected in his possession, and should he be disturbed in it, he shall be protected or possession be restored to him by the means established in the laws of procedure.

  • Article 447

    Only the possession acquired and enjoyed in the belief of being owner can serve as a title to acquire ownership.

  • Article 448

    The possessor who believes himself owner has in his favor the legal presumption that he possesses under a just title and he shall not the obliged to show it.

  • Article 449

    The possession of a real tenement is also a presumption of possession of the furniture and objects within it, as long as it is not show or proven that they ought to be excluded.

  • Article 450

    Each one of the participants, in a thing held in common, is considered as having exclusively possessed the part which may

    be allotted to him on the distribution, during all the time that the indivision

    lasted.

    • The interruption of the possession of the whole or of a part of the thing

      held in common shall injure all possessors equally.

  • Article 451

    The fruits collected in good faith by the possessor become his own

    while the possession has not been lawfully interrupted.

    • Natural and industrial fruits are considered as collected from the moment

      they are gather or separated.

    • Civil fruits are considered as daily proceeds and in this proportion belong

      to the possessor in good faith.

  • Article 452

    If, at the date on which good faith ceases, some natural or industrial fruits are ungathered, the possessor shall have a right to recover the expenses incurred by him for their production and besides to a part of the net proceeds of the crop in proportion to the time of his possession.

    • The charges shall be distributed pro rata, in the same manner, between both the possessors.

    • The owner of a thing may, if he desires, grant to the possessor, in good faith, the right of finishing the cultivation and collecting the pending fruits as an indemnity for the parts of the expenses of cultivation and net proceeds belonging to him; the possessor m good faith, who, for any reason, may not desire to accept such a concession, shall lose the right to be indemnified in any other manner."

  • Article 453

    Necessary expenses are refunded to every possessor; but only those in good faith may retain the thing until they are repaid.

    • Useful expenses are refunded to the possessor in good faith under the same

      right of retention and he who has defeated him in his possession has the

      option, either of refunding the amount of the expenses, or paying him the

      increase of value which the thing has acquired in consequence of such expenses.

  • Article 454

    The expenses purely for ostentation or mere pleasure are not to

    be refunded to the possessor in good faith, but he may carry away the ornaments

    with which he has embellished the principal thing, if it suffers no injury

    and if the successor in the possession does not prefer to refund the amount expended thereon.

  • Article 455

    A possessor in bad faith shall refund the fruits collected, and those which the lawful possessor could have received, and

    shall only have a right to be reimbursed for the necessary expenses made

    for the maintenance of the thing. The expenses incurred in improvements

    for ostentation and pleasure shall not be refunded to the possessor in bad

    faith, but he can take away the object for which such expenses have been

    incurred, provided the (principal) thing suffers no injury and the lawful

    possessor does not prefer to retain them, paying the value they have at

    the moment of his entering into possession.

  • Article 456

    The improvements caused by nature or time always pass to the benefit of the one who has won in the possession.

  • Article 457

    The possessor in good faith is not liable for the impairments or loss of the thing possessed, excepting the cases in which

    it may be proved that he has acted with deceit (dolo). The possessor in

    bad faith is liable for the impairment or loss in any case, even in those caused by main force, when he maliciously has delayed

    the delivery of the thing to its lawful possessor.

  • Article 458

    The person obtaining possession is not bound to pay for improvements which have ceased to exist, at the time of acquiring

    the thing.

  • Article 459

    The actual possessor who shows his possession, during a prior time, is presumed to have had possession also during the intermediate period, until the contrary is proven.

  • Article 460

    The possessor may lose his possession:

    • 1

      By the abandonment of the thing.

    • 2

      By assignment made to another party under an onerous or gratuitous title.

    • 3

      By the destruction or total loss of the thing or by the thing becoming not (lawfully) marketable.

    • 4

      By the possession of another, even against the will of a former possessor, if the new possession has lasted over a year.

  • Article 461

    The possession of personal property is not considered as lost while it is under the control of the possessor, though he may accidentally not know its whereabouts.

  • Article 462

    The possession of real property and real rights is not considered as lost, nor transmitted for the effects of prescription

    to the injury of a third party, except with submission to the provisions

    of the Law of Mortgage.

  • Article 463

    The acts relating to possession, either executed or consented to by the person possessing another person's thing as a mere

    holder for enjoying or retaining it for any cause, neither bind nor cause

    injury to the owner, unless he should have granted to the holder express

    powers to execute them or he ratifies them afterwards.

  • Article 464

    The possession of personal property, acquired in good faith, is equivalent to a title thereto. However, the person, who has

    lost the personal thing or has been unlawfully deprived of it, may recover

    it from whoever possesses it.

    • If the possessor of a personal thing, lost or stolen, has acquired it in

      good faith at a public auction, the owner cannot recover it, unless by reimbursing

      (the possessor) the price paid for it.

    • Neither can the owner of a thing pledged in the loan offices (Mantes de Piedad], established under authority of the government,

      obtain the recovery thereof, whoever the person may be who has pledged them,

      without previously refunding to the institution the amount of the pledge

      and the interest due.

    • Things acquired on the exchange, at marts or markets or from a merchant

      lawfully established and habitually employed in a traffic of analagous objects,

      shall be governed by the provisions of the Code of Commerce.

  • Article 465

    Wild animals are only possessed while they are under ones control; those domesticated or tamed are considered as tame or

    domestic as long as they retain the habit of returning to the home of their

    possessor.

  • Article 466

    A person who lawfully recovers the possession, unduly lost, is considered as having enjoyed it without interruption for

    all the effects that may be beneficial to him.

• Chapter First  Usufruct
  • Section First  Usufruct in General
    • Article 467

      Usufruct gives a right to enjoy another's property under the

      obligation of maintaining its form and substance, unless the title constituting

      it or the law allows otherwise.

    • Article 468

      Usufruct is constituted by law, by wish of private persons specified in acts, inter vivos, by last will, and by prescription.

    • Article 469

      Usufruct can be constituted on the whole or on a part of the fruits

      of a thing, in favor of one or more persons, simultaneously or successively, and in any case from and up to a certain

      date, purely or under conditions. It can also be constituted on a right,

      provided the same is not absolutely personal or unassignable.

    • Article 470

      The rights and duties of the usufructuaries shall be those specified in the title constituting the usufruct; in default

      of this or if it is not sufficient, the provisions contained in the two

      following sections shall be observed.

  • Section Second  Right of the Usufructuary
    • Article 471

      The usufructuary is entitled to receive all the natural, industrial, and civil fruits of the property in usufruct.

      As to the treasures which may be found on the tenement, he shall be considered

      as a stranger.

    • Article 472

      Natural or industrial fruits, ungathered at the time of the beginning

      of the usufruct, belong to the usufructuary.

      • Those, pending at the time the usufruct expires, belong to the owner.

      • In the preceding cases, the usufructuary, at the beginning of the usufruct,

        is not bound to pay to the owner any of the expenses incurred; but, at

        the expiration of the usufruct, the owner is bound to pay from the proceeds

        of the pending fruits, the ordinary expenses of cultivation, for the seed,

        and other similar ones incurred by the usufructuary.

      • The provisions of this article shall not injure rights of a third party,

        acquired at the beginning or the determination of the usufruct.

    • Article 473

      If the usufructuary has leased the lands or tenements given in usufruct, and this should be determined before the lease, he or his heirs shall only receive their proportional parts of the rent, which are to be paid by the lessee.

    • Article 474

      The civil fruits are understood to be paid, day by day, and belong to the usufructuary in proportion to the time that the

      usufruct may last.

    • Article 475

      When a usufruct is constituted on the right to collect a rent or a periodical pension, consisting either of money or

      of fruits, or in interest on obligations, or certificates to the bearer,

      each payment due shall be considered as proceeds or fruits of said right.

      • When it consists in the enjoyments of the benefits, produced by an interest

        in any industrial or commercial enterprise, the distribution of which

        has not a fixed date, such benefits shall have the same consideration.

      • In either case, they shall be distributed as civil fruits and shall be

        applied in the manner provided in the preceding article.

    • Article 476

      The usufructuary of a tenement, on which mines are found, is not entitled to the proceeds of the mines denounced, granted,

      or on which there are workings, at the beginning of the usufruct, unless

      they are expressly granted to him by the title constituting the usufruct

      or in case such usufruct is universal.

      • The usufructuary, however, may remove stones, lime, and chalk from the

        quarries for repairs or works which he may be bound to make or which may

        be necessary.

    • Article 477

      Notwithstanding what is provided in the preceding article, the usufructuary, in the legal usufruct, may work the mines denounced,

      granted or being worked on the tenement, taking, as his own, one hald

      of the profits which may be obtained, after deducting the expenses which

      shall be equally shared by him and the owner.

    • Article 478

      The status of usufructuary does not deprive the person possessing it to the rights granted to every one, by the Law of Mines, to dencunce and obtain the grant of mines existing on the tenement in usufruct, in the form and under the conditions established by said law.

    • Article 479

      The usufructuary shall have a right to enjoy the increase, which the thing in usufruct may receive by accession, of the

      easements existing in its favor, and in general of all the benefits inherent

      in the same.

    • Article 480

      The usufructuary may personally enjoy the thing in usufruct, may lease it to another person, or may alienate his rights to the usufruct, even under a gratuitous title; but all the contracts into which he may enter, as such usufructuary, shall terminate, at the expiration of the usufruct, except that of lease of rural tenements which shall be considered as subsisting during the agricultural year.

    • Article 481

      When the usufruct embraces things, which without being destroyed , are slowly deteriorated by usage , the usufructuary

      shall have the right to make use of them in a proper way, and shall not

      be bound to return them at the determination of the usufruct, except in

      the condition in which they may be found ; but he shall be obliged to

      indemnify the owner for the wear they may have received on account of

      his malice or neglect.

    • Article 482

      When the usufruct embraces things which cannot be used without

      being destroyed, the usufructuary shall have a right to use them, under the obligation of paying the appraised

      value on the determination of the usufruct, if they were appraised when

      given to him. When they have not been appraised, he shall have the right

      to return them by giving the same amount and quality or paying their market

      price at the time of the determination of the usufruct.

    • Article 483

      The usufructuary of vineyards, olive orchards, and other trees or shrubs may use for his benefit the dead trunks and even

      those cut or torn off by accident, under the obligation of replacing them

      with others.

    • Article 484

      When in consequence of an act of God, or by an extraordinary event, the vines, olive trees, or other trees or shrubs

      are destroyed, in such a considerable number that the replanting of them

      should not be practicable, or be too onerous, the usufructuary may leave

      the dead, fallen, or broken trunks at the disposal of the owner and oblige him to remove them and

      leave the land clear.

    • Article 485

      The usufructuary of wood land may enjoy all the profits which it may produce according to its nature.

      • If the wood land is a copse or of timber for building, the usufructuary may cut trees on it or make ordinary felling such as the owner was in the habit of doing, and, in default of this, he shall make them in accordance with the usage of the place as to manner, amount, and season.

      • In any case, he shall make the cutting or felling of trees in such a manner that it will not damage the preservation of the tenement.

      • In the nurseries of trees, the usufructuary may make the thinnings required in order that the remaining trees may properly developed.

      • Besides what is provided in the preceding paragraphs, the usufructuary shall not cut the lower part of the trunk of any trees, unless it be for replacing or improving some of the things held in usufruct, and, in this case, he must give previous notice to the owner about the necessity of the work."

    • Article 486

      The usufructuary of an action to recover a tenement or a real right, or personal property has a right to enforce it, and to oblige the owner of the action to assign him for this purpose, his proper power and to provide him with any elements of evidence which he may have. When, in consequence of the enforcement of such action, he acquires the thing claimed, the usufruct shall be limited to the fruits only and the ownership shall go to the proprietor.

    • Article 487

      The usufructuary may make on the property held in usufruct any improvements, either useful or for recreation, which he

      may deem proper, provided he does not change the form or substance of

      the same; but he shall have no right to be indemnified for it. He may,

      however, remove said improvements, if it is possible to do so without

      damage to the property.

    • Article 488

      The usufructuary can set off any damages to the property with the improvements he may have made thereon.

    • Article 489

      The owner of property, the usufruct of which is held by another, may alienate it, but cannot change its form or substance nor

      do anything to the injure of the usufructuary.

    • Article 490

      The usufructuary of a part of a thing, held in common, shall exercise

      all the rights belonging to the owner of it in respect to the administration

      and collection of fruits and interests. Should the community cease on

      account of the division of the thing held in common, the usufruct of the

      part allotted to the owner or part-owner shall belong to the usufructuary.

  • Section Third  Obligation of the Usufructuary
    • Article 491

      The usufructuary, before entering upon the enjoyment of the property, shall be obliged:

      • 1

        To make, after summoning the owner or his lawful representation, an

        inventory of all the property, to have the personal property appraised,

        and to make a description of the condition of the real property.

      • 2

        To give bond binding himself to comply with the duties imposed on him

        by this section.

    • Article 492

      The provision of paragraph 2, of the preceding article, is not

      to be applied to the vendor or donor, who has reserved to himself the

      usufruct of a thing sold or donated, neither to the parent who enjoyed

      the usufruct of the property of their children, nor to the surviving consort

      as to the hereditary share granted to him or her by arts. 834, 836, and 837, except in the cases

      in which the parents or consort contract a second marriage.

    • Article 493

      The usufructuary, whatever the title for his usufruct be, may be excused from the obligation of making an inventory or of giving bond when no one will be injured thereby.

    • Article 494

      When the usufructuary has not given bond, in the cases in which he ought to have given it, the owner may require that the

      real property be placed under administration, the personal property sold,

      that public effects, and bonds, notes, stocks, etc. (valores), either to

      order or to bearer, be converted into certificates or be deposited in

      a bank or public institution, and any capital or sums in cash and money

      received from sales of personal property, be invested in safe securities.

      • Interest on money received from the sale of personal property, interest on public effects, and bonds, notes, stocks, shares,

        etc. (valores), and the proceeds of property, placed under administration,

        belong to the usufructuary.

      • Furthermore, the owner may, if he so prefers, while the usufructuary gives

        no bond or is released from it, retain in his possession the property

        of the usufruct, as administrator under the obligation of delivering the

        net proceeds to the usufructuary, after deducting the sums which may be agreed upon or may be judicially

        fixed for his services during such administration.

    • Article 495

      When the usufructuary, who has not given bond, claims, under security given by oath (cancion juratoria), the delivery

      of furniture required for his use, also a dwelling be given to him and

      his family in a house comprised in the usufruct, the Judge may assent

      to his petition, after due consideration of the facts in the case.

      • The same shall be understood about the instruments, implements, and other personal property, required for the industry in

        which it is employed.

      • When the owner should not wish that some pieces of furniture be sold,

        either on account of their artistic merit or because they have a special

        value in his eyes (precio de afeccion), he may require their delivery

        to him upon giving security for the payment of the legal interest on their

        appraised value.

    • Article 496

      After the bonds are given by the usufructuary, he shall have a right to all the proceeds from the date on which he ought

      to have begun to receive them, in accordance with the title constituting

      the usufruct.

    • Article 497

      The usufructuary is bound to take care of the property given in usufruct as any good father of a family would do.

    • Article 498

      The usufructuary, who alienates or leases his right to the usufruct, shall be liable for the damages suffered by the property

      in usufruct by the fault or neglect of the person who substitutes him.

    • Article 499

      Should the usufruct be constituted over a flock or herd of cattle, the usufructuary shall be bound to replace, with the young

      thereof, the animal dying annually or ordinarily and those carried away

      by the rapacity of preying animals.

      • Should the herd on which the usufruct is constituted wholly perish without

        fault of the usufructuary, in consequence of contagious diseases or any

        other uncommon event, the usufructuary shall fulfill his duty by delivering

        to the owner the remains saved from this misfortune.

      • Should the herd partially perish, also by accident and without the fault

        of the usufructuary, the usufruct shall continue in respect to the part

        saved. Should the usufruct be of a sterile herd, it shall be considered

        for all its effects as constituted over things perishable (fungibles).

    • Article 500

      The usufructuary is bound to make the ordinary repairs, required by the things given in usufruct. Ordinary repairs shall

      be considered those required by the wear and tear produced by the natural

      use of things, and which are indispensable for their preservation. Should

      he not make them, after receiving an intimation from the owner, the latter

      may make them at the expense of the usufructuary.

    • Article 501

      Extraordinary repairs shall be made on the account of the owner. The usufructuary is bound to notify him, when the necessity of making them is urgent.

    • Article 502

      When the owner makes extraordinary repairs, he shall be entitled to reclaim from the usufructuary the legal interest

      on the sum invested in them, during the existence of the usufruct.

      • Should he not make repairs when they are indispensable for the preservation

        of the thing, the usufructuary may make them; but he shall have a right

        to claim from the owner, on the determination of the usufruct, the increase

        in value which the tenement may have acquired on that account.

      • Should the owner refuse to refund such amounts, the usufructuary is entitled to retain the thing, until he reimburses himself

        from the proceeds thereof.

    • Article 503

      The owner may make works and improvements which may be appropriate

      for the tenement in usufruct, and new plantations on it, if it is rural property, provided the value of

      the usufruct is not diminished by such acts, nor the rights of the usufructuary

      impaired.

    • Article 504

      The payment of charges and annual taxes and of those considered as a lien on the fruits, shall be at the expense (de

      cuenta) of the usufructuary, during all the time that the usufruct lasts.

    • Article 505

      The taxes which may be imposed directly upon the capital, during the usufruct, shall be paid by the owner.

      • When the owner has paid them, the usufructuary is bound to pay him the

        legal interest upon any sums he may have disbursed for such causes, and

        when the usufructuary advances the amounts of such taxes, he shall recover

        such amounts, on the determination of the usufruct.

    • Article 506

      Should the usufruct be constituted upon the whole of a patrimony, and if, at the time of its constitution, the owner has

      debts, the provisions of arts. 642 and 643 about donations shall be applied

      to the maintenance of the usufruct as well as for the obligations of the

      usufructuary to pay such debts.

      • The same provisions are applicable in case the owner, at the time of the

        constitution of the usufruct, was obliged to pay periodical sums, even

        when there is no known principal (aunque 110 tuvieran capital conocido).

    • Article 507

      The usufructuary may personally claim the credits due which form apart of the usufruct, if he has given or gives the appropriate

      bond.. If he has been released from giving bond or if he cannot give it,

      or if the one given is not sufficient, he shall require the authorization

      of the owner or, in his default, of the Judge to collect said credits.

      • The usufructuary under bond can invest the capital in any manner he may

        deem fit. The usufructuary without bond must invest said capital at interest,

        upon agreement with the owner, in default of such an agreement, under

        judicial authorization, and, in every case, with security sufficient to

        preserve the integrity of the capital in usufruct.

    • Article 508

      The universal usufructuary shall pay in full the legacy of life annuities or the pension for support.

      • The usufructuary of an aliquot part of the estate shall pay it in proportion

        to his share.

      • In neither of the two cases shall the owner be bound to make any reimbursements.

        The usufructuary of one or more specified things shall pay the legacy

        only when the rent or pension is expressly constituted upon them.

    • Article 509

      The usufructuary of a mortgaged tenement shall not be obliged the pay the debt for the security of which the mortgage was

      given.

      • When the tenement is seized or sold for the payment of the debt, the owner

        shall be liable to the usufructuary for what he may lose on that account.

    • Article 510

      When the usufruct be for the whole or for an aliquot pare of an inheritance, the usufructuary may advance the sums which may

      belong to the property in usufruct for the payment of the debts of the

      estate and shall be entitled to claim from the owner its restoration,

      without interest, on the expiration of the usufruct.

      • When the usufructuary refuses to make this advance, the owner may ask

        for the sale of the part of the property in usufruct which may be necessary

        for the payment of such sums, or pay them with his own money with a right,

        in this last case, to claim from the usufructuary the corresponding interest.

    • Article 511

      The usufructuary is obliged to notify the owner of any act of a third party, coming to his knowledge, which may injure the

      rights of ownership, and shall be liable, should he not do so, for the

      damages and injuries as if they were caused by his own fault.

    • Article 512

      The expenses, costs, and condemnations of the suits, maintained about the usufruct, shall be charged to the usufructuary.

  • Section Fourth  Manner of Extinguishing the Usufruct
    • Article 513

      The usufruct is extinguished:

      • 1

        By the death of the usufructuary.

      • 2

        By the expiration of the term for which it was constituted or by the

        fulfillment of the resolutory condition stated in the constituting title.

      • 3

        By the merger of usufruct and ownership in the same person.

      • 4

        By renunciation of the usufructuary.

      • 5

        By total loss of the property in usufruct.

      • 6

        By determination of the right of the constituent.

      • 7

        By prescription.

    • Article 514

      If the thing given in usufruct should suffer a partial loss, the right shall continue as to the remaining part.

    • Article 515

      The usufruct cannot be constituted for over thirty years in favor of a town, a corporation or a society. Should it have been

      so constituted, and, before that time, the town becomes deserted or the

      corporation or society be dissolved, the usufruct shall be extinguished

      by such facts.

    • Article 516

      The usufruct granted for such a time, until a third party becomes of certain age, shall subsist during the number of years

      specified, even if the third party dies before, unless the usufruct has

      been expressaly granted only because of the existence of such person.

    • Article 517

      When the usufruct is constituted on a tenement of which a building may form a part, and the building should be destroyed,

      in any manner whatever, the usufructuary shall have a right to enjoy the

      use of the land and materials.

      • The same thing shall happen when the usufruct is constituted only upon the building and it should be destroyed. But, in

        such a case, if the owner wants to construct another building, he shall

        have a right to the use of the ground and of the materials, under the

        obligation of paying to the usufructuary, during the time the usufruct

        lasts, the interest upon the sum equivalent to the value of the ground

        and of the materials.

    • Article 518

      When the owner joined with the usufructuary in the insurance of the tenement, given in usufruct, he shall continue, in

      the case of loss, in the enjoyment of the new building, if constructed,

      or shall receive the interest on the amount insured, if rebuilding is

      not convenient to the owner.

      • When the owner has refused to contribute towards the insurance of the tenement and the usufructuary alone is the insurer, the

        latter shall acquire the right, in case of loss, to collect in full the

        amount of the insurance, but under the obligation of investing it in rebuilding

        the tenement.

      • Should the usufructuary refuse to contribute to the insurance and the owner be the sole insurer, the latter shall receive,

        in case of loss, the full amount of insurance, but the usufructuary shall

        always have the right granted to him in the preceding article.

    • Article 519

      When the thing in usufruct should be condemned for causes of public

      utility, the owner shall be obliged, either to replace it with another

      of the same value, and having similar conditions, or to pay to the usufructuary

      the legal interest on the amount of the indemnity, during all the time

      the usufruct is to last. If the owner chooses the second manner, he is bound to give

      security for the payment of the interest.

    • Article 520

      The usufruct is not extinguished by the bad use of the thing in usufruct; but if such abuse causes considerable damage to

      the owner, the latter may ask that the thing be delivered to him, binding

      himself to pay annually to the usufructuary the net proceeds of the same,

      after deducting the expenses and the compensation which may be allowed

      to him for the administration thereof.

    • Article 521

      The usufruct constituted in favor of several persons in existence, at the time of its constitution, shall not be extinguished

      until the death of the last survivor of them.

    • Article 522

      Upon the determination thereof, the thing held in usufruct shall be delivered to the owner, unless the right of retention

      belonging to the usufructuary or to his heirs, for expenses which they

      should recover, is enforced. After the delivery is made, the bond or the

      mortgage shall be cancelled.

• Chapter Second  Use and Habitation
  • Article 523

    The rights and duties of the persons enjoying the use and of him who has the right of habitation shall be regulated by

    the title constituting such rights, and, in default thereof, by the following

    provisions.

  • Article 524

    Use gives a right to receive, out of the fruits of another person's property, whatever may be needed to provide for the

    necessities of the person, enjoying the use, and his family, even when such

    family increases.

    • Habitation gives the person, having such a right, that of occupying in another

      person's house the apartments necessary for him and the members of his

      family.

  • Article 525

    The rights of use and habitation cannot be leased, nor transferred to another person by any title whatever.

  • Article 526

    He, who has the use of a flock or a herd of cattle, may profit of the young, milk, and wool thereof, in so far as it may be

    necessary for the consumption of himself and family, as well as of the dung

    required for manuring the land cultivated by him.

  • Article 527

    When the person enjoying the use, consumes alt the fruits of another person's property, or when he, who has the right

    of habitation, occupies the whole house, he will be bound to pay all the

    expenses of cultivation, of ordinary repairs for the preservation thereof, as well as the taxes, in the same manner as

    the usufructuary.

    • When the receives only a part of the fruits, or dwjells only in a part of

      the house, he shall make no payments, provided that a part of the fruits

      or benefits, sufficient to cover the expenses and charges, remain to the

      owner. If they are not sufficient, the former shall pay the deficiency.

  • Article 528

    The provisions established for usufruct apply to the rights of use and habitation, in so far as they do not conflict with what

    is provided in this chapter.

  • Article 529

    The rights of use and habitation are extinguished by the same causes as that of usufruct, and besides by serious abuse of the

    thing or dwelling.

• Chapter First  Easements in General
  • Section First  Different Classes of Easements Which may be Established on Tenements
    • Article 530

      An easement is a charge imposed upon real property or a tenement for the benefit of another tenement belonging to

      a different owner.

      • The tenement in favor of which the easement is constituted is called the

        dominant tenement, and the one suffering it, the servient tenement.

    • Article 531

      Easements can also be established for the benefit of one or more persons or for a community to whom the encumbered tenement

      does not belong.

    • Article 532

      Easements may be continuous or discontinuous, apparent or not apparent.

      • Continuous are those the use of which is or may be incessant without the

        intervention of any human act.

      • Discontinuous are those used at short or long intervals and which depend

        upon human acts.

      • Apparent are those which are well known and are continually in sight by external signs, revealing their use and benefit.

      • Not apparent are those which present no external show of their existence.

    • Article 533

      Easements are also either positive or negative.

      • A positive easement is one which imposes upon the owner of the servient

        tenement the obligation of allowing something to be done or doing it himself,

        and a negative easement is one which forbids the owner of the servient

        tenement doing some thing which should be licit for him to do, if the

        easement did not exist.

    • Article 534

      Easements are inseparable from the tenement to which they actively or passively belong.

    • Article 535

      Easements' are indivisible. When the servient tenement is divided among two or more persons, the easement is not modified

      and each of them has to suffer the part corresponding to it.

      • If the dominant tenemen tis the one so divided, each part-holder may use

        the easement wholly, provided the place of its use is not changed , nor

        if it is not aggravated in any form.

    • Article 536

      Easements are established either by law or by the will of the owners. The former are called legal and the latter voluntary

      easements.

  • Section Second  Manner of Acquiring Easements
    • Article 537

      Continuous and apparent easements are acquired, either by a title or by prescription of twenty years.

    • Article 538

      In order to acquire by prescription , easements, referred to in the preceding article, the time of the possession shall

      be counted, in positive easements, from the day on which the owner of

      the dominant tenement or the one who has made use of the easement, has

      commenced to exert it over the servient tenement; and in negative easements,

      from the date on which the owner of the dominant tenement has, in a formal

      manner, forbidden the owner of the servient one, the execution of the

      act which might have been licit, had the easement not existed.

    • Article 539

      Continuous and not apparent easements and discontinuous ones, either apparent or not, can only be acquired under a title.

    • Article 540

      The want of constitutive title of easements, which cannot be acquired by prescription, can only be remedied by deed of acknowledgment

      executed by the owner of the servient tenement or by a final sentence.

    • Article 541

      The existence of apparent sign of an easement, between two tenements, established by the owner of both of them, shall

      be considered, should one be sold, as a title for the purpose that the

      easement should continue actively and passively, unless, at the time of

      the division of the ownership of both tenements, the contrary should be

      expressed in the deed of conveyance of either of them, or if such sign

      is taken away before the execution of such deed.

    • Article 542

      Whenever an easement is established, all the rights required for its use are considered as granted.

  • Section Third  Rights and Obligations of Owners of Dominant and Servient Tenements
    • Article 543

      The owner of the dominant tenement may make, at his own expense

      on the servient tenement, all the works necessary for its use and maintenance

      of the easement but without changing it or rendering it more grievous.

      • He must choose for it the most convenient time and form for the purpose of causing the least possible trouble to the owner of

        the servient tenement.

    • Article 544

      When there are several dominant tenements, the owners of all of them are bound to contribute to the expenses, referred

      to in the preceding article, in proportion to the benefit, which each

      may obtain from the work. He, who does not wish to contribute, may exempt

      himself by renouncing his interest in the easement for the benefit of

      the others.

      • If the owner of the servient tenement should, in any manner, profit by

        the easement, he shall be obliged to contribute to the expenses in the

        proportion, already stated, unless there is a stipulation to the contrary.

    • Article 545

      The owner of the servient tenement shall not impair, in any manner,

      the use of a constituted easement.

      • However, if by reason of the place originally assigned or by the form

        established for the use of the easement, this should become too troublesome

        to the owner of the servient tenement or should prevent him from making

        works, repairs, or important improvements, it may be changed, at his expense;

        provided, he offers another place or manner equally convenient, or a way

        that may not cause any injury to the owner of the dominant tenement or

        to those who have a right to the use of the easement.

  • Section Fourth  Manner in Which Easements are Extinguished
    • Article 546

      Easement are extinguished:

      • 1

        By merger in the same person of the ownership of the servient and dominant

        tenements.

      • 2

        By non-use during twenty years. In discontinuous easements, this term

        shall commence to be counted from the day on which it has ceased to be

        used; and, in respect to continuous ones, from the date on which an act in opposition

        to the easement may have taken place.

      • 3

        When the tenements become in such condition that the easement cannot be used, but this shall revive, if later on, the condition

        of the tenements permits it to be used, unless, when the use becomes possible,

        sufficient time has elapsed for the prescription in accordance with the

        provisions of the preceding article.

      • 4

        When the day matures, or when the condition is complied with, in case

        the easement is temporal or conditional.

      • 5

        By the renunciation of the owner of the dominant tenement.

      • 6

        By redemption agreed to between the owners of the dominant and servient tenements.

    • Article 547

      The form of using the easement may be prescribed just in the same manner as the easement.

    • Article 548

      When the dominant tenement belongs to several persons in common, the use of the easement made by one of them, prevents the prescription in regard to the others.

• Chapter Second  Legal Easements
  • Section First  General Provisions
    • Article 549

      The object of the easements, established by law, is either public utility or private interest.

    • Article 550

      Anything concerning easements, established for public or for common

      utility, shall be governed by the special laws and regulations controlling them, and, in default thereof, by the

      provisions of the present title.

    • Article 551

      Easements, established by law for the interests of private persons or for causes of private utility, shall be controlled

      by the provisions of the present title, without conflicting with what

      is established by the general laws, by rules and ordinances or local ones

      about city or rural police.

      • These easements may be modified by agreement among the interested parties,

        whenever the law does not forbid it, or it causes no damage to a third

        party.

  • Section Second  Easements Relating to Waters
    • Article 552

      Inferior tenements are obliged to receive the waters, which naturally

      and without the intervention of man, come down from the superior tenements,

      as well as the stone or earth which they may drag along in their course.

      • Neither can the owner of the inferior tenement make works which may prevent

        such an easement, nor can the owner of the superior one construct works

        aggravating it.

    • Article 553

      The banks of the rivers, even when they are of private ownership,

      are subject in all their extent and margins, within a zone of three metres, to the easement of public use for the general

      interest of navigation, floatation, fishing, and salvage.

      • Tenements, adjacent to the banks of navigable or floatable rivers, are,

        besides, subject to the easement of a tow-path for the exclusive service

        of fluvial navigation and floatation.

      • Should it be necessary to occupy, for such purpose, lands of private ownership,

        the corresponding indemnity shall previously be paid.

    • Article 554

      Whenever for the diversion or taking of waters from a river or brook, or for the use of other continuous or discontinuous currents, it should be necessary to construct a dam, and the person who is to do it, is not the owner of the bank or of the land required as a support for it, he may establish the easement for abutment of the dam, by previously paying the proper indemnity (to the owner).

    • Article 555

      Forced easements for taking water and for drinking troughs for animals (abrevadero) can be imposed only for causes of public

      utility in favor of some town or village, indemnity having been previously

      paid.

    • Article 556

      The easements for taking water and for watering animals carry

      with them the obligation on the servient tenements of giving passage for

      the persons and animals up to the place where they can be utilized, and

      the indemnity must embrace this service.

    • Article 557

      Whoever wishes to make use of waters, of which he can dispose for the use of a tenement belonging to him, has the right

      of causing it to pass through intermediate tenements, but he is obliged

      to indemnify the owners, and also those of the inferior tenements, upon

      which the waters may filter or fall.

    • Article 558

      A person desiring to make use of the rights granted in the preceding

      article is obliged:

      • 1

        To prove that he is entitled to dispose of the water, and that such

        water is sufficient for the use intended.

      • 2

        To show that the passage way which he asks is the most convenient and less onerous to a third party.

      • 3

        To indemnify the owner of the servient tenement in the form provided by the laws and regulations.

    • Article 559

      The easement of an aqueduct for purposes of private interest cannot be imposed upon buildings nor their yards or dependencies,

      nor over gardens or orchards already in existence.

    • Article 560

      The easement of an aqueduct does not prevent the owner of the servient tenement from closing and fencing it, nor from building over the acqueduct, in such a manner, that it may suffer no damage nor render impossible the necessary cleanings and repairs.

    • Article 561

      The easement of aqueduct for its legal effects shall be considered as continuous and apparent, even when the passage of the water

      is not continuous or its use depends on the necessities of the dominant

      tenement, or, in turn, established by days or hours.

    • Article 562

      He, who for irrigating his tenement or improving it, has need to construct a stop-lock or a sluice-gate in a mill race, through which it is to receive water, may exact that the owners of the banks allow the construction of the same, upon his previously paying all damages and injuries, including those caused by the new easement to the said owners and to all other persons who irrigate.

    • Article 563

      The establishment, extent, form, and conditions of the easements of waters, to which this section refers, shall be governed by the special law on the matter in all that is not provided in this Code.

  • Section Third  Easement of Ways
    • Article 564

      The owner of a tenement or property enclosed by others, belonging

      to several owners, and having no ingress or egress to public roads, is

      entitled to exact a way or passage through the adjacent tenements, by

      previously paying the proper indemnity.

      • If this easement is constituted in such a manner that its use may be continuous

        for all the necessities of the dominant tenement, establishing a permanent

        way, then the indemnity shall comprise the value of the land occupied

        by it, and the amount of damage caused to the servient tenement.

      • When it is limited to the way required for the cultivation of the tenement,

        enclosed by others, and for the transportation of its crops through the

        servient tenement, without a permanent way, the indemnity shall consist

        in the payment of the injury caused by such burden.

    • Article 565

      The easement of way is to be located in the place where it shall cause the least damage to the servient tenement, in so far as consistent with this rule, through the place where the distance from the dominant tenement to the public road may be the shortest.

    • Article 566

      The width of the easement of way shall be that which may be sufficient for the necessities of the dominant tenement.

    • Article 567

      When a tenement , acquired by sale, barter or partition, remains enclosed by other tenements of the vendor, barterer or co-owner, he shall be obliged to grant to it the right of way, without indemnity, unless there is an agreement to the contrary.

    • Article 568

      If the way granted to an enclosed tenement ceases to be necessary

      because the owner has joined it to another, adjacent to the public road, the owner of the servient tenement may demand the extinguishment of the easement, returning what he has received as an indemnity therefor.

      • The same thing is to be done in the event of the opening of a new road giving access to the enclosed tenement.

    • Article 569

      When it is indispensable for the construction or repair of some

      building to carry the materials over another's tenement, or place scaffolding or other things on it for the work, the

      owner of such tenement is obliged to consent to it, receiving an indemnity

      in proportion to the injury it may have caused him.

    • Article 570

      Existing easements for the passage of animals, known under the

      name of sheep-walk (canada), way, foot-path, or any others, and those of watering, and resting places, and sheep-cot

      shall be governed by the ordinances and regulations on the matter and,

      in default thereof, by the uses and customs of the place.

      • In any case a walk shall not exceed in width seventy five metres, a way,

        thirty seven metres, fifty centimetres, and a path twenty metres, except

        when they cause damages to rights lawfully acquired.

      • When it may be necessary to establish a forcible easement of way or that

        of a drinking trough for cattle, the provisions of this section and of

        arts. 555 and 556 shall be followed. In this case the width shall not

        exceed ten metres.

  • Section Fourth  Easements of Party-Walls and Fences
    • Article 571

      The easements of party-walls and fences shall be governed by the provisions of this title, and by local ordinances and uses, in so far as they are not in conflict with them and no provisions exist in regard to the same.

    • Article 572

      The easement of party-walls and fences is presumed, whilst there is no title or exterior mark or proof to the contrary:

      • 1

        In dividing walls of contiguous buildings up to the point of elevation

        in common.

      • 2

        In dividing walls of gardens or yards, situated in cities or in the

        country.

      • 3

        In fences, enclosures, and live hedges, dividing rural tenements.

    • Article 573

      It is understood that there are exterior signs, contrary to the easement of party- wall, and fences:

      • 1

        When, in dividing walls of buildings, there are windows or openings.

      • 2

        When the dividing wall is, on one side, straight and vertical in all

        its facemeut and is also similar in the upper part of the other side,

        but in the lower part thereof it is tapering or has steps.

      • 3

        When the wall appears built entirely on the land of one of the tenements,

        and not half and half between the contiguous tenements.

      • 4

        When it bears the burden of the binding beams, floors, and roof frame

        of one of the houses and not of the contiguous one.

      • 5

        When the dividing walls between yards, gardens, and rural tenements

        is so constructed that the coping sheds the waters towards one of the

        tenements.

      • 6

        When the dividing wall, being constructed of stones, shows stepping

        stones, which, from distance to distance, jut out of the surface only

        on one side and not on the other.

      • 7

        When rural tenements, contiguous to others, included by fences or live

        hedges, are not closed. In all these cases, the ownership of the walls,

        enclosures, or hedges shall be understood to belong exclusively to the

        owner of the property or tenement who has in his favor the presumption

        based on any one of the above mentioned signs.

    • Article 574

      Ditches or drains, opened between tenements, are also considered, as common, when there is no title or sign showing the contrary.

      • There is a sign contrary to part-ownership, when the earth or dirt excavated

        for opening the ditch or for its cleaning is only on one side thereof,

        in which case the ownership of the ditch shall belong exclusively to the

        owner of the tenement, having in its favor this exterior sign.

    • Article 575

      The repairs and construction of party- walls and maintenance of enclosures, live-hedges, ditches, and drains, in common,

      shall be borne by all the owners of the tenements, who are interested

      in the same, in proportion to the rights of each one of them.

      • However, every owner may refuse to contribute to this charge by renouncing

        the part-ownership, except in the case when the party-wall supports his

        own building.

    • Article 576

      hen the owner of a building, which is supported by a party-wall, desires to demolish it, he may also renounce the part-ownership

      but he shall also pay for all repairs and works required for preventing,

      only on such occasion, damages which the demolition may cause to the party-wall.

    • Article 577

      Every owner may construct a party-wall by raising it, at his own expense, and indemnifying (persons) against any damage

      which may be caused by the work, even when such damage is temporary.

      • He shall also have to pay for the expenses of maintaining the wall or

        the part newly raised or for the deepening of its foundations, compared

        with what they were before, and besides the indemnity for the further

        expenses which may be required to be incurred to maintain the party-wall

        by reason of the greater height or depth which has been added to it.

      • If the party-wall cannot bear the greater height, the owner desiring

        to raise it, shall be obliged to rebuild, at his own expense, and, if

        it is necessary to make it thicker, he shall give the extra space for

        it from his own land.

    • Article 578

      The other owners, who have not contributed in giving greater height, depth or thickness to the wall, may, however, acquire in it the right of party ownership by paying proportionally for the amount of the work and one half of the value of the land appropriated in giving it greater thickness.

    • Article 579

      Each owner of a party-wall may use it in proportion to the right he has in the part-ownership ; he may, therefore build, supporting

      his construction on the party- wall, or introduce joists up to one-half

      of the thickness thereof, but without impeding the common and respective

      uses of the other part-owners.

      • The part-owner, in order to use this right, must previously obtain the

        consent of the other parties interested in the part-ownership; and, if

        he cannot obtain it, the conditions required, in order that the new work

        may not injure the right of the part-owners, shall be fixed by experts.

  • Section Fifth  Easement of Light and Views
    • Article 580

      No part-owner, can, without the consent of the other, make in the party-wall a window or an opening of any kind.

    • Article 581

      The owner of a wall which is not a party-wall, contiguous to the tenement of another person, may make in it windows or

      openings to receive light, at the height of the ceiling joists or near

      the ceiling, of the dimensions of 30 centimetres square, and, in any event,

      with an iron grate imbedded in the wall and a wire netting.

      • However, the owner of the house or tenement, contiguous to the wall where

        the openings are made, may close them, if he acquires the part ownership

        of the wall and if the contrary has not been agreed upon.

      • He may also obstruct them by building on his land or raising a wall, adjacent to that having such opening or window.

    • Article 582

      It is forbidden to open windows with direct views or balconies or any similar openings jutting out over the property of

      the neighbor, if there is not a distance of, at least, two metres from

      the wall on which they are constructed to said property.

      • Neither can side or oblique views be opened over said property, unless

        there is (similarly) a distance of sixty centimetres.

    • Article 583

      The distances, to which the preceding article refers, are to be measured where there are direct views, from the exterior line of the wall when the openings do not jut out, and from the line of these openings when they exist, and for slanting views from the dividing line of both tenements.

    • Article 584

      The provisions of art. 582 do not apply to buildings separated by a public way.

    • Article 585

      When, under any title, right has been acquired to have direct views, balconies, or belvederes over contiguous property,

      the owner of the servient tenement shall not build thereon, at a distance

      less than three metres, to be measured as stated in art. 583.

  • Section Sixth  Drainage of Buildings
    • Article 586

      The owner of a building is obliged to construct his roofs or covers in such a manner that rain water may fall on his own land or on the street or a public place, and not on the land of his neighbor. Even if it falls on his own land, the owner is obliged to collect it, in such a way, that it will not cause damage to the neighboring tenement.

    • Article 587

      The owner or the tenement suffering the easement of receiving water, discharged from roofs, may so build as to receive the

      waters upon his own roof or give them another diversion, in accordance

      with local ordinances or customs, in such a manner as not to cause any

      burden or damage whatever to the dominant tenement.

    • Article 588

      When the yard or court of a house is enclosed between others,

      and it is not possible to give an outlet through the same house to the rain water collected in it, the establishment of

      an easement of outlet may be claimed to give passage to the waters through

      the place of the contiguous tenement, where the egress is the easiest,

      and to establish a conduit for the egress, in such a way, as to cause

      the least damage to the servient tenement, upon the payment of a proper indemnity.

  • Section Seventh  Distances and Intermediate Works For Certain Constructions and Plantations
    • Article 589

      It is forbidden to construct buildings or to make plantations near fortified cities or fortresses, without submitting to the prescriptions of the laws, ordinances, and regulations, peculiar to this matter.

    • Article 590

      No one shall construct, near a wall belonging to a third party or a party-wall, wells, sewers, aqueducts, furnaces, forges,

      chinneys, stables, deposits of corrosive matters, factories driven by

      steam, or factories which by themselves or by their products are dangerous or noxious, without observing the distances prescribed

      by the regulations and uses of the place, and without making the necessary

      protective works, with subjection, as to form, to the conditions prescribed

      by said regulations.

      • In default of ordinances, precautions, considered necessary, shall be

        taken, after expert's inspection, for the purpose of avoiding all injuries

        to the neighboring tenements or buildings.

    • Article 591

      No trees shall be planted near another man's tenement, unless

      it is at the distances authorized by the ordinances or customs of the

      place, and, in default of these, it shall be at a distance of two metres

      from the dividing line of the tenements, if the planting is made of tall

      trees, and at fifty centimetres, if the planting is made of shrubs or

      small trees.

      • Every owner has a right to ask that trees, which may be planted in the

        future at a shorter distance from his tenement, shall be uprooted.

    • Article 592

      Should the branches of any tree extend over a neighboring tenement, gardens or yards, the owner of the latter shall

      have a right to claim that they be cut, in so far as they extend over

      his property; and should the roots of the neighboring trees extend through

      the land of another person, the owner of the land which is penetrated

      may himself cut them, in so far as they are within his tenement.

    • Article 593

      Trees existing in a party live-hedge shall also be considered

      as party-trees, and any one of the owners has a right to exact that they

      be felled. Trees serving as land- marks are excepted, and they may only be uprooted by mutual agreement amongst the adjoining owners.

• Chapter Third  Voluntary Easements
  • Article 594

    Every owner of a tenement has a right to burden it with all the

    easements he may deem fit, and in the manner and form that he may like best, provided he does not violate either

    the laws or the public order.

  • Article 595

    The owner of a tenement, the usufruct of which belongs to another person, may impose upon it, without the consent of the

    usufructuary, any easements which may not damage the rights of usufruct.

  • Article 596

    When the direct dominion of a tenement belongs to one person and the beneficial dominion to another, no perpetual voluntary easement can be established upon it, without the consent of both owners.

  • Article 597

    The consent of every part-owner shall be required in order to impose an easement over an undivided tenement.

    • The concession, made by some of them, shall remain in suspension until every

      one of the joint or common owners agrees to it.

    • But the concession, made by one of the part-owners severally, shall bind the grantors and his successors, even if they hold

      under a particular title, not to prevent the exercise of the right granted.

  • Article 598

    The title, and in some cases, the possession of an easement acquired by prescription, determines the right of the dominant

    tenement and the obligation of the servient tenement. In default of them,

    the easement shall be governed by the provisions of the present title which

    may apply to it.

  • Article 599

    When the owner of the servient tenement has bound himself, at the time of constituting the easement, to pay for the works

    required for the use and maintenance of the same, he may free himself from

    this charge, by abandoning his tenement to the owner of the dominant tenement.

  • Article 600

    Pasturage in common shall only be established, in the future, by express concession of the owners, to be proven by a contract

    or a last will, and shall not be made in favor of a universality of persons

    or a universality of property, but in favor of specified persons and over

    tenements also specified and determined.

    • The easement, established in accordance with this article, shall be governed

      by the title of its institution.

  • Article 601

    Pasturage in common in public land, whether it belongs to the municipalities or to the State, shall be governed by the

    administrative laws.

  • Article 602

    When pasturage in common, exists amongst the residents of one or more villages, the owner, who encloses a tenement with

    a fence or a hedge, shall free the same from the pasturage in common. However,

    the other easements established over the same, shall remain subsistent.

    • The owner who closes his tenement shall keep his right to the pasturage

      in common in the other tenements not enclosed.

  • Article 603

    The owner of land, burdened with the easement of pasturage, may

    redeem this charge by paying its value to the persons having the rights

    to the easement.

    • In default of an agreement, the capital for such redemption shall be fixed

      upon the basis of 4% of the annual value of the pasturage, regulated by

      appraisal by experts.

  • Article 604

    The provision of the preceding article applies to easements established for the use of fuel and other products of wood which

    belong to private property.

• Sole Chapter
  • Article 605

    The registry of property has for its object the inscription or annotation of the acts and contracts relating to domain and other real rights pertaining to real property.

  • Article 606

    The titles of dominion or of other real rights, relating to real property which are not duly inscribed or annotated in the Registry of Property, work no injury to third parties.

  • Article 607

    The Registry of Property shall be public for those who have a known

    interest in investigating the condition of real property or real rights annotated or inscribed therein.

  • Article 608

    The provisions of the Law of Mortage shall control the determination of titles, subject to inscription or annotation, the form,

    effect, and extinction of the same, and the manner of keeping the Registry

    and value of the entries in the books thereof.

• Article 609

  Ownership is acquired by occupancy. Ownership and other rights over

  property are acquired and transmitted by law, by donation, by succession,

  either testate or intestate, and by tradition in consequence of certain contracts.

  • They may also be acquired by prescription.

• Article 610

  By occupancy are acquired things appropriable, on account of their nature, which have no owners, as the animals which are

  objects of hunting and fishing, hidden treasures, and abandoned personal property.

• Article 611

  The right to hunt and fish is governed by special laws.

• Article 612

  The owner of a swarm of bees shall have a right to pursue the same on another person's tenement, indemnifying its possessor

  for the damage caused thereby. Should the tenement be enclosed, he shall need

  the consent of the owner to enter it.

  • If the owner has not pursued, or abandons the pursuit of the swarm for two

    successive days, the possessor of the tenement may occupy or retain the swarm.

  • The owner of tamed animals may also claim them during the twenty days following

    their occupation by another. After this term has elapsed, they shall belong

    to him who has caught and kept them.

• Article 613

  Pigeons, rabbits, and fish, which from their respective breeding places, should pass to another, belonging to a different owner, shall become the property of the latter, unless they have been enticed away through some trickery or fraud.

• Article 614

  He, who by chance, finds a treasure, hidden on another man's property, shall have the right granted to him by art. 351 of

  this Code.

• Article 615

  He who finds any personal property, not a treasure, must return it

  to its former possessor. Should the possessor be not known, he must deliver

  it immediately to the mayor of the town where the finding has been made.

  • The mayor shall publish (notice of it) in the usual form, for two successive

    Sundays.

  • If the personal property found cannot be kept without injury or without causing

    expenses which may greatly reduce its value, it shall be sold at public auction,

    after eight days have elapsed from the second advertisement, without the owner

    having appeared, and the proceeds shall be deposited.

  • After two years have elapsed from the date of the second publication, without

    the owner having appeared, the thing found or its value shall be adjudged

    to the finder of it.

  • He, or the owner as the case may be, shall be obliged to pay the expenses

    caused.

• Article 616

  Should the owner appear, in due time, he shall be obliged to pay, as a reward to the person who found the thing, a tenth part

  of the sum or of the value of the article found. When the value of article

  exceeds 2,000 pesetas, the reward shall be reduced to one twentieth part thereof

  in respect to any excess over that amount.

• Article 617

  Rights in respects to flotsam and jetsam, whatever their nature be, or in plants or herbs, grown on sea shore, are regulated by special laws.

• Chapter First  Nature of Donations
  • Article 618

    Donation is an act of liberality by which any person disposes gratuitously of a thing in favor of another who accepts it.

  • Article 619

    What is given to a person, on account of his merits or for services rendered to the donor, is also a donation, provided it does

    not constitute a recoverable debt, and a donation is also what imposes upon

    the donee a burden inferior to the amount donated.

  • Article 620

    Donations which are to become effective upon the death of the donor partake of the nature of dispositions by last will and

    shall be governed by the laws on testamentary succession.

  • Article 621

    Donations which are to produce effects inter vivos shall be governed by the general provisions of contracts and obligations,

    in whatever is not prescribed in this title.

  • Article 622

    Donations having onerous causes, shall be regulated by the laws of contracts, and remunerative ones, by the provisions of the

    present title, in respect to the part exceeding the value of the burden

    imposed.

  • Article 623

    A donation is perfected upon the donor having knowledge of its acceptance by the donee.

• Chapter Second  Persons Who Can Make or Receive Donations
  • Article 624

    All persons who can contract and dispose of their property may make donations.

  • Article 625

    All persons, who are not especially incapacitated from it by law, may accept donations.

  • Article 626

    Persons, who cannot contract, cannot accept conditional or onerous donations, without the intervention of their lawful representative.

  • Article 627

    Donations made to persons, conceived but yet unborn, may be accepted

    by the persons who should lawfully represent them, were they already born.

  • Article 628

    Donations made to incapable persons are null and void, though made in a concealed way, under the appearance of another contract,

    by intermediate persons.

  • Article 629

    A donation does not bind the donor nor produce any effect until it is accepted.

  • Article 630

    The donee shall accept the donation personally or by a person authorized by a special power for such purpose or having a general

    and sufficient power of attorney, otherwise it shall be null.

  • Article 631

    Persons accepting a donation, in behalf of others who cannot accept it personally, are obliged to obtain the notification

    and annotation to which art. 633 refers.

  • Article 632

    Donations of personal property may be made verbally or in writing. Verbal donations require the simultaneous delivery of the

    thing donated. In default of this requirement, the donation shall produce

    no effect, unless made in writing and the acceptance is shown in the same

    form.

  • Article 633

    In order that the donation of real property may be valid, it shall be made in a public deed and have expressed therein, severally,

    the property donated, and the amount of the encumbrances which the donee

    is obliged to satisfy.

    • The acceptance may be made in the same deed of donation or in a distinct

      one; but it shall produce no effects, unless made during the life of the

      donor.

    • When made in a distinct deed, notice of the acceptance shall be given to

      the donor, in an authentic manner, and this step shall be annotated in both

      deeds.

• Chapter Third  Effects and Limitations of Donations
  • Article 634

    A donation may comprise all the actual property of the donor or

    a part of it, provided he reserves in fee- simple or in usufruct, what is required for his support in a condition

    con spending to his circumstances.

  • Article 635

    A donation cannot embrace future property. As future property is considered that which the donor cannot dispose of at the time of the donation.

  • Article 636

    Notwithstanding, what is provided in art. 634, no person can give or receive, by donation, more than what he can give or receive

    by testament.

    • A donation shall be considered inofficious in all that exceeds such limits.

  • Article 637

    When a donation has been made to several persons conjointly, it shall be understood as in equal shares; and there shall be

    among them no right of accretion, unless the donor has otherwise ordered.

    • From these provisions are excepted donations made to husband and wife conjointly, between whom such right shall obtain, unless the donor has disposed to the contrary.

  • Article 638

    The donee is subrogated to all the rights and actions which, in case of eviction, should belong to the donor. The latter

    on his part shall not be bound to warrant the things donated, unless the

    donation is onerous, in which case, the donor shall be liable for the eviction

    to the amount of the encumbrance.

  • Article 639

    The donor can reserve to himself the right to dispose of some of the property donated or of some amount as a lien over it; but

    should he die without making use of this right, the property or the sum,

    which the donor reserved, shall belong to the donee.

  • Article 640

    The ownership of a thing can also be donated to a person, and its usufruct to another or others, under the limitations established

    by art., 781 of this Code.

  • Article 641

    The reversion in favor of the donor only, in any case and under any circumstances , can also be validly established, but

    not in favor of other persons, except in the same cases and under equal

    limitations, as provided for in this Code for testamentary substitutions.

    • The reversion, stipulated by the donor in favor of a third party, against

      the provisions of the preceding paragraph, is null and void, but it shall

      not cause an annulment of the donation.

  • Article 642

    When the donation has been made/ imposing on the donee the duty of paying the debts of the donor, if the clause contained no further declaration, it shall be understood that the donee is only bound to pay those contracted before the donation.

  • Article 643

    When there is no stipulation about the payment of debts, the donee

    shall be liable for them only in case that the donation has been made in

    fraud of the creditors.

    • The donation shall always be presumed to be made in fraud of the creditors, when, at the time of making it, the donor has not

      reserved for himself property sufficient to pay the debts contracted before

      the donation.

• Chapter Fourth  Revocation and Reduction of Donations
  • Article 644

    Every donation inter vivos made by a person having no legitimate

    children nor descendants nor legitimated by subsequent marriage, becomes

    revoked by the mere fact of the occurrence of any of the following cases:

    • 1

      When the donor, after the donation, has legitimate or legitimated, or

      recognized natural children, even if they be posthumous.

    • 2

      When the child of the donor, whom he supposed dead when he made the donation,

      is found to be alive.

  • Article 645

    When the donation is rescinded by the supervention of children, the things donated shall be returned to the donor, or the value

    thereof, if the donee has sold them.

    • If they have been mortgaged, the donor may cancel the mortgage, paying the

      sum secured by it, and having a right to reclaim from the donee the sum

      paid.

    • When the things cannot be restored, they shall be appraised at the price

      they were worth when the donation was made.

  • Article 646

    The action of revocation by supervention of children shall be prescribed upon the lapse of five years, to be counted from the

    birth of the last child or from the legitimation or recognition, or from

    the time news was received of the existence of the child believed dead.

    • This action cannot be renounced and, on the death of the donor, passes to

      his children and to their legitimate issue.

  • Article 647

    The donation shall be revoked on petition of the donor, when the donee has not complied with some of the conditions imposed

    upon him by the donor.

    • In this case, the things donated shall revert to the donor, and all the

      transfers made by the donee and the mortgages with which he may have burdened

      them, shall become null and void, with the limitations as to third parties,

      provided for in the Law of Mortgage.

  • Article 648

    Donations may also be revoked, on petition of the donor, for causes of ingratitude in the following cases:

    • 1

      When the donee commits any crime against the person the honor, or the

      property, of the donor.

    • 2

      When the donee charges the donor with any of the crimes which give cause to official proceedings or public accusation, even

      if he proves it; unless the crime has been committed against the donee himself,

      his wife, or the children under his authority.

    • 3

      When the donee unduly refuses him support.

  • Article 649

    When a donation is revoked for causes of ingratitude, the transfers

    or mortgages, executed before the annotation of the complaint for revocation

    in the Registry of Property, shall, however, remain valid.

    • All those made, after this time, shall be null and void.

  • Article 650

    In the cases, to which the first paragraph of the preceding article refers, the donor shall have a right to exact from the

    donee the value of the things sold, which he cannot recover from third parties,

    or the sum for which they have been mortgaged.

    • For the regulation of the value of such things, the time at which the donation

      was made will be considered.

  • Article 651

    When the donation is revoked by any of the causes, stated in art. 644 or for ingratitude, or when it shall be reduced on account

    of being inofficious, the donee shall not return the fruits, except from

    the date of the presentation of the complaint.

    • When the revocation is based on the failure to comply with any one of the

      conditions imposed by the donation, the donee shall, besides the property,

      return the fruits he has collected after the non-compliance with such conditions.

  • Article 652

    The action granted to the donor for causes of ingratitude cannot be renounced in advance. This action is prescribed, after

    the lapse of one year to be counted from the time the donor has knowledge

    of the fact and has been able to enforce the action.

  • Article 653

    This action shall not be transmitted to the heirs of the donor,

    if he did not enforce it when he could have done so.

    • Neither can it be enforced against the heirs of the donee, unless, at his

      death, the complaint had already been presented.

  • Article 654

    Donations which, in accordance with the provisions of art. 636, are found to be inofficious, after computing the net value

    of the property of the donor, at the time of his death, shall be reduced

    as to the excess, but this reduction shall not prevent them from being effectual

    during the life of the donor, nor the donee from appropriating fruits to

    his own use.

    • The reduction of donations shall be governed by the provisions of this chapter

      and by arts. 820 and 821 of the present Code.

  • Article 655

    The reduction of donations can be claimed only by the persons who

    are entitled to legitime or an aliquot part of the estate, and their heirs,

    or persons holding rights under them.

    • Persons comprised in the preceding article cannot renounce this right during

      the life of the donor, neither by express declaration nor by giving their

      consent to the donation.

    • The donees, the legatees who are not to receive an aliquot part, and the

      creditors of the decedent, cannot ask for this reduction or be benefited

      by it.

  • Article 656

    When there are two or more donations, and all cannot be covered by the free part of the estate, those of later date shall either be cancelled or reduced as to the excessive part.

• General Provisions
  • Article 657

    The rights to the succession of a person are transmitted from the moment of his death.

  • Article 658

    Succession is bestowed, either by the will of a man as expressed in his testament or, in its default, by disposition of law.

    • The first is called testamentary, the second legitimate succession.

    • It may also be bestowed partly by will of man and partly by disposition of law.

  • Article 659

    Inheritance embraces all the property, rights, and obligations of a person, which are not extinguished by his death.

  • Article 660

    An heir is a person inheriting under an universal title; and a legatee, one inheriting under a special title.

  • Article 661

    Heirs succeed the decedent in all his rights and obligations by the mere fact of his death.

• Chapter First  Testaments
  • Section First  Capacity to Dispose by Testament
    • Article 662

      All persons who are not expressly forbidden by law may make a testament.

    • Article 663

      The following are incapable of making testaments:

      • 1

        Minors of both sexes under fourteen years of age.

      • 2

        Persons, who customarily or accidentally, are not of sound mind.

    • Article 664

      A testament made before mental alienation is valid.

    • Article 665

      Whenever a lunatic pretends to make a testament, during a lucid interval, the Notary shall appoint two physicians who shall examine him previously, and he shall not execute the testament unless they assume the responsibility for the capacity of the testator, and they shall testify to their opinion in the testament, which shall be subscribed by the physicians besides the witnesses.

    • Article 666

      For the appreciation of the capacity of the testator, attention shall be exclusively given to his condition at the time of the

      execution of the testament.

  • Section Second  Testaments in General
    • Article 667

      The act by which a person disposes of all his property or of a part of it, to take effect after his death, is called a testament (or will).

    • Article 668

      The testator can dispose of his property, either under title of inheritance or under that of legacy.

      • In case of doubt, even if the testator has not actually used the word

        "heir", if his will appears clearly on this point , his disposition shall

        be valid as made under a title, either universal or of inheritance.

    • Article 669

      Two or more persons cannot make a testament conjointly or, in the same instrument, either for their reciprocal benefit

      or for the benefit of a third party.

    • Article 670

      A testament is absolutely a personal act, the making of it, either wholly or partially, cannot be left to the discretion of

      a third party nor can it be made by a trustee or attorney.

      • Neither can there be left to the discretion of a third party, the permanency

        of the appointment of heirs or legatees, nor the designations of the portions

        they are to take, when they are nominally instituted.

    • Article 671

      The testator may commit to a third party the distribution of the sums which he may leave in general to specified classes,

      such as relatives, the poor, or beneficent institutions, and also the

      election of the persons or institutions to which such sums are applied.

    • Article 672

      Any disposition about the institution of heir, bequest, or legacy, made by the testator, referring to memoranda or private

      papers which after his death may appear in his domicil or out of it, shall

      be null and void, if such memoranda or papers do not contain all the requirements

      provided by law for holographic testaments.

    • Article 673

      A testament executed under duress, deceit or fraud shall be null and void.

    • Article 674

      He, who by deceit, fraud, or violence prevents a person, of whom he is the intestate heir, from freely executing his last

      will, shall be deprived of his rights to the inheritance and shall besides

      be criminally liable for such acts.

    • Article 675

      Every testamentary disposition shall be understood in the literal sense of its words, unless it clearly appears that the

      will of the testator was otherwise. In case of doubt, that which appears

      nearest in accordance with the intent of the testator, according to the

      tenor of the same testament, shall be observed.

      • The testator cannot forbid the contesting of his testament, in the cases

        in which there exists nullity specified by law.

  • Section Third  Form of Testaments
    • Article 676

      Testaments are either ordinary or special.

      • Ordinary testaments may be either, holographic, open or secret.

    • Article 677

      Military and maritime testaments and testaments executed in foreign countries are considered as special.

    • Article 678

      A testament is called holographic when the testator writes it in his own hand in the form and with the requisites specified in art. 688.

    • Article 679

      A testament is called open whenever the testator expresses his last will in the presence of the persons who must authorize

      the act, and when they become informed of its dispositions.

    • Article 680

      A testament is called secret (cerrado) when the testator, without revealing his last will, declares that it is contained in the writing which he presents to the persons who are to authorize the act.

    • Article 681

      The following cannot be witnesses to testaments:

      • 1

        Women, with the exception of what is provided in art. 701.

      • 2

        Males, under age, with the same exception.

      • 3

        Persons who are not residents or domiciled in the place of the execution

        thereof, unless in the cases excepted by law.

      • 4

        Blind persons and those totally deaf and dumb.

      • 5

        Persons who do not understand the language of the testator.

      • 6

        Persons of unsound mind.

      • 7

        Persons who have been condemned for the crimes of forgery of public

        or private documents, for perjury, and those suffering the penality of

        civil interdiction.

      • 8

        Clerks, amanuenses, servants, or relatives within the fourth degree

        of consanguinity or within the second of affinity of the Notary who authorized

        the testament.

    • Article 682

      Neither can be witnesses to an open testament, the heirs and legatees instituted in it, nor the relatives of the same, within

      the fourth degree of consanguinity or second of affinity.

      • In this prohibition are not comprised the legatees and their relatives,

        when the legacy is of some pieces of personal property or of a sum of

        small importance compared with the amount of the estate.

    • Article 683

      In order that a witness may be declared disqualified, it is necessary that the cause of his incapacity should have existed at the time of the execution of the testament.

    • Article 684

      The presence of two interpreters, chosen by the testator to translate his disposition into Spanish, is required for making

      a testament in a foreign language. Such testament must be written in the

      two languages.

    • Article 685

      The Notary and two of the witnesses who authorized the testament must personally know the testator, and should they not know him, such person shall be identified by two witnesses

      who know him and are known to the Notary and to the instrumental witnesses.

      The Notary and the witnesses shall also assure themselves that in their

      opinion the testator has the legal capacity required to make a testament.

      • Witnesses authorizing a testament without the attendance of the Notary,

        in the cases of arts. 700 and 701, are under the same obligation of personally

        knowing the testator.

    • Article 686

      When it is not possible to identify the person of the testator, in the manner provided by the preceding article, this circumstance

      shall be stated by the Notary or, in default thereof, by the witnesses

      who shall state any details about the documents which the testator may

      present for such purpose, and give a personal description of the testator.

      • If the testament is contested for such a cause, the burden of proof of

        the identity of the testator shall be borne by the person sustaining its

        validity.

    • Article 687

      Any testament, in the execution of which, the formalities, respectively established in this chapter, have not been observed,

      shall be null and void.

  • Section Fourth  Holographic Testaments
    • Article 688

      Holographic testaments can only be executed by persons of lawful age.

      • In order that this testament should be valid, it shall be drawn on stamped

        paper, corresponding to the year of its execution, and be written all

        over and signed by the testator with specification of the year, month,

        and day of its execution.

      • When it contains words erased, corrected, or between lines, the testator

        must correct them under his own hand.

      • Foreigners may execute holographic testaments in their own language.

    • Article 689

      Holographic testaments shall be protocolled by presenting them for this purpose to the Judge of First Instance of the

      last domicil of the testator, or of the place where he died, within five

      years to be counted from the day of his death. They shall not be valid

      without this requisite.

    • Article 690

      The person, in whose hands such testament has been deposited, shall present it to the court, as soon as he receives

      notice of the death of the testator, and should he not do it within ten

      days next following, he shall be liable for the damages and injury which

      may be caused by his delay.

      • It may also be presented by any person who may have interest in the testament, either as heir, legatee, executor, or in any

        other way.

    • Article 691

      After the holographic testament has been presented and the death of the testator has been proven, the Judge shall open it,

      if within a closed cover, and shall rubricate, together with the Notary,

      all the leaves and shall prove its identity by three witnesses who know

      the hand-writing and subscription of the testator, and who depose that

      they have no reasonable doubt whatever that the testament is written and

      subscribed by the testator's own hand.

      • In default of competent witnesses or if those examined have any doubts,

        and, whenever the Judge may consider it proper, he may employ experts

        in hand-writing for the purpose of comparison.

    • Article 692

      For the carrying out of the proceedings, stated in the preceding article, and, as soon as possible, shall be summoned: the

      surviving consort, if any, the legitimate ascendants and descendants of

      the testator, and, in default of all of these, his brothers.

      • When these persons do not reside within the district, or their existence

        is unknown, or if they are minor or incapables, without legitimate representations,

        the Public Attorney shall be summoned.

      • Persons summoned may be present at the carrying out of such proceedings

        and verbally may make, at the time, the proper observations about the

        genuineness of the testament.

    • Article 693

      When the Judge considers that the identity of the testament has been proven, he shall order that it be protocolled, together

      with the proceedings taken, in the Registry of the corresponding Notary, who shall give to the interested parties the copies or authenticated

      copies which may be proper. In all other cases he shall refuse to protocol

      it.

      • Whatever the decision of the Judge may be, it shall be carried into effect,

        notwithstanding any opposition, and it shall not injure the rights of

        the interested parties to enforce it in any suit which may be proper.

  • Section Fifth  Open Testaments
    • Article 694

      Open testaments shall be executed before a Notary, qualified to act in the place of its execution, and three competent

      witnesses who can see and understand the testator and of whom one of which,

      at least, knows how and is able to write.

      • From this rule shall only be excepted the cases expressly determined in

        this same section.

    • Article 695

      The testator shall state his last wishes to the Notary and to the witnesses. After the testament is drawn up in accordance

      with them, specifying the place, year, month, day, and hour of its execution,

      it shall be read aloud in order that the testator may declare, if it agrees

      with his will. If so, it shall be subscribed to immediately by the testator

      and the witnesses who are able to do so.

      • Should the testator declare that he does not know how or cannot subscribe

        it, one of the instrumental witnesses or any other person shall do it

        for him at his request, and the Notary shall certify to it. The same thing

        shall be done when any one of the witnesses is not able to sign.

      • The Notary shall always state that in his judgment the testator has the

        legal capacity required for executing the testament.

    • Article 696

      When the testator, who intends to make an open testament, presents his testamentary dispositions in writing, the Notary

      shall draw up the testament in accordance with them, and shall read it

      aloud in the presence of the witnesses, so that the testator may declare

      if its contents are the expression of his last will.

    • Article 697

      A person, who is absolutely deaf, shall read his testament himself; if he does not know how or cannot, he shall appoint

      two persons, who shall read it in his name always in the presence of the

      witnesses and of the Notary.

    • Article 698

      When the testator is blind, the testament shall be read twice, once by the Notary, as provided by art. 695, and the other

      time in the same manner by one of the witnesses or any other person appointed

      by the testator.

    • Article 699

      All the formalities, provided in this section, shall be made in

      a single act, and no interruption shall be allowed, except such a one

      as may be caused by a momentary incident.

      • The Notary shall certify, at the end of the testament, that all such formalities

        have been complied with and that he knows the testator or the witnesses

        of acquaintance, when they are required.

    • Article 700

      When the testator is in imminent danger of death, the testament may be executed before five competent witnesses without

      the necessity of a Notary.

    • Article 701

      In case of epidemics, the testament shall also be executed, without intervention of a Notary , before three witnesses, over

      sixteen years of age, either male or female.

    • Article 702

      In the cases of the two preceding articles, the testament shall be written when possible; when not possible, the testament

      shall be valid, although the witnesses do not know how to write.

    • Article 703

      The testaments, executed in accordance with the provisions of the three preceding articles, shall become void, if two

      months have elapsed after the testator is out of danger of death or the

      epidemic has ceased.

      • When the testator dies within such term, the testament shall also become

        void, if, within three months after his demise, such testament is not

        taken to the competent tribunal, in order that it may be reduced to a

        public deed, whether it has been executed in writing or verbally.

    • Article 704

      Testaments, executed without the authorization of a Notary, shall be void, if they are not afterwards reduced to a public

      deed and protocolled in the form prescribed by the Law of Civil Procedure.

    • Article 705

      When an open testament is declared void for causes of non-compliance with the solemnities established for each case, the

      Notary authorizing it shall be responsible for the damages and injuries

      which may arise, if the fault is a result of his bad faith or by inexcusable

      negligence or ignorance.

  • Section Sixth  Secret Testaments
    • Article 706

      A secret testament may be written by the testator or by any other

      person, at his request, on common paper, stating the place, day, month, and year in which it has been written.

      • When the testator writes it in his own hand, he shall rubricate every

        sheet and set his signature at the end, after specifying all the words

        corrected, scratched or written between lines.

      • Should any other person write it, at his request, the testator shall put

        his full subscription on every sheet and at the end of the testament.

      • When the testator does not know how, or cannot subscribe his name, another

        person, at his request, shall do it for him, and shall also countersign

        every sheet, stating the cause of the testator's inability.

    • Article 707

      In the execution of the secret testament, the following solemnities shall be observed:

      • 1

        The paper on which the testament is drawn shall be placed within a closed and sealed cover in such a manner that the former cannot be taken out without tearing the latter.

      • 2

        The testator shall appear with\" the testament closed and sealed, or shall close and seal it at the time in the presence of the Notary, who is to authorize it, and of five competent witnesses, of whom three, at least, shall be able to sign.

      • 3

        The testator shall declare, in the presence of the Notary and the witnesses, that the cover which he presents contains his testament, stating if it is written, subscribed, and signed by him, or if written in another's hand, and subscribed by him at the end and on all of the leaves,or if, because he does not know how or cannot subscribe it, another person has done it for him, at his request.

      • 4

        On the cover of the testament, the Notary shall write the appropriate minutes of its execution, specifying the number and marks of the seals with which it is closed, and shall certify to the compliance with the above mentioned solemnities, to his knowledge of the testator or of the identification of his person, in the manner provided by arts. 685, and 686, and to the testator having, in his judgment, the legal capacity required for executing a testament.

      • 5

        After the minutes have been drawn up and read, they shall be subscribed by the testator and the witnesses who know how to sign, and the Notary shall authorize them with his mark and subscription.

        • If the testator does not know how or cannot subscribe, one of the instrumental witnesses or any other person appointed by the testator, shall subscribe for him.

      • 6

        This circumstance shall also be expressed in the minutes, besides the place, hour, day, month, and year of its execution."

    • Article 708

      Blind persons, and those who do not know how or cannot read shall not make a secret testament.

    • Article 709

      Deaf and dumb persons and those who cannot speak, but who are able to write, may execute a secret testament, if the

      following conditions are observed:

      • 1

        The testament shall be wholly written and subscribed by the testator,

        and the place, day, month, and year stated.

      • 2

        On presenting it, the testator shall write on the upper part of the

        cover, in the presence of the Notary and five witnesses, that such envelope

        contains his testament and that it is written and subscribed by him.

      • 3

        After what is written by the testator, the minutes of execution shall

        be noted and the Notary shall certify to the compliance with the provisions

        of the preceding number, and of all other provisions of art. 707, in so

        far as they may apply to the case.

    • Article 710

      After the secret testament is certified to, the Notary shall deliver it to the testator, after filing in the secret protocol a certified copy of the execution.

    • Article 711

      The testator may keep the secret testament in his possession or entrust it to the custody of a person in whom he may have

      confidence or deposit it in the hands of the authorizing Notary for safe

      keeping in his archives.

      • In this last case, the Notary shall give a receipt to the testator, and

        shall note in his secret protocol, on the margin or at the foot of the

        minutes of the execution, that the testament remains in his hands. Should

        the testator afterwards receive it back, he shall sign a receipt at the

        foot of such a note.

    • Article 712

      The Notary or a person having in his possession a secret testament shall present it to a competent judge as soon as he learns

      of the death of the testator.

      • Should he not do so, within the term of ten days, he shall be responsible

        for the damages and injuries caused by his neglect.

    • Article 713

      He, who, with malice, fails to present the secret testament, which is in his keeping, within the term fixed by the second

      paragraph of the preceding article, besides the responsibility stated

      in it, shall lose all right to the inheritance, should he have it as intestate

      heir, or as heir or legatee by the testament.

      • The same penalty shall be incurred by those who maliciously abstract the

        secret testament from the residence of the testator or from that of the

        person who keeps it in custody or deposit or by him who conceals, tears

        or renders it useless, in any other way, without being relieved from the proper criminal responsibility.

    • Article 714

      For the opening and protocolling of a secret testament, the provisions of the Law of Civil Procedure shall be observed.

    • Article 715

      The secret testament, in the execution of which, the formalities prescribed in this section have not been observed shall

      be null and void, and the Notary who authorizes it shall be responsible

      for the damages and injuries which may be caused, if it is proven that

      the fault originated in malice, negligence or in inexcusable ignorance

      on his part. It shall be valid, however, as an holographic will, if it

      is written and subscribed all over by the testator and has the other conditions

      required in such testaments.

  • Section Seventh  Military Testaments
    • Article 716

      In times of war, soldiers in the field, volunteers, hostages, prisoners, and other persons, employed in the army or following the same, may execute their testaments before any officer, having, at least, the rank of captain.

      • This provision applies to members of an army who are in a foreign country.

      • Should the testator be sick or wounded, he may execute it before the chaplain or physician attending him.

      • If he is with a detachment, before the person commanding, even if he be a non-commissioned officer.

      • In all the cases specified in this article, the presence of two competent witnesses shall always be necessary.

    • Article 717

      All the persons, mentioned in the preceding articles, may also execute a secret testament before a staff officer (comisario dc guerra), who shall exercise in such cases the functions of a Notary, and then the provisions of art. 706 and the subsequent ones shall be observed.

    • Article 718

      Testaments, executed in accordance with the two preceding articles, shall be forwarded, as soon as possible, to the general headquarters and by the latter to the Secretary of War.

      • If the testator has died, such Secretary shall forward the testament to

        the Judge of the last domicil of the decedent, and, if unknown to him,

        to the Senior Judge of Madrid, in order that he may officially summon

        the heirs and other persons interested in the succession.

      • These latter shall request that it be reduced to a public deed, and be

        protocolled in the form provided by the Code of Civil Procedure.

      • If the will is a secret one, the Judge shall officially proceed to open

        it, in the manner provided by said law, after summoning and with the intervention

        of the Public Attorney, and, after opening it, shall give notice of its

        contents to the heirs and other persons concerned.

    • Article 719

      Testaments, mentioned in art. 716, shall become null and void four months after the testator has ceased to be in a campaign.

    • Article 720

      During a battle, assault, engagement, and, generally, in every approximate danger of an action of war, a military testament can be made by word of mouth before two witnesses.

      • But this testament shall become void, if the testator is saved from the danger in view of which it was made.

      • Even if he does not escape, the testament shall become void, if not formalized by the witnesses before the Auditor of War or a judicial official following the army, and then it shall be acted upon in the form provided in art. 718."

    • Article 721

      When a military testament is secret, the provisions of arts. 706 and 707 shall be observed; but it shall be executed before

      the officer and two witnesses, required by art. 716 for an open testament,

      and all of them shall subscribe the minutes of the execution, as well

      as the testator, if he is able to do so.

  • Section Eighth  Maritime Testaments
    • Article 722

      Testaments, either open or secret, of persons on board a ship

      during a sea voyage, shall be executed, as follows:

      • When the vessel is a man-of-war, before the Paymaster or he who exercises

        his functions, in the presence of two competent witnesses, who can see

        and understand the testator. The Captain of the ship or the person occupying

        his place shall besides vise it.

      • On merchant vessels, the Captain or his representative shall authorize

        the testament with the assistance of two competent witnesses.

      • In both the first and second cases, the witnesses shall be selected from

        the passengers, if any; but one of them, at least must be able to sign,

        and he shall sign it in his own name and in the name of the testator,

        if the latter does not know how or cannot do it.

      • When the testament is an open one, what is provided by art. 695 shall

        besides be observed; and, if a secret one what is ordered by section sixth

        of this chapter, excluding what refers to the number of witnesses, and

        the intervention of the Notary.

    • Article 723

      The testament of the Paymaster of a man-of-war and of the Captain of a merchant vessel, shall be authorized by those

      who are to substitute them in their duties, and what is prescribed in

      the preceding article shall, furthermore, be observed.

    • Article 724

      Open testaments made on the high seas shall be kept in the custody of the Commander or the Captain and they shall be noted in the log-book.

      • The same entry shall be made of holographic and secret testaments.

    • Article 725

      Should a ship arrive at a foreign port, where there is a diplomatic

      or consular agent of Spain, the Commander of the man-of-war or the Captain

      of the merchant vessel, shall deliver to said agent a copy of the open

      testament or of the minutes of the execution of the secret one and of

      the notes entered in the log-book.

      • The copy of the testament or of the minutes must bear the same signatures

        as the original, if the persons who signed them are alive and on board;

        in other cases, they shall be authorized by the Paymaster or Captain who

        received the testament or the one acting in his place, and those remaining on board who took part

        in the testament shall also sign it.

      • The diplomatic or consular Agent shall have the proceedings of the delivery

        put in writing, and having closed and sealed the copy of the testament

        or of the minutes of its execution, if secret, he shall forward them with

        a copy of the entry in the log-book, in the proper way, to the Secretary of the Navy who shall deposit

        them in the archives of his office.

      • The Commander or Captain, who shall deliver them, shall obtain from the

        diplomatic or consular Agent a certificate of having done so, and shall

        enter it in the log-book.

    • Article 726

      When the vessel, either a merchantman or a man-of-war, arrives

      at the first port of the Kingdom, the Commander or Captain shall deliver

      the original testament, closed and sealed, to the local naval authority,

      with a copy of the entry made in the log-book, and, if the testator has

      died, in addition, a certificate proving it.

      • The delivery shall be proven in the form, provided by the preceding article,

        and the naval authority shall forward all the papers, without delay, to

        the Secretary of the Navy.

    • Article 727

      When the testator has died and the testament is open, the Secretary of the Navy shall act, as provided by art. 718.

    • Article 728

      When the testament has been executed by a foreigner, on board of a Spanish vessel, the Secretary of the Navy shall forward the testament to the Secretary of State in order that

      it may be forwarded, in the proper way, through diplomatic channels.

    • Article 729

      When the testament is holographic and the testator dies during the voyage, the Commander or Captain shall take possession

      of the testament for the purpose of keeping it in custody, entering this

      fact in the log-book, and shall deliver the same to the local naval authority,

      in the form and for the effects provided in the preceding article, when

      the vessel arrives at the first port of the Kingdom.

      • The same thing shall be done when the testament is a secret one, if the testator has it in his possession at the time of his

        death.

    • Article 730

      Open and secret testaments, executed in accordance with the provisions of this section, shall be void after the lapse of

      four months from the day on which the testator landed at a place where

      he could make a testament in ordinary form.

    • Article 731

      When in danger of shipwreck, the provisions of art. 720 shall apply to the crews and passengers of war or merchant vessels.

  • Section Ninth  Testaments Made in Foreign Countries
    • Article 732

      Spaniards may make testaments out of the national territory, submitting themselves to the forms established by

      the laws of the country in which they may be.

      • They may also make testaments on the high seas, during their passage

        on a foreign vessel, in accordance with the laws of the country to which

        the ship belongs.

      • They may also make an holographic testament in accordance with art. 688,

        omitting the requirement of stamped paper, even in countries where the

        laws do not recognize such testaments.

    • Article 733

      Joint testaments, forbidden by art. 669, shall not be valid in Spain when executed by Spaniards in a foreign country, even when

      the laws of the country, where they have been executed, authorized them.

    • Article 734

      Spaniards who are in foreign countries may also execute their testaments, either open or secret, before the diplomatic

      or consular Agent of Spain, residing at the place of their execution.

      • In such cases, said Agents shall act as Notaries, and all the formalities,

        established by sections fifth and sixth of this chapter, shall be respectively

        observed; however, the condition of residence of the witnesses shall not

        be necessary.

    • Article 735

      The diplomatic or consular Agent shall forward a copy of the open testament, or of the act of execution of the secret testament, authorized under his hand and seal, to the Department of State to be deposited in its archives.

    • Article 736

      The diplomatic or consular Agent, in whose hands a Spaniard may have deposited his holographic or secret testament, shall

      forward it to the Department of State as soon as the testator dies together

      with the certificate of the death.

      • The Department of State shall have the notice of the death published in

        the Gaceta of Madrid, in order that the parties concerned may obtain the

        testament and proceed to protocol it in the form prescribed.

  • Section Tenth  Revocation and Inefficiency of Testaments
    • Article 737

      All testamentary dispositions are essentially revocable, even when the testator states in the testament that his wish

      or resolution shall not be revoked.

      • All clauses, derogating future dispositions, shall be considered as not existing, as well as those in which the testator may

        order that the revocation of the testament should be void, unless marked

        with certain words and signs.

    • Article 738

      A testament cannot be revoked, wholly or in part, unless the same solemnities required for making it are observed in respect

      thereto.

    • Article 739

      A former testament becomes, revoked by law by a later and perfect one, unless the testator states in the latter his wish

      of leaving the former subsisting in whole or in part.

      • However, a formor testament recovers its force when the testator afterwards

        revokes the latter and expressly declares that it is his wish that the

        former should be valid.

    • Article 740

      The revocation shall be effective, even when the second testament becomes null by the incapacity of the heir or of the

      legatees appointed in it, or by the renunciation of the former or the

      latter.

    • Article 741

      The recognition of an illegitimate child does not lose its force, even when the testament in which it was made is revoked.

    • Article 742

      A secret testament, found in the domicil of the testator with

      the cover torn or the seals broken or the signatures authorizing it effaced,

      erased or corrected is presumed revoked.

      • This testament, however, shall be valid when it may be proven that such

        damage has been caused without the wish or knowledge of the testator,

        or when he was in an insane condition, but, if the cover is found torn

        and the seals broken, it shall be necessary besides to prove the genuineness

        of the testament in order that it may be valid.

      • When the testament is found in the hands of another person, it shall be

        understood that any impairment was caused by such person, and the testament

        shall not be valid, unless its authenticity is proven, if the cover is

        torn or the seals broken; and if the former and latter are found intact,

        but the signatures effaced, erased or corrected, then the testament shall

        be valid, unless it is proven that it has been delivered in this condition

        by the testator himself.

    • Article 743

      Testaments shall become void or testamentary provisions ineffective, in whole or in part, only in the cases expressly

      provided for in this Code.

• Chapter Second  Inheritances
  • Section First  Capacity For Succession Under or Without a Testament
    • Article 744

      All persons not incapacitated by law may succeed under or without a testament.

    • Article 745

      The following are incapable of succeeding:

      • 1

        Abortive creatures, and as such are understood those who do not combine

        the conditions stated in art. 30.

      • 2

        Associations or corporations not permitted by laws.

    • Article 746

      Church and church chapters, provincial diputations, provinces, city councils, municipalities, institutions for the sick, for

      beneficence or for public instruction, associations authorized or recognized

      by law, and all other juridical persons can acquire by testament in accordance

      with what is provided in art. 38.

    • Article 747

      When the testator disposes of the whole or part of his property

      for sufferages and pious works for the benefit of his soul and does it

      in an indeterminate manner and without specifying how it shall be applied,

      the executors shall sell the property and distribute the proceeds, giving one half of it to the Diocesan to be employed

      for such sufferages and the care and necessities of the church, and the

      other half to the corresponding civil governor for the beneficent institutions of the domicil of the decedent, and, in default

      of such, for those of the province.

    • Article 748

      A designation made in favor of a public institution, under condition or imposing a lien upon it, shall be valid only when approved

      by the government.

    • Article 749

      Dispositions made in favor of the poor, in general, without designating

      persons or towns, shall be limited to those of the domicil of the testator

      at the time of his death, if it is not clearly shown that his will was

      otherwise.

      • The classification (calificacion) of the poor and distribution of the

        property shall be made by the person appointed by the testator, in default

        of such person, by the executors, and if there are none, by the curate,

        the Mayor, and the Municipal Judge, who shall decide by a majority of

        votes any doubts which may arise.

      • The same shall be done when the testator has disposed of his property

        in favor of the poor of a certain parish or town.

    • Article 750

      Every disposition in favor of an uncertain person shall be null and void, unless by some event the person may become certain.

    • Article 751

      A disposition made generically in favor of the relatives of the testator is understood to be made in favor of those who

      stand in the nearest degree.

    • Article 752

      Testamentary dispositions made by the testator, during his last illness in favor of the priest who confessed him during

      it, of the relatives of the latter within the fourth degree, or of his

      church, chapter community or institute shall not be valid.

    • Article 753

      Neither shall be valid the testamentary dispositions of the ward in favor of his guardian, made before the final accounts of

      the guardian have been approved, even when the testator dies after such

      approval.

      • However, the dispositions made by the ward in favor of the guardian when

        the latter is his or her ascendant, descendant, brother, sister, or consort,

        shall be valid.

    • Article 754

      The testator cannot dispose of the whole or a part of his estate in favor of the Notary who authorizes his testament, or

      of the latter's wife and relatives by consanguinity or affinity within

      the fourth degree, with the exception stated in art. 682.

      • This prohibition applies to the witnesses of the open testament made with

        or without a Notary.

      • The provisions of this article apply also to the witnesses and persons

        before whom special testaments are executed.

    • Article 755

      A testamentary disposition in favor of an incapable person, though concealed under the form of an onerous contract or made

      in favor of an intermediate person, shall be null and void.

    • Article 756

      The following are incapable of succeeding on account of unworthiness:

      • 1

        Parents who have abandoned their children, or prostituted their daughters, or made attempts against their virtue.

      • 2

        Persons condemned in a trial for having made attempts against the life of the testator, his consort, and his descendants or ascendants.

        When the offender is a forced heir, he shall lose his ligitime.

      • 3

        He who has accused the testator of a crime for which the law imposes an afflictive penalty, when the accusation is declared as calumnious.

      • 4

        The heir of full age, who knowing of the violent death of the testator, has not denounced it to the courts within a month, unless p'roper judicial proceedings have already been taken ex officio. This prohibition shall cease in cases in which, according to law, there is no obligation to make an accusation.

      • 5

        A person condemned at a trial for adultery with the wife of the testator.

      • 6

        He, who by menaces, fraud or violence forces the testator to make a testament or to alter it.

      • 7

        He, who by the same means, prevents another from making a testament or from revoking one already made, or who forges, conceals or alters a later one."

    • Article 757

      The causes of indignity shall produce no effect, when the testator knew them at the time of making the testament or, if after

      having been informed of them, has pardoned the same by a public instrument.

    • Article 758

      For determining the capacity of the heir or legatee, the time of the death of the person whose succession is questioned shall

      be taken into consideration.

      • In cases nos. 2, 3, and 5 of art. 756, it shall be necessary to wait until

        the final sentence is rendered, and in no. 4, until the month fixed for

        the accusation has elapsed.

      • When the institution or legacy is conditional, the time for the fulfillment

        of the condition shall, besides, be taken into consideration.

    • Article 759

      The heir or legatee who dies before the condition is complied with, though he may survive the testator, transmits no rights

      whatever to his heirs.

    • Article 760

      Any person, incapable of succeeding, who, contrary to the prohibition of the preceding article, has entered into possession

      of the hereditary property, shall be obliged to return it together with

      its accessions and with all the rents and fruits he may have collected.

    • Article 761

      If the person, excluded from inheritance on account of incapacity, is a son or descendant of the testator and he has children

      or descendants, they shall acquire his rights to the legitime.

      • Persons so excluded shall have no rights to the usufruct and administration

        of the portion thus inherited by his children.

    • Article 762

      No action shall be instituted for the declaration of incapacity, after five years have elapsed from the time that the incapable

      took possession of the inheritance or legacy.

  • Section Second  Institution of Heir
    • Article 763

      A person who has no forced heirs may dispose by testament of all

      his property or part of it in favor of any person having capacity to acquire it.

      • A person who has forced heirs can dispose of his property, only in the

        form and with the limitation provided by section fifth of this chapter.

    • Article 764

      A testament shall be valid, even when it does not contain the institution of an heir, or it does not include the whole of

      the property, and although the person appointed does not accept the inheritance

      or is incapable of inheriting.

      • In such cases, the testamentary disposition, made in accordance with the laws, shall be complied with, and the remainder of

        the estate shall pass to the lawful heirs.

    • Article 765

      The heirs appointed, without designation of shares, shall inherit share and share alike.

    • Article 766

      The voluntary heir, who dies before the testator, the incapable of inheriting, and he who renounces the inheritance, do not transmit any rights to their heirs, unless as provided

      in arts. 761 and 857.

    • Article 767

      The statement of a false cause for. the institution of an heir

      or of the appointment of legatee shall be considered as not written, unless

      it may appear from the testament that the testator would not have made

      such institution or legacy, had he known the falseness of such cause.

      • The statement of a cause contrary to law, even if true, shall also be

        considered as not written.

    • Article 768

      An heir to whom a certain and determined thing is left shall be considered as a legatee.

    • Article 769

      When a testator appoints some heirs individually and other collectively, as when he says: "I institute as my heirs N and

      N, and the children of N," those collectively appointed shall be considered

      as individually appointed, unless it appears in a clear manner that the

      will of the testator was otherwise.

    • Article 770

      If the testator institutes his brothers, and he has some of full blood and others on the father's or mother's side only,

      the inheritance shall be divided as in cases of intestacy.

    • Article 771

      When the testator calls to the succession any person and his children, it shall be understood that all of them are instituted

      simultaneously and not successively.

    • Article 772

      The testator shall designate the heir, by his name and family

      name; and when there are two having the same names, he must state some

      circumstances through which the instituted heir may be known.

      • Even when the testator has omitted the name of the heir, should he designate

        him in such a manner that no doubt may exist as to what person has been

        instituted, the institution shall be valid.

    • Article 773

      An error in the name, family name, or qualities of the heir, shall not vitiate the institution when it may be possible, in

      any other manner, to know with certainty who is the person appointed.

      • If among persons of the same name and surname there is equality of circumstances,

        and these are such as do not permit the person who is instituted to be

        distinguished, none of them shall be an heir.

  • Section Third  Substitution
    • Article 774

      The testator may substitute one or more persons in the place of the instituted heir or heirs in the cases where

      they may die before him or do not desire to or cannot accept the inheritance.

      • Simple substitution, without expressing which case, comprises the three stated in the preceding paragraph, unless the testator

        has ordered otherwise.

    • Article 775

      Parents and other ascendants may appoint substitutes in place of their descendants of both sexes, under fourteen years of age, for the cases where they may die before attaining

      such age.

    • Article 776

      The ascendant may appoint a substitute for the descendant over fourteen years of age who has lawfully been declared incapable on account of unsound mind.

      • The substitution, to which the preceding article refers, shall be voided by the testament of the incapable made during a lucid interval or after he has recovered his reason."

    • Article 777

      The substitutions, to which the two preceding articles refer, in case the substitute has forced heirs, shall only be

      valid in so far as they do not injure the legitimate rights of such heirs.

    • Article 778

      Two or more persons can be substituted instead of a single one, contrariwise, a single person for two or more heirs.

    • Article 779

      When the heirs are instituted in unequal portions and are reciprocally substituted, they shall have in the substitution

      the same portions as in the institution , unless it may clearly appear

      that the will of the testator was otherwise.

    • Article 780

      The substitute shall be subject to the same charges and conditions as imposed upon the instituted, unless the testator has

      expressly disposed to the contrary or when the burdens or conditions may

      be merely personal, respecting the heir instituted.

    • Article 781

      Substitutions in trust (fideicomisarias), by virtue of which the heir is charged with keeping and transmitting to a third

      party the whole or a part of the inheritance, shall be valid, and shall

      be effective, provided, they do not go beyond the second degree or when

      made in favor of persons living at the time of the death of the testator.

    • Article 782

      Substitutions in trust can never impair the legitime. Should they fall upon the third share intended for advantages (mejora), they can be made only in favor of the descendants.

    • Article 783

      To be valid, callings to the substitutions in trust, shall be expressly made.

      • A fiduciary is bound to deliver the inheritance to the fidei-commissary,

        without any deductions, excepting those falling upon him for lawful expenses,

        credits, and improvements, except when the testator has disposed otherwise.

    • Article 784

      The fidei-commissary shall acquire rights to the succession upon the death of the testator, even when he dies before the

      fiduciary. The rights of the former shall pass to his heirs.

    • Article 785

      No effects shall be produced by:

      • 1

        Fidei-commissary substitutions not made in an express manner, either

        by giving them such a name or by imposing upon the substitute the absolute

        obligation of delivering the property to a second heir.

      • 2

        Dispositions containing perpetual prohibitions of alienation, and even

        a temporal one, when not within the limits provided in art. 781.

      • 3

        Those imposing upon the heir the charge of paying a certain rent or

        pension to various persons in succession, beyond the second degree.

      • 4

        Those, the object of which is to leave to a person the whole or part

        of the estate, for the purpose of applying or investing the same, according

        to secret instructions communicated to him by the testator.

    • Article 786

      The nullity of a fidei-commissary substitution shall not cause injury, either to the validity of the institution or to the

      heirs first called; the fidei-commissary clause shall simply be considered

      as not written (in such cases).

    • Article 787

      The disposition by which the testator leaves the whole or a part of the inheritance to a person, and the usufruct to another,

      shall be valid. If various persons are called to the usufruct, not simultaneously,

      but in succession, the provisions of art. 781 shall be followed.

    • Article 788

      The disposition imposing upon the heir the duty of periodically investing certain sums for beneficent purposes, as dowers

      for poor maidens, pensions for students, or in favor of the poor or for

      any institution of beneficence, or of public instruction, shall be valid

      under the following conditions:

      • When the charge is imposed on real property and is temporal, the heir

        or heirs may dispose of the encumbered property, but the lien shall not

        cease until its inscription is cancelled.

      • When the charge is perpetual, the heir can capitalize it and invest the

        capital at interest, secured by a first and sufficient mortgage.

      • The capitalization and investment of the capital shall be made with the

        intervention of the civil governor of the province, and after a hearing

        of the Public Attorney.

      • In any event, when the testator has not established an order for the administration

        and application of the beneficent legacy, the administrative authority,

        who may be competent according to law, shall do it.

    • Article 789

      All that is provided in this chapter in respect to heirs shall also apply to legatees.

  • Section Fourth  Institution of Heirs; and Legacies Conditional or For a Term
    • Article 790

      Testamentary dispositions, either by universal or special title, may be made conditionally.

    • Article 791

      Conditions imposed upon heirs and legatees shall be governed by the rules provided for conditional obligations in whatever

      is not prescribed in this section.

    • Article 792

      Impossible conditions and those contrary to law and good morals shall be considered as not existing and shall in no way injure

      the heir or legatee, even when the testator disposes otherwise.

    • Article 793

      The absolute condition of not contracting a first or subsequent

      marriage shall be considered as not existing, unless such condition has

      been imposed on the widower or widow by the deceased consort, or by the

      ascendants or descendants of the same.

      • However, the usufruct, use, or habitation or a pension or personal service

        may be bequeathed to anyone for the time during which such a person may

        remain unmarried or as a widow or widower.

    • Article 794

      A disposition made under condition that the heir or legatee shall make in his testament some disposition in favor of the

      testator or of a third party shall be void.

    • Article 795

      A purely potestative condition imposed on the heir or legatee shall be complied with by them when, after the death of the

      testator, they are informed of it.

      • The case in which the condition has already been complied with and cannot

        be reiterated is excepted.

    • Article 796

      When the condition is casual or mixed, it shall be sufficient if it be realized or complied with at any time during the life

      or after the death of the testator, unless he has ordered otherwise.

      • If it had existed or had been complied with at the time the testament

        was executed and the testator did not know it, it shall be considered

        as complied with.

      • If he knew it, it shall be considered as complied with only when of such

        a nature that it can no longer exist or be complied with again.

    • Article 797

      The statement of the object of the institution or of the legacy or the application to be given to what the testator has left

      or the lien imposed by the same shall not be considered as a condition,

      unless it may appear that such was his will.

      • What has been left in this manner may be immediately claimed and is transmissible to the heirs who may secure the compliance

        with the orders of the testator and the repayment of what they may have

        received with fruits and interest, if they fail to comply with this obligation.

    • Article 798

      When, without the fault or a personal act of the heir or legatee, the institution or the legacy, to which the preceding

      article refers, cannot take place in the very terms ordered by the testator,

      it shall be complied with in terms as nearly analogous and in conformity

      with his will as possible.

      • When the party, having an interest in its compliance or non-compliance,

        should prevent it, without fault or a personal act of the heir or legatee,

        the condition shall be considered as complied with.

    • Article 799

      Suspensive conditions do not prevent the heir or legatee from acquiring his or her respective rights and transmitting them

      to their heirs, even before the fulfillment of such conditions.

    • Article 800

      When the potestative condition, imposed on the heir or legatee, is a negative one, or of not giving or not doing (a certain

      thing), they shall comply with it by giving bonds that they will not do

      or will not give what was forbidden by the testator, and, in case of contravention,

      that they will refund what they have received with the fruits and interest thereon.

    • Article 801

      When the heir is instituted under a suspensive condition, the estate shall be placed in administration until the condition is complied with or until there is a certainty that it cannot be fulfilled.

      • The same shall be done when the heir or legatee shall not give the security, referred to in the preceding article."

    • Article 802

      The administration, to which the preceding article refers, shall be confided to the heir or heirs, unconditionally instituted,

      when among them and the conditional heir, the right of accretion exists.

      The same shall be understood in respect to legatees.

    • Article 803

      When the conditional heir has no co-heirs or when the right of accretion does not exist among them, he shall take charge

      of the administration upon giving bond.

      • If he does not give it, the administration shall be conferred upon the

        presumptive heir, also under bonds; and when neither of them can give

        bonds, the court shall appoint a third party who shall take charge of

        it, also under bonds, which shall be given with the intervention of the heir.

    • Article 804

      Administrators shall have the same rights and obligations as those who administer the property of an absentee.

    • Article 805

      The designation of the day or time on which the effect of the institution of heir or legatee shall begin or be determined

      shall be valid.

      • In both cases, the lawful successor shall be considered as called, until

        the time fixed arrives, or until such time expires. But in the first case,

        he shall not enter into possession of the property, until after having

        given sufficient bonds and with the intervention of the heir instituted.

  • Section Fifth  Legitimes
    • Article 806

      Legitime is that part of the property of which the testator cannot

      dispose because the law has reserved it for certain heirs, called, on that account, forced heirs.

    • Article 807

      Forced heirs are:

      • 1

        Legitimate children and descendants in reference to their legitimate

        parents and ascendants.

      • 2

        In default of the preceding, the legitimate parents and ascendants

        in reference to their legitimate children and descendants.

      • 3

        The widower or widow, the natural children legally recognized, and the father or the mother of the same, in the form and

        proportion established by arts. 834, 835, 836, 837, 840, 841, 842, and

    • Article 808

      The legitime of legitimate children and descendants is constituted

      by the two third parts of the hereditary estate of the father and of the

      mother.

      • However, the parents may dispose of one of the two third parts forming

        the legitime in order to apply it as an advantage to their legitimate

        children and descendant.

      • The remaining third part shall be at their free disposal.

    • Article 809

      The legitime of the parents or ascendants is constituted by one half of the hereditary estate of the children and descendants. The latter may freely dispose of the other half, with the exception of what is established in art. 836.

    • Article 810

      The legitime, reserved for the parents, shall be divided between both of them equally; when one of the parents is dead,

      the surviving shall take the whole of it.

      • When the testator leaves neither father nor mother, but ascendants in

        the same degree in the paternal or maternal line, the estate shall be

        divided share and share alike between both lines. When the ascendants

        are of a different degree, the legitime shall wholly belong to the nearest

        ones of either line.

    • Article 811

      The ascendant who inherits from his descendant property, acquired by the latter under gratuitous title from another ascendant

      or from a brother, shall be obliged to reserved such property, acquired

      by ministry of the law, in favor of the relatives within the third degree,

      belonging to the line from which such property came to him.

    • Article 812

      Ascendants succeed, to the exclusion of all other persons, to things given by them to their children or descendants, who

      died without issue, when the very objects donated are comprised in the

      estate. If they have been alienated, they shall succeed in all the actions

      which the donees have in respect to them, and in the value, if they have

      been sold or in the property substituting them, if they were bartered

      or exchanged.

    • Article 813

      A testator cannot deprive the heirs of the legitime, except in the cases expressly determined by law.

      • Neither can he impose on it, any burden, condition, or substitution of

        any kind, with exception of what has been prescribed about the usufruct

        of the surviving consort.

    • Article 814

      The preterition of one or of all of the forced heirs in the direct

      line, either living, at the time of the execution of the testament, or

      born after the death of the testator, shall void the institution of heir.

      But the legacies and advantages shall be valid, in so far as they are not inofficious.

      • The preterition of the widower or widow does not annul the institution,

        but the person omitted shall keep all the rights granted to him by arts.

        834, 835, 836 and 837 of this Code.

      • If the omitted forced heirs die before the testator, the institution shall

        be valid.

    • Article 815

      The forced heir to whom the testator has left, for any cause whatever, less than the legitime pertaining to him may claim

      the completion of the same.

    • Article 816

      All renunciations or compromises, about the future legitime, among the persons owing it and their forced heirs, are null

      and void, and the latter can claim it upon the death of the former, but

      they shall bring to collation whatever they have received on account of

      renunciations or compromises.

    • Article 817

      Testamentary dispositions, diminishing the legitime of forced heirs, shall be reduced on petition of the same in so far as

      they are inofficious or excessive.

    • Article 818

      To determine the legitime, consideration shall be given to the value of the property remaining at the death of the testator,

      after deducting all debts and charges, without comprising in them those

      imposed by the testament To the net value of the testamentary estate shall be added the value of

      all the collationable donations, made by the same testator at the time

      at which they were made.

    • Article 819

      Donations made to children, not considered as advantages, shall

      be imputed to their legitime.

      • Donations made to strangers shall be imputed to the free part of which

        the testator may dispose by his last testament.

      • In so far as they be inofficious or may exceed the part disposable, they

        shall be reduced according to the rules of the following articles.

    • Article 820

      After the legitime is fixed, in accordance with the two preceding articles, the reduction shall be made, as follows :

      • 1

        Donations shall be respected in so far as the legitime can be covered, reducing or voiding, if needs be, the legacies made in the testament

      • 2

        Such reductions shall be made pro rata, without any distinction whatever.

        • When the testator has ordered that a certain legacy should be paid in preference to others, the former shall not suffer any reduction, until after the latter has been applied in full to the payment of the legitime.

      • 3

        When the legacy consists of an usufruct or annuity for life, the value of which may be considered greater than that of the disposable part, the forced heirs may choose between complying with the testamentary disposition or delivering to the legatee the part of the estate of which the testator could freely dispose."

    • Article 821

      When the legacy, subject to reduction, consists of a tenement, not convenient of division, it shall go to the legatee, if the

      reduction does not absorb one half of its value, and, in the contrary

      case, to the forced heirs ; but one or the other shall refund to the opposite

      party the respective balance in cash.

      • A legatee having a right to a legitime may retain all the tenement, provided

        its value does not exceed the amount of the disposable portion and the

        quota belonging to him as legitime.

    • Article 822

      When the heirs or legatees do not wish to make use of the rights, granted to them by the preceding article, the one of them

      who has not such right may use it ; if he does not wish to do so, the

      tenement shall be sold at public auction, on petition of any of the interested

      parties.

  • Section Sixth  Advantages (mejoras)
    • Article 823

      The father or the mother may dispose of one of the two third parts, intended as legitime, in favor of one or more of their children or descendants.

      • This portion is called advantage (mejora).

    • Article 824

      No liens shall be imposed upon the advantage other than those in favor of the forced heirs or their descendants.

    • Article 825

      No donation by contract inter vivos, either simple or for onerous causes, in favor of children or descendants who are forced

      heirs shall be considered as an advantage, unless the donor has expussly

      declared his wish to give an advantage.

    • Article 826

      The promise of giving or not giving an advantage, made in the public deed of a marriage contract (capitulaciones matrimoniales)

      shall be valid.

      • Any disposition of the testator, contrary to such promise, shall not be

        effectual.

    • Article 827

      The avantage, even when made with delivery of the property, shall be revokable, unless made in a marriage contract or by

      an onerous contract entered into with a third party.

    • Article 828

      The bequest or legacy, made by the testator to one of the children or descendants, shall not be considered as an advantage,

      unless the testator has expressly declared that such is his will or when

      it cannot be included in the part at his free disposal.

    • Article 829

      An advantage may be given in a specified thing.

      • When the value of it exceeds both the third parts, designed for advantage

        and the share of the legitime belonging to him who receives the advantage,

        the latter shall pay the difference in cash to the other interested parties.

    • Article 830

      The authority to give advantages cannot be delegated to a third party.

    • Article 831

      Notwithstanding the provisions of the preceding article in marriage contracts, it may be valid to agree that, when one

      of the consorts dies intestate, the widower or widow, who has not contracted

      a new marriage, may distribute, according to his or her prudent judgment,

      the estate of the decedent, and give advantages in it to the children

      in common, without damage to the legitimes and to the advantages given

      by the decedent while alive.

    • Article 832

      When the advantage has not been granted in specified things, it shall be paid out of the property of the inheritance, observing, in so far as it may be possible the rules established by arts. 1061 and 1062, in order to preserve the equality of the heirs in the distribution of the property.

    • Article 833

      The legitimate son or descendant receiving an advantage may renounce the inheritance and accept the advantage.

  • Section Seventh  Right of the Surviving Consort
    • Article 834

      The widower or widow, who at the death of his or her consort,

      is not divorced, or should be so by the fault of the decedent consort,

      shall have a right to a portion in the usufruct, equal to that which may

      belong as legitime to each of the legitimate children or descendants who

      have received no advantage.

      • When only one legitimate child or descendant remains, the widower or widow

        shall have the usufruct of the third part, designated for advantage, and

        the former shall keep the direct ownership, until by the death of the surviving consort the ownership is

        consolidated in him.

      • When the consorts are separated by a suit for divorce, the results of

        the suit are to be taken into account.

      • When there has been a pardon or a reconciliation between the divorced

        consorts, the surviving one shall retain his or her rights.

    • Article 835

      The hereditary portion, allotted in usufruct to the surviving consort, shall be taken from the third part of the estate which is designed for giving advantages to the children.

    • Article 836

      When the testator leaves no descendants, but only ascendants, the surviving consort shall have a right to the third part

      of the estate in usufruct.

      • This third part shall be taken out the free half part and the testator

        can dispose of the ownership of the same.

    • Article 837

      When the testator leaves no legitimate ascendants or descendants, the surviving consort shall be entitled to one half of the

      estate also in usufruct.

    • Article 838

      The heirs may satisfy the surviving consort for such part of usufruct,

      assigning to him or her a life annuity or the proceeds of a certain property

      or a sum in cash, acting by mutual agreement or, in default of it, by

      virtue of a judicial decree.

      • Where this has not been done, all the property of inheritance shall be

        subject to the payment of the part of the usufruct belonging to the surviving

        consort.

    • Article 839

      In case of concurrence of the children of two or more marriages, the usufruct, belonging- to the surviving consort of the

      second marriage, shall be taken from the one third part at the free disposal

      of the parents.

  • Section Eighth  Right of Illegitimate Children
    • Article 840

      When the testator leaves legitimate children or descendants, and

      natural children, legally recognized, each one of the latter shall be

      entitled to one half of the portion which may belong to each of the legitimate

      children who have received no advantages, provided it may be comprised

      in the one third part, at free disposal, from which it must be taken out,

      after deducting the expenses of the burial and funeral.

      • The legitimate children may satisfy the quota belonging to the natural

        ones in cash, or in other property belonging to the estate, according

        to just regulations.

    • Article 841

      When the testator leaves no children or descendants but has legitimate ascendants, the recognized natural children shall be

      entitled to one half of the part of the estate at the testator's free

      disposal.

      • This is understood without injury to the legitime of the surviving consort,

        in accordance with art. 836; therefore, when the consort concurs with

        the natural recognized children, whatever may be wanting to complete their

        legitime shall be allotted to them only in naked property, while the consort

        survives.

    • Article 842

      When the testator leaves no legitimate descendants or ascendants, the recognized natural children shall be entitled to one

      third part of the estate.

    • Article 843

      The rights recognized in natural children, by the preceding article, are transmitted, upon their death, to their legitimate

      descendants.

    • Article 844

      The hereditary portion of children, legitimated by Royal Concession, shall be equal to that established by law in favor of

      recognized natural children.

    • Article 845

      Illegitimate children, who have not the condition of natural children, shall only have a right to support.

      • The obligation of the person who has to support them shall be transmitted

        to his or her heirs, and shall subsist until such children attain their

        majority , and in the event of being incapable, while the incapacity lasts.

    • Article 846

      The right of succession which the laws grant to natural children, extends by reciprocity, in similar cases, to the natural

      father or mother.

    • Article 847

      The donations which the natural child may have received, during his life, from his father or mother, shall be charged

      to his legitime.

      • Should they exceed the third part at free disposal, they shall be reduced

        in the form provided by art. 817 and those following it.

  • Section Ninth  Disinheritance
    • Article 848

      Disinheritance shall only take place for one of the causes expressly fixed by law.

    • Article 849

      Disinheritance can only be effected by a testament mentioning therein the legal cause on which it is based.

    • Article 850

      The proof of the truth of the cause of disinheritance shall be established by the heirs of the testator, should the disinherited deny it.

    • Article 851

      Disinheritance, made without stating the cause, or for a cause, the truth of which, if contested, should not be proven or

      which is not one of those stated in the four following articles, shall

      void the institution of heir, in so far as it injures the disinherited, but the legacies, advantages, and other testamentary dispositions,

      which cause no damage to said legitime, shall be valid.

    • Article 852

      Just causes for disinheritance are, in their respective cases, those of incapacity for succeeding by unworthiness, specified in nos. I, 2, 3, 5, and 6 of art. 756.

    • Article 853

      Besides the causes specified in nos 2, 3, 5, 6 of art. 756 for

      disinheriting children and descendants, either legitimate or natural,

      the following shall be just causes therefor:

      • 1

        To have refused, without lawful cause, support to the father or ascendant

        who disinherits him.

      • 2

        Having used personal violence against or previously offended the testator

        by words.

      • 3

        If the daughter or granddaughter has prostituted herself.

      • 4

        To have been condemned for a crime carrying with it the penalty of

        civil interdiction.

    • Article 854

      Besides the causes mention in nos. I, 2, 3, 5, and 6 of art. 756,

      the following are also just causes to disinherit the parents or ascendants,

      either legitimate or natural:

      • 1

        The loss of the parental power by the causes stated in art. 169.

      • 2

        The refusal of support to the children or descendants without lawful

        cause.

      • 3

        An attempt of one of the parents against the life of the other, unless

        there has been a reconciliation between them.

    • Article 855

      Besides those specified in nos. 2, 3, and 6 of art. 756, the following shall also be just causes for disinheriting the consort:

      • 1

        Those which give cause for divorce under art. 105.

      • 2

        Those which give cause for the loss of the parental power, as stated

        in art. 169.

      • 3

        The refusal of support to the children or to the other consort.

      • 4

        An attempt against the life of the consort making the testament, unless

        they were reconciled.

      • In order that the causes which give reasons for divorce may also be causes

        for disinheritance, it is required that the consorts should not live under

        the same roof.

    • Article 856

      A succeeding reconciliation of the offender and the offended deprives the latter of the right to disinherit and render

      the disinheritance already made ineffective.

    • Article 857

      The children of the disinherited shall take his or her place and shall retain the rights of forced heirs in respect to the legitime; but the disinherited parent shall have neither the usufruct nor the administration of the property of said legitime.

  • Section Tenth  Legacies and Bequests
    • Article 858

      A testator may burden with legacies and bequests, not only his

      heir, but also the legatees.

      • These shall be liable to the burden only to the extent of the value of the legacy.

    • Article 859

      When the testator burdens one of the heirs with a legacy, he alone shall be obliged to comply with it. If he does not burden

      any one in particular, all shall be liable for it, in the same proportion

      in which they may be heirs of the estate.

    • Article 860

      The person, bound to the delivery of the legacy, shall be responsible, in case of eviction, if the thing is undetermined

      and is designated only in kind or species.

    • Article 861

      The legacy of another person's property, when the testator knew, at the time of bequeathing it, that it was not his, is

      valid. The heir is bound to acquire the property for its delivery to the

      legatee; and, when not possible, to pay the latter its just value.

      • The proof that the testator knew that the thing was not his own falls

        on the legatee.

    • Article 862

      When the testator did not know that the thing he bequeathed was not his, the bequest shall be null and void.

      • But it shall be valid, if he acquires the thing, after the execution of

        the testament.

    • Article 863

      A legacy made to a third party of a thing belonging to the heir

      or to one of the legatees shall be valid, and they, on accepting the succession,

      shall deliver the thing bequeathed or the just value thereof, under the

      limitation established in the following article.

      • The provision of the preceding paragraph is understood without damage

        to the legitime of the forced heirs.

    • Article 864

      When the testator, heir, or legatee have only a part or a right in the thing bequeathed, the legacy shall be understood

      as limited to such part or right, unless the testator expressly declares

      that he bequeathed the thing integrally.

    • Article 865

      A legacy of things, out of commerce, is null and void.

    • Article 866

      The legacy of a thing, which at the time of the execution of the testament, belonged already to the legatee, even when

      another person has some right to it, shall not be effectual.

      • When the testator expressly orders that such a thing should be liberated

        from such right or burden, the bequest shall be valid in that respect.

    • Article 867

      When the testator bequeaths something, pledged or mortgaged, for the security of an exigible (mature) debt, the payment

      of the same shall fall upon the heir.

      • If the legatee pays such debt because the heir has not done so, the legatee

        shall be subrogated in the place and right of the creditor to make claim

        against the heir therefor.

      • Any other lien, either perpetual or temporary, with which the thing bequeathed

        is burdened, passes together with it to the legatee, but, in both cases,

        the rents and interests or charges due, up to the death of the testator,

        are a charge upon the inheritance.

    • Article 868

      When the thing bequeathed is subject to the usufruct, use, or habitation, the legatee is obliged to respect such rights, until

      they are lawfully extinguished.

    • Article 869

      The legacy shall not be effective:

      • 1

        When the testator makes such alterations in the thing bequeathed that

        it does not retain either the form or the denomination that it before

        had.

      • 2

        When the testator alienates, under any title or cause whatever, the

        thing bequeathed or a part of it, it being understood, in this last case,

        that the bequest becomes void only in relation to the alienated part.

        When, after the alienation, the thing reverts to the ownership of the

        testator, even by nullity of the contract, the bequest shall not be valid,

        after such fact, unless in the case in which the reacquisition is made

        under a contract of revertible sale.

      • 3

        When the thing bequeathed perishes in whole, during the life of the

        testator or after his death, without blame on the part of the heir. Nevertheless,

        the person obliged to pay the legacy shall be liable for the eviction,

        if the thing bequeathed has not been determined in species, as provided

        in art. 860.

    • Article 870

      The legacy of a credit against a third party or of the remission or liberation of a debt of the legatee, shall be effectual only in that part of the credit or of the debt, yet existing at the time of the death of the testator.

      • In the first case, the heir shall fulfill his duty by assigning to the legatee all the actions he may have against the debtor.

      • In the second, by giving to the legatee the full release, if he asks for it.

      • In both cases, the legacy shall comprise the interests on the credits

        or the debts due to the testator, at the time of his death.

    • Article 871

      The legacy, to which the preceding article refers, is made void when the testator, after having made it, judicially demands

      from the debtor the payment of such debt, even when the payment has not

      been made at the time of the death.

      • By the legacy made to the debtor of a thing pledged, it is understood that only the right of pledge is remitted.

    • Article 872

      The generic legacy of liberation or remission of debts comprises those existing at the time of the execution of the testament, and not subsequent ones.

    • Article 873

      A legacy made to a creditor shall not be imputed in payment of his credit, unless the testator so expressly declares.

      • In such case, the creditor shall have a right either to collect the excess of the credit or of the legacy.

    • Article 874

      In alternative legacies, the provisions made for obligations of the same kind shall be observed, excepting the modifications made by the express will of the testator.

    • Article 875

      A legacy of generic personal property shall be valid, although there may not be things of the same kind in the estate.

      • A legacy of an undetermined parcel of real property shall be valid, only

        if there are things of the same kind in the estate.

      • The heir shall have the option, and may fulfill his duty by giving a thing which may not be either of inferior or superior quality.

    • Article 876

      Whenever the testator expressly leaves an option to the heir or to the legatee, the former may give or the latter may select

      what he may consider best.

    • Article 877

      When the heir or legatee cannot make the election, in case of it having been granted to him, his right shall pass to the

      heir, but the choice once made shall be irrevocable.

    • Article 878

      When the thing bequeathed belonged to the legatee at the date of the will, the legacy is void, even when it has been alienated

      afterwards.

      • When the legatee has acquired it by lucrative title, after said date,

        he can claim nothing for it, but when the acquisition has been made by

        an onerous title, he can claim from the heir an indemnity for what he

        may have given for acquiring it.

    • Article 879

      A legacy for education subsists until the legatee is of age.

      • That for support lasts during the life of the legatee, unless the testator

        has otherwise disposed.

      • When the testator has not assigned any sum for said legacies, they shall

        be fixed in accordance with the position and condition of the legatee

        and the amount of the inheritance.

      • When the testator was, during his life, in the habit of giving to the

        legatee a certain sum of money or other things by way of support, the

        legacy shall be considered of an equal sum, unless it is greatly disproportionate

        with the amount of the estate.

    • Article 880

      When a periodical pension, or a certain sum, either annual, monthly, or weekly is bequeathed, the legatee may claim that of

      the first term, as soon as the testator dies, and those of the following,

      at the beginning of each of them, without any right to reimbursement,

      even when the legatee dies before the expiration of the term begun.

    • Article 881

      A legatee acquires a right to the pure and simple legacies from the death of the testator, and transmits it to his heirs.

    • Article 882

      When the bequest is of a thing specific and determined, belonging

      to the testator, the legatee acquires the property thereof upon the death

      of the testator and makes the pending fruits or rents his own, but not

      those which were due and unpaid before said death.

      • The thing bequeathed shall, from the same moment (of said death), be at

        the risk of the legatee who, therefore, shall bear its loss or impairment,

        and he shall also be benefited by any increase or improvement thereof.

    • Article 883

      The thing bequeathed shall be delivered (to the legatee) with all its accessories and in the condition in which it is at the death of the testator.

    • Article 884

      When the bequest is not of a specific and determined thing, but generic or of quantity, its fruits and interests shall belong

      to the legatee from the death of the testator, if the testator expressly

      so ordered.

    • Article 885

      The legatee cannot occupy the thing bequeathed of his own authority, but he shall ask the heir or the executor, when the

      latter is authorized to give it, for its delivery and possession.

    • Article 886

      The heir shall deliver the same thing bequeathed, if he is able to do so and he does not comply with this duty by paying for

      its value.

      • Legacies in cash shall be paid in cash, even if there is none in the estate.

      • The necessary expenses for the delivery of the thing bequeathed shall be at the charge of the estate, but without injury to

        the legitime.

    • Article 887

      When the assets of the estate are not sufficient to cover all the legacies, payment shall be made in the following order:

      • 1

        Remuneratory legacies.

      • 2

        Legacies of things, certain and determined, forming a part of the estate.

      • 3

        Legacies declared by the testator as preferred.

      • 4

        Those for support.

      • 5

        Those for education.

      • 6

        All others pro rata.

    • Article 888

      When the legatee cannot or does not wish to accept the bequest, or for any cause this may not be effectual, it shall be merged

      into the whole of the estate, excepting in cases of substitution, and

      rights of accretion.

    • Article 889

      A legatee cannot accept a part of the legacy and repudiate the other part, when the latter is onerous to him.

      • If he dies before accepting the legacy, leaving several heirs, one of

        them can accept and another can repudiate the part belonging to him in

        the legacy.

    • Article 890

      A legatee of two legacies, one of which is onerous, cannot renounce

      this one and accept the former. When both are onerous or gratuitous, he

      is free to accept all of them or repudiate any one he wishes.

      • The heir, who is at the same time a legatee, may renounce the inheritance

        and accept the legacy or renounce the latter and accept the former.

    • Article 891

      When all the inheritance is distributed in legacies, the debts and burdens of the same shall be charged to the legatees, pro

      rata according to their shaies, unless the testator has provided otherwise.

  • Section Eleventh  Executors (Albaceas testamentarios)
    • Article 892

      A testator may appoint one or more executors.

    • Article 893

      A person, who has no capacity to obligate himself, cannot be executor.

      • A married woman may be an executrix with the permission of her husband; and such permission shall not be necessary

        when she is legally separated from him.

      • A minor cannot be executor, even with the authorization of the father

        or guardian.

    • Article 894

      Executors may be general or special. In any case, executors can be appointed, either severally, successively or conjointly.

    • Article 895

      When the executors are appointed severally, every act shall be made by all of them together in order that it may be valid,

      and shall be valid also when done by one of them, legally authorized by

      the others; and, in case of discord, when the act has been agreed to by

      the majority.

    • Article 896

      In case of extreme urgency, one of the several executors may do, upon his personal responsibility, such acts as may be

      necessary, giving notice thereof immediately to the others.

    • Article 897

      When a testator does not clearly provide about the appointment of conjoint executors nor determine the order in which

      they are to discharge their functions, it shall be understood that they

      have been appointed severally, and they shall discharge their duties in

      the form prescribed by the two preceding articles.

    • Article 898

      Executorship is a voluntary charge, and it shall be understood as accepted, if the person appointed does not excuse himself

      within six days next following the one on which he has received notice

      of his appointment or if he was already aware of it during the six day

      next following that on which he knew of the death of testator.

    • Article 899

      An executor who accepts this charge is bound to comply with its duties; but he may renounce it alleging a cause which

      may be just in the prudent judgment of the court.

    • Article 900

      An executor who does not accept the charge or renounces it, without a just cause, shall lose what the testator has left

      him, but always without prejudice to the right which he has to the legitime.

    • Article 901

      Executors shall have all the powers expressly granted to them by the testator and which are not contrary to law.

    • Article 902

      When the testator has not specially determined the powers of the executors, they shall have the following:

      • 1

        To dispose and pay the sufferages and funeral expenses of the testator

        in accordance with the dispositions made by the same in his testament,

        and, in default of them, according to the custom of the place.

      • 2

        To pay, with the knowledge and consent of the heir, the cash legacies.

      • 3

        To look carefully after the execution of whatever more has been ordered

        in the testament, and maintain, when just, its validity in and out of

        court.

      • 4

        To take the necessary precautions for the preservation and custody

        of the property, with the intervention of the heirs present.

    • Article 903

      When the estate has not cash enough for the payment of funeral (expenses) and legacies, and the heirs do not contribute

      their own money therefor, the executors shall endeavor to sell the personal

      property, and, if this is not enough, the real property with the intervention

      of the heirs.

      • When a minor, absentee, corporation or public institution has any interest

        in the estate, the sale of the property shall be made, under the formalities

        provided by the laws for such cases.

    • Article 904

      An executor, for whom the testator has not fixed the term, shall comply with his charge within a year, to be counted from

      his acceptance, or from the determination of the law suit which may be

      instituted about the validity or the nullity of the testament or of any

      one of its provisions.

    • Article 905

      If the testator desires to extend the legal term, he shall expressly fix the time for the extension. When he has not done

      so, it shall be understood that the term is extended for one year.

      • When, after the expiration of this extension, the will of the testator

        has not yet been complied with, the Judge may grant another one for the

        time which may be necessary, in view of the circumstances of the case.

    • Article 906

      The heirs and legatees may, by common agreement, extend the term of the executorship for the time they deem necessary;

      but, if the agreement is only that of a majority, the extension shall

      not exceed one year.

    • Article 907

      Executors shall render to the heirs an account of their charge.

      • When they have been appointed not to deliver the property to specified

        heirs, but to invest or distribute it in the form provided by the testator

        in the cases allowed by law, they shall render their accounts to the Judge.

      • Any disposition of the testator, contrary to this article, shall be null

        and void.

    • Article 908

      Executorship is a gratuitous charge. However, the testator may

      designate the executors, the compensation which he may consider convenient

      ; all of this without injury to the rights which they may have to collect

      whatever may belong to them for their work in the distribution or for

      any other professional services.

      • When the testator bequeaths or designates conjointly any compensation

        for the executors, the shares of those, who do not accept the charge,

        shall accrue to those who shall discharge it.

    • Article 909

      Executors cannot delegate their charge, unless they have express authority from the testator for so doing.

    • Article 910

      Executorship is determined by the death, impossibility, renunciation, or removal of the executor, and by the lapse of the term fixed by the testator, by law, and, in certain cases, by the parties concerned.

    • Article 911

      In the cases of the preceding article and when the executor has not accepted the charge, the execution of the will of the

      testator shall devolve upon the heirs.

• Chapter Third  Intestate Succession
  • Section First  General Provisions
    • Article 912

      Legitimate succession takes place:

      • 1

        When a person dies without a testament, or under a void testament or under one which afterwards has lost its validity.

      • 2

        When the testament does not contain the institution of heir in the whole estate or in a part of it or does not dispose of

        all that belongs to the testator. In this case the legitimate succession

        shall take place only in regard to the part of the estate of which the

        testator has not disposed.

      • 3

        When the condition imposed for the institution of heir is not complied

        with or when the heir dies before the testator or repudiates the inheritance,

        without having a substitute, and there is no right of accretion.

      • 4

        When the heir instituted is incapable to succeed.

    • Article 913

      In default of testamentary heirs, the law gives the inheritance, according to the following rules, to the legitimate and natural

      relatives of the decedent, to the widower or widow, or to the State.

    • Article 914

      Provisions about incapacity to succeed by testament equally apply to intestate successions.

  • Section Second  Relationship
    • Article 915

      The proximity of relationship is determined by the number of generations. Each generation forms a degree.

    • Article 916

      A series of degrees forms the line which may be either direct or collateral.

      • A direct line is one constituted by a series of degrees among persons descending one from the other.

      • A collateral line is that constituted by a series of degrees among persons not descending one from the other, but proceeding from a common trunk.

    • Article 917

      The right line is either descendant or ascendant.

      • The first joins the head of the family with those descending from him.

      • The second joins a person to those from whom he descends.

    • Article 918

      In the lines, as many degrees are counted as there are generations or persons, deducting the progenitor.

      • In the right line the ascent is made only to the trunk, thus the son is

        one degree distant from the father, two from the grandfather, and three

        from the great-grandfather.

      • In the collateral line, the ascent is made up to the common trunk, and

        then a descent is made down to the person with whom the computation is

        made. On account of this reason, the brother is two degrees distant from

        the brother, three from the uncle, brother of his father or mother, four

        from the first cousins, and so forth.

    • Article 919

      The computation, stated in the preceding article, governs in all matters, except in those which have relation to the impediments

      to canonical marriage.

    • Article 920

      Double or whole blood relationship is the relation in the father's and mother's line at the same time.

    • Article 921

      In every inheritance, the relative nearest in degree excludes the farther one, except in the cases in which the right of representation

      takes place.

      • The relatives, who are in the same degree, shall inherit in equal shares,

        with exception of what is provided in art. 949 about relationships of

        whole blood.

    • Article 922

      When there are several relatives in the same degree and one or some of them do not wish or cannot succeed, his portion shall

      accrue to the others of the same degree, without affecting the right of

      representation when it takes place.

    • Article 923

      When the inheritance is repudiated by the nearest relative, if he is a single one, or by all the nearest relatives, called

      by law, if there are several, then those of the following degree shall

      inherit in their own right, without being able to represent those repudiating the inheritance.

  • Section Third  Representation
    • Article 924

      The right which all the relatives of a person have to succeed him in all the rights which he should have had, if alive,

      or if he had been able to inherit, is called right of representation.

    • Article 925

      The right of representation shall always take place in the direct descending line, but never in the ascending.

      • In the collateral line, it shall take place only in favor of the children

        of brothers, whether they are of the whole or half blood.

    • Article 926

      Whenever the inheritance is taken by representation, the distribution of the estate shall be made in stirpes: thus the representative

      or representatives shall inherit no more than that which the party represented

      would inherit, if alive.

    • Article 927

      When children of one or more brothers of the decedent survive,they

      shall succeed the latter by representation, if they concur with their uncles, but if they concur alone, they shall

      inherit in equal shares.

    • Article 928

      The right of representing a person is not lost by having renounced the inheritance.

    • Article 929

      A living person cannot be represented unless in cases of disinheritance or incapacity.

• Chapter Fourth  Order of Succession According to Diversity of Lines
  • Section First  Descending Direct Line
    • Article 930

      Succession goes, in the first place, to the descending direct line.

    • Article 931

      Legitimate children and their descendants succeed the parents and other ascendants, without distinction of sex or age, and even if they come from different marriages.

    • Article 932

      The children of the decedent shall always inherit from him in their own rights, dividing the inheritance in equal shares.

    • Article 933

      The grandchildren and other descendants shall inherit by right

      of representation, and if one of them has died leaving several heirs, the portion belonging to him shall be distributed

      among such heirs in equal shares.

    • Article 934

      If there are children and descendants of other deceased children,

      the former shall inherit in their own rights, and the latter by right of representation.

  • Section Second  Ascending Direct Line
    • Article 935

      In default of legitimate children and descendants of the decedent, his ascendants shall inherit from him, excluding collaterals.

    • Article 936

      The father and mother, if living, shall inherit share and share alike.

      • When only one of them survives, this one shall take all the son's inheritance.

    • Article 937

      In default of mother or father, the ascendants, nearest in degree, shall inherit.

      • If there are some of equal degree belonging to the same line, they shall share the inheritance in capita; if they are of different

        lines but of equal degree, one half shall belong to the paternal, and

        the other half to the maternal ascendants. In each line the division shall

        be made in capita.

    • Article 938

      The provisions of the two preceding articles are understood without prejudice to what is ordered by arts. 8 1 1 and 812,

      which are applicable to intestate and testamentary successions.

  • Section Third  Recognized Natural Children
    • Article 939

      In default of legitimate descendants and ascendants, natural children legally recognized , and those legitimated by Royal Concession shall succeed the decedent in the whole inheritance.

    • Article 940

      When, together with the natural or legitimated children, concur descendants of another deceased natural or legitimated

      child, the former shall succeed by their own rights and the latter by

      right of representation.

    • Article 941

      The hereditary rights, granted by the two preceding articles to a natural or legitimated child, shall be transmitted upon

      its death to its descendants, who shall inherit from their deceased grandfather

      by right of representation.

    • Article 942

      In case that there are legitimate descendants and ascendants, the natural and legitimate children shall take from the inheritance

      only the portion granted to them by arts. 840 and 841.

    • Article 943

      Natural and legitimated children have no rights to succeed intestate the legitimate children and relatives of the father

      or mother who have recognized them ; nor shall such children or relatives

      inherit from the natural or legitimated child.

    • Article 944

      When the recognized natural or legitimated child dies without leaving issue, either lawful or recognized by it, the father

      or mother who recognized it shall inherit its whole estate , and if both

      recognized it and are alive , they shall inherit from it in equal shares.

    • Article 945

      In default of natural ascendants, the natural and legitimated children shall be succeeded by their natural brothers, according

      to the rules established for legitimate brothers.

  • Section Fourth  Successions of Collaterals and of Consorts
    • Article 946

      In default of the persons comprised in the three preceding sections, collateral relations and consorts shall inherit

      in the order established in the following article.

    • Article 947

      When there are only brothers of the whole blood, they shall inherit in equal shares.

    • Article 948

      When brothers concur with nephews, children of brothers of the whole blood, the former shall inherit in capita, and the

      latter in stirpes.

    • Article 949

      When brothers of the whole blood concur with brothers of the half blood, the former shall take a portion in the inheritance

      double that of the latter.

    • Article 950

      When there are only brothers of the half blood, some on the father's and some on the mothers side, all shall inherit

      equal portions, whatever the property may be.

    • Article 951

      Children of brothers of the half blood shall take in capita or in stirpes, according to the rules established for brothers

      of the whole blood.

    • Article 952

      In default of brothers and of nephews, children of said .brothers, be they or not of the whole blood, the surviving consort,

      not separated by a final sentence of divorce, shall take all the estate

      of the decedent.

    • Article 953

      When there are brothers or children of brothers, the widow or widower shall have a right to take, in concurrence with the

      same, the portion of inheritance in usufruct provided in art. 837.

    • Article 954

      When there are neither brothers or children of brothers, nor surviving consort, the other collateral relatives shall

      succeed in the inheritance of the decedent.

      • They shall take without difference of line, or preference among them on

        account of the whole blood.

    • Article 955

      The right to inherit in the case of intestacy shall not extend beyond the sixth degree of relationship in the collateral line.

  • Section Fifth  Inheritance by the State
    • Article 956

      In default of persons having a right to succeed in accordance

      with the provisions of the preceding sections, the State shall inherit,

      and the property shall be destined for institutions of beneficence or

      of gratuitous instruction, in the following order:

      • 1

        Municipal institutions of beneficence and gratuitous schools of the domicil of the decedent.

      • 2

        Those of the same classes in the province of the decedent.

      • 3

        Those of beneficence and instruction of a general character.

    • Article 957

      The rights and obligations of institutions of beneficence and instruction, in the cases of the preceding articles, shall

      be the same that other heirs may have.

    • Article 958

      In order that the State may take possession of the property of the inheritance, a previous judicial declaration has to be

      made by which the inheritance shall be adjudged to the State, in default

      of legitimate heirs.

• Chapter Fifth  Provisions Common to Inheritance by Testament or Without It
  • Section First  Precautions to be Adopted When the Widow Remains in a Pregnant Condition
    • Article 959

      When the widow believes that she has been left in a pregnant condition,

      she must give notice to those having in the inheritance, rights of such a kind that they shall disappear

      or be diminished by the birth of a posthumous child.

    • Article 960

      Interested persons, to which the preceding article refers, may ask the Municipal Judge or the Judge of the First Instance,

      when there is one, to take the proper measures in order to prevent the

      supposition of parturition or to accept the child born as viable, when,

      in truth, it is not so.

      • The Judge shall be careful that the measures which he orders to be taken

        shall not be offensive, either to the modesty or to the liberty of the

        widow.

    • Article 961

      Whether the notice stated in art. 959 has been given or not, when

      the time of the parturition approaches, the widow shall give notice of

      this fact to the parties interested. They shall have a right to appoint

      a person in whom they have confidence in order that he may aver the reality

      of the delivery.

      • When the person appointed is rejected by the widow, one shall be appointed

        by the Judge, but said person must be a physician or a woman.

    • Article 962

      The omission of these formalities shall not injure the legitimacy of the parturition, which, when contested, may be proven

      by the mother or the child lawfully represented.

      • The action to contest, on the part of those having such right, is prescribed,

        after the terms specified in art. 113.

    • Article 963

      When the husband has recognized by a document, either public or private, the certainty of the pregnancy of his wife,

      she shall be excused from giving the notice provided in art. 959, but

      she shall be subject to comply with the provisions of art. 961.

    • Article 964

      A widow who remains pregnant, even when she is rich, shall receive

      support from the estate, taking into consideration the portion of it which may belong to the posthumous child,

      if he is born and is viable.

    • Article 965

      During the time intervening, until the parturition arrives, or until certainty is established that it cannot take place,

      either on account of a miscarriage, or because the maximum time for the

      gestation has been exceeded, the security and administration of the estate shall be attended to in the form provided

      in necessary testamentary proceedings.

    • Article 966

      The distribution of the inheritance shall be suspended until the

      parturition or miscarriage takes place, or the lapse of time shows the

      widow was not pregnant.

      • An administrator, however, may pay the creditors under a judicial order.

    • Article 967

      After the delivery or miscarriage has taken place or the time of gestation has elapsed, the administrator of the estate shall

      cease in his charge, and shall render account of his management to the

      heirs or their lawful representatives.

  • Section Second  Property Subject to Reservation
    • Article 968

      Besides the reservation imposed by art. 811, the widower or widow

      contracting a second marriage shall be obliged to reserve for the children

      and descendants of the first, the ownership of all the property acquired

      from the deceased consort by will, by intestate succession, by donation,

      or by any other lucrative title; but not his or her half of the conjugal property.

    • Article 969

      The provision of the preceding article applies to property which has been acquired, under the titles already stated, by

      the widower or widow from any of the children of the first marriage, or

      that received from the relatives of the decedent on account of personal

      considerations for the same.

    • Article 970

      The obligation to reserve shall cease, when the children of a marriage, being of legal age and having a right to the estate,

      have expressly renounced it, or when the things in question have been

      given or left by the children to their father or mother, knowing that they had married a second time.

    • Article 971

      Reservation shall cease when, at the death of the father or mother who contracted a second marriage, there remains no legitimate

      children or descendants of the first marriage.

    • Article 972

      Notwithstanding the obligation to reserve, the father or mother, married a second time, may give advantages in the property,

      subject to reservation (reservables), to any of the children or descendants

      of the first marriage, as provided in art 823.

    • Article 973

      When the father or mother has not made use in whole or in part of the right granted to them in the preceding article,

      the legitimate children or descendants of the first marriage shall succeed

      to the property subject to reservation, in accordance with the rules prescribed

      for succession in the descending line, even when, by virtue of a testament, he or she should

      have unequally inherited from the first decedent consort, or should have

      renounced or repudiated his or her inheritance.

      • The son, justly disinherited by the father or by the mother, shall lose

        all right to the reservation, but, if he has legitimate children or descendants,

        the provisions of art. 857 shall be followed.

    • Article 974

      Conveyances of reserved real property shall be valid when made by the surviving consort, before contracting a second marriage,

      under the obligation to secure, from the moment of the marriage, the value

      of such property in favor of the children and descendants of the first

      marriage.

    • Article 975

      Conveyances of real property, subject to reservation, made by

      the widower or widow, after contracting a second marriage, shall subsist

      only when, at his or her death, there remains no legitimate children or

      descendants of the former marriage; this without conflict with the provisions of the Law of Mortgage.

    • Article 976

      Conveyances of personal property, made before or after contracting a second marriage, shall be valid, but always under

      the obligation of paying an indemnity when proper.

    • Article 977

      A widower or widow , on contracting a new marriage, shall make an inventory of all the property subject to reservation, and annotate in the Registry of property that such real property is subject to reservation in accordance with the provisions of the Law of Mortgage and shall have the personal property appraised.

    • Article 978

      A widower or widow, on marrying again, is also bound to secure by mortgage:

      • 1

        The restitution of the personal property, not alienated, in the condition

        in which it was at the time of the death of the decedent, when it was

        paraphernalia or the proceeds from an unestimated dowry; or of their value,

        if they arise from an estimated dowry.

      • 2

        The payment of the damages, caused or which may be caused by his or

        her fault or neglect.

      • 3

        The return of any sums received for the personal property already sold or the delivery of the value it had, at the time

        of the alienation, had it been made under a gratuitous title.

      • 4

        The value of the real property validly alienated.

    • Article 979

      The provisions of the preceding article for the second marriage shall equally control the third and subsequent marriages.

    • Article 980

      The obligation to reserve, imposed in the preceding, article, shall apply to the widower or widow, who though not having contracted

      a new marriage, may afterwards have a recognized natural child or one

      judicially declared as such.

      • Said obligation shall be effective from the date of the birth of such child.

  • Section Third  Right of Acoretion
    • Article 981

      In legitimate succession, the part of him who repudiated the inheritance shall always accrue to the co-heirs.

    • Article 982

      In order that in testamentary succession the right of accretion may take place, it is required:

      • 1

        That two or more persons are called to the same inheritance or to the same portion of it, without a special designation of shares.

      • 2

        That one of the appointees dies before the testator or renounces the inheritance, or is incapable to receive it.

    • Article 983

      It shall be understood that a designation has been made by portion only in case that the testator may have expressly designated

      a quota to each heir.

      • The phrase "one half to each", or "in equal parts" or any other, although

        specifying aliquot parts, which does not express this numerically or by

        such marks as may make each of them the owner of an estate severally,

        does not exclude the right of accretion.

    • Article 984

      The heirs, to whom the inheritance accrues, shall succeed in all the rights and obligations which would have belonged to

      the one who did not wish or could not receive it.

    • Article 985

      Among forced heirs, the right to accrue shall take place only when the part, at free disposal, is left to two or more of

      them or to any one of them and a stranger.

      • When the repudiated part is the legitime, the other coheirs shall succeed

        to it in their own rights, and not by the right of accretion.

    • Article 986

      In testamentary successions, when the right of accretion cannot take place, the vacant portion of the heir instituted,

      for whom no substitute has been appointed, passes to the lawful heirs

      of the testator who shall receive it under the same charges and obligations.

    • Article 987

      The right of accretion shall also take place between the legatees and the usufructuaries in the same terms established for heirs.

  • Section Fourth  Acceptance and Repudiation of the Inheritance
    • Article 988

      Acceptance and repudiation of the inheritance are acts entirely voluntary and free.

    • Article 989

      The effects of the acceptance and repudiation shall always relate back to the moment of the death of the person whose property

      is inherited.

    • Article 990

      Acceptance or repudiation of the inheritance cannot be made, either partially, up to a certain term, or conditionally.

    • Article 991

      No person can accept or repudiate an inheritance, unless he is certain of the death of the person from whom he is to inherit

      and of his rights to the inheritance.

    • Article 992

      Any person having free disposal of his property may accept or repudiate an inheritance.

      • An inheritance left to minors or incapables may be accepted in the form

        provided by no. 10 of art. 259. When the guardian accepts by himself,

        the acceptance shall be considered as made under benefit of inventory.

      • Acceptance of an inheritance, left to the poor, shall pertain to the persons

        appointed by the testator to classify them and distribute the property,

        and, in default of them, to those designated in art. 749, and it shall

        also be understood as accepted under benefit of inventory.

    • Article 993

      The lawful representatives of associations, corporations, and institutions having capacity to acquire can accept the inheritance left to the same; but for repudiating it they require judicial approval, after the Public Attorney has been heard.

    • Article 994

      Public official institutions can neither accept nor repudiate inheritances without the approval of the government.

    • Article 995

      A married woman can neither accept nor repudiate an inheritance, unless with permission of her husband, and, in his default,

      with the approval of the Judge.

      • In the last case, the property of the conjugal society, already existing,

        shall not be liable for the debts of the estate.

    • Article 996

      The deaf and dumb, knowing how to read and write, shall accept or repudiate the inheritance personally or through an attorney. If they cannot read or write, their guardian shall accept it under benefit of inventory, subject to what is provided in art. 218 in relation to such disability.

    • Article 997

      Acceptance and repudiation of the inheritance, once made, are irrevocable, and can be contested only in case they suffer from any of the vices which annul the consent, or when an unknown testament appears.

    • Article 998

      Inheritances can be accepted purely and simply or under benefit of inventory.

    • Article 999

      Pure and simple inheritances may be either express or tacit. Express is one made in a public or private instrument. Tacit

      is one made by acts, which necessarily imply a will to accept, or acts

      which no one should %have a right to execute unless in the capacity of

      an heir.

      • Acts of mere preservation, or provisional administration do not imply

        the acceptance of the inheritance, if, at the same time, the title and

        qualification of heir have not been assumed.

    • Article 1000

      An inheritance is considered as accepted:

      • 1

        When the heir sells, donates or assigns a right to a stranger, to all

        his co-heirs or to one of them only.

      • 2

        When the heir renounces it, even gratuitously, for the benefit of one

        or more of his co-heirs.

      • 3

        When he renounces it for a consideration in favor of all his co-heirs

        indiscriminately, but when this renunciation is gratuitous and the co-heirs,

        in whose favor he makes it, are those to whom the share renounced must

        accrue, the inheritance shall not be considered as accepted.

    • Article 1001

      When the heir repudiates the inheritance to the damage of his own creditors, they may ask the Judge to authorize them

      to accept it on behalf of the latter.

      • The acceptance shall be of benefit to the creditors only in so far as

        it covers the amount of their credits. The excess, if any, shall not belong,

        in any case, to the renouncer but shall be allotted to the persons to

        whom, according to the rules of this Code, it may belong.

    • Article 1002

      The heirs, who have subtracted or concealed any effects of the inheritance, lose the right to renounce it, and retain

      only the character of pure and simply heirs without being released from

      the penalties which they may have incurred.

    • Article 1003

      By the acceptance, pure and simple, or without benefit of inventory, the heir shall be liable for all the charges of

      the estate, not only with the properties of the same, but also with his

      own.

    • Article 1004

      Until nine days have elapsed from the death of the person whose inheritance is dealt with, no action can be instituted against

      the heir to compel him to accept or repudiate it.

    • Article 1005

      When a third party having an interest, urges in a suit that the heir should accept or repudiate the inheritance, the Judge

      shall give the latter a term, not exceeding thirty days, within, which

      he shall declare his intention, warning him that, in case he does not

      do it, the inheritance shall be considered as accepted.

    • Article 1006

      Upon the death of the heir, without having accepted or repudiated the inheritance, the same rights he had are transmitted

      to his heirs.

    • Article 1007

      When there are several heirs called to an inheritance, some of them may accept and some repudiate it. Every one of the heirs shall enjoy the same liberty to accept it purely and simply, or under benefit of inventory.

    • Article 1008

      Repudiation of an inheritance shall be made by a public or authentic instrument or by a writ presented to the Judge,

      competent to take cognizance of testamentary or intestate proceedings.

    • Article 1009

      Any person called to an inheritance by a testament or by intestacy and who repudiates it under the former title, is considered

      as having repudiated under both titles.

      • If he repudiates it as intestate heir and has no knowledge of his testamentary

        title, he may yet accept it under the latter title.

  • Section Fifth  Benefit of Inventory and Right to Deliberate
    • Article 1010

      Every heir may accept an inheritance under benefit of inventory,

      even if the testator has forbidden it.

      • He may also ask for the making of the inventory, before accepting or repudiating

        the inheritance, in order to deliberate on this point.

    • Article 1011

      Acceptance of the inheritance, under the benefit of inventory, may be made before a Notary, or in a writing before any

      of the judges, competent for taking cognizance of the testamentary or

      intestate proceedings.

    • Article 1012

      When the heir, to whom the preceding article refers, is in a foreign land, he may make such declaration before a diplomatic

      or consular Agent of Spain, who may be authorized to exercise the duties

      of a Notary in the place of such execution.

    • Article 1013

      The declaration, to which the preceding articles refer, shall produce no effect, unless it be preceded or followed by a

      true and exact inventory of all the property of the estate, made with

      the formalities and within the term specified in the following articles.

    • Article 1014

      An heir, having in his hands the property of the estate or a part of it, and who wishes to make use of the benefit of inventory

      or of the right to deliberate shall so state to the Judge, competent to

      take cognizance of the testamentary or intestate proceedings, within ten

      days next following that on which he has become aware that he is such an heir, if he resides in the

      place where the originator of his inheritance dies. If he resides out

      of the place, the term shall be thirty days.

      • In both cases, the heir shall ask, at the same time, for the making of

        an inventory, and that the creditors and legatees be summoned to be present

        at it, if convenient for them.

    • Article 1015

      When the heir has not in his possession the inheritance or a part of it, or has not executed any act as such heir,

      the terms, specified in the preceding article, shall be counted from the

      next day following the one on which shall expire the term fixed by the

      Judge for accepting or repudiating the inheritance, in accordance with

      art. 1005, or from the day on which he has accepted it or has acted as

      heir.

    • Article 1016

      In the cases not provided for by the two preceding articles, if no complaint has been presented against the heir, he may

      accept, under the benefit of inventory, or with the right to deliberate

      while the action to claim an inheritance is not prescribed.

    • Article 1017

      An inventory shall be begun within thirty days next following the summoning of the creditors and legatees and shall be

      finished within sixty days more.

      • If, because the property is situated at a long distance, or is very valuable,

        or for any other just cause, said sixty days are considered insufficient,

        the Judge may extend this term to such a time as he may deem necessary,

        but it shall not exceed one year.

    • Article 1018

      If by the fault or neglect of the heir, the inventory is not begun or finished within the term, and with the solemnities prescribed in the preceding article, it shall be understood that he accepts the inheritance purely and simply.

    • Article 1019

      An heir, who has reserved to himself the right to deliberate, shall state to the court, within thirty days, counted from

      the day following that on which the inventory has been finished, whether

      he accepts or repudiates the inheritance.

      • After such thirty days have elapsed, if he has not made such a statement,

        it shall be understood that he accepts it purely and simply.

    • Article 1020

      In any case, the judge may, on petition of any party interested, during the making of the inventory and until the acceptance

      of the inheritance, provide for the administration and custody of the

      hereditary estate, in accordance with the provisions of the Law of Civil

      Procedure about testamentary proceedings.

    • Article 1021

      A person who judicially claims an inheritance, which another has held in his possession for over a year and who wins the suit, shall not he obliged to make an inventory for enjoying such benefit, and he shall be liable for the burdens of the estate only with the property which has been delivered to him.

    • Article 1022

      The inventory made by the heir, who afterwards repudiates the inheritance, shall benefit the substitutes and the intestate

      heirs, in respect to whom, the thirty days for deliberation and in which

      to make the statement, provided by art. 1019, shall be counted from the

      day next following that on which they were made aware of the repudiation.

    • Article 1023

      The benefit of inventory produces the following effects in favor of the heir:

      • 1

        The heir shall not be bound to pay the debts and other charges of the

        inheritance but up to the amount that the estate may be worth.

      • 2

        He retains against the estate all the rights and actions which he may

        have had against the decedent.

      • 3

        The private property of the heir shall not anywise be confused, to

        his injury, with the property belonging to the estate.

    • Article 1024

      The heir shall lose the benefit of inventory:

      • 1

        When having knowledge of it, he fails to include in the inventory any

        of the property, rights or actions of the inheritance.

      • 2

        When, before completing the payment of the debts and legacies, he alienates any property of the estate without judicial

        authorization, or that of all the parties in interest, or, if he does

        not apply the value of what is sold to what has been ordered, when the

        authorization was granted to him.

    • Article 1025

      During the making of the inventory and the term granted for deliberating, the legatees cannot claim the payment of their

      legacies.

    • Article 1026

      Until all known creditors and legatees have been paid, it shall be understood that the estate is under administration.

      • The administrator, whether it is the heir himself or any other person,

        shall have, as such, the representation of the estate to enforce all actions

        pertaining to it, and answer all complaints instituted against the same.

    • Article 1027

      The administrator shall not pay the legacies, until he has paid all the creditors.

    • Article 1028

      When there is a pending lawsuit among the creditors about the preference of their credits, they shall be paid in the order

      and according to the degree fixed by the final sentence of graduation.

      • When there is no pending lawsuit among the creditors, those presenting themselves first shall be paid first; but where it is

        well established that one of the known credits is preferred, payment shall

        not be made without previous security being given in favor of the creditor

        having a better right.

    • Article 1029

      If, after the legacies are paid, more creditors appear, they shall have a right to make claims against the legatees only

      in case that the estate may not have property enough to pay them.

    • Article 1030

      When for the payment of credits and legacies, the sale of the property of the estate may be necessary, it shall be made

      in the form established by the Code of Civil Procedure about intestate

      and testamentary proceedings, unless all the heirs, creditors, and legatees

      agree otherwise.

    • Article 1031

      When the hereditary estate is not sufficient for the payment of the debts and legacies, the administrator shall render an account

      of his administration to the creditors and legatees who have not been

      paid in full, and he shall be liable for the damages caused to the estate

      by his fault or negligence.

    • Article 1032

      After the creditors and legatees are paid, the heir shall have the full enjoyment of the remainder of the estate.

      • If the estate has been administered by another person, he shall render

        an account of his administration to the heir, under the responsibility

        imposed by the preceding article.

    • Article 1033

      The cost of the inventory and other expenses, caused by the administration of the inheritance, accepted under the benefit

      of inventory, and the defense of its rights, shall be paid by the same

      estate. The cost to which the heir may have been personally condemned,

      on account of his deceit or bad faith, shall be excepted.

      • The same thing shall be understood about the cost caused for making use

        of the right to deliberate , when the heir repudiates the inheritance.

    • Article 1034

      The private creditors of the heir cannot interfere with the operations of the estate, accepted by him under benefit of inventory,

      until the creditors and legatees of the same have been paid; but they

      may claim the retention or the seizure of the remainder which may be left

      in favor of the heirs.

• Chapter Sixth  Collation and Distribution
  • Section First  Collation
    • Article 1035

      A forced heir, concurring with others of the same character in a succession, shall bring to the estate the properties or values which he may have received from the originator of the inheritance, during the life of the same, as dowry, donation, or under any other lucrative title for the purpose of computing it, the regulation of the legitimes, and in the account of the distribution.

    • Article 1036

      Collation shall not take place among forced heirs when the donor has so expressly ordered, or when the donee repudiates

      the inheritance, unless in the case in which the donation is to be reduced

      as inofficious.

    • Article 1037

      What is left by will is not subject to collation, unless the testator orders otherwise; but, in any case, the legitime shall

      remain free.

    • Article 1038

      When grandchildren inherit from their grandparents in representation of their parents, and concur with their uncles or cousins,

      they shall bring to collation all that their parents, if alive, would

      have been required to bring, though they may not have inherited it.

      • They shall also bring to collation whatever they may have received from

        the testator, during the life of the same, unless the testator has otherwise

        disposed, in which case, his will shall be respected, if it does no injury

        to the legitime of the co-heirs.

    • Article 1039

      Parents are not obliged to bring to collation in the inheritance of their ascendants what may have been donated by the latter to their children.

    • Article 1040

      Neither shall the donations made to the consort of the child be brought to collation; but if they have been made by the

      parent to both of them jointly, the child shall be obliged to bring to

      collation one half of the thing donated.

    • Article 1041

      Expenses for support, education, for sickness, even if extraordinary, apprenticeship, ordinary equipment or the usual presents

      are not subject to collation.

    • Article 1042

      Expenses, incurred by the parents in giving their children a professional or artistic career , shall not be brought

      to collation, unless the parent so disposes or they injure the legitime,

      but when it may be lawful to bring them to collation, the sum which the

      child should have spent, if living in the house and company of the parents,

      shall be deducted From them.

    • Article 1043

      The sums paid by the parents to redeem the children from the lot of soldiers, pay their debts, obtain for them a title of honor or other similar expenses, shall be brought to collation.

    • Article 1044

      Wedding presents, consisting of jewels, clothing and equipment, shall not be reduced as inofficious but in the amount exceeding

      one tenth or more of the sum disposable by testament.

    • Article 1045

      The same things, donated or given in dowry, are not to be brought to collation and distribution, but only the value they

      had at the time of the donation or dowry, though they were not appraised

      at such time.

      • The subsequent increase or impairment and even their total loss, either casually or culpably, shall be to the account and risk

        for the benefit of the donee.

    • Article 1046

      The dowry or donation, made jointly by both censorts, shall be brought to collation in equal parts in the inheritance

      of each one of them. That made by only one of them shall be brought to

      collation in his inheritance.

    • Article 1047

      The donee shall take from the funds of the succession a sum so much less than the sum already received by him, and the co-heirs shall receive the equivalent in property of the same nature, class and quality, in so far as possible.

    • Article 1048

      When what has been provided in the preceding article cannot be executed, if the property donated has consisted of real

      property, the co- heirs shall have a right to be equalized in cash, or

      in stocks and bonds, at the rate at which they are quoted; and when there

      are in the estate neither cash nor stocks and bonds, other property shall be sold at public auction up to

      the amount required.

      • When the property donated is personal property, the coheirs shall have

        only a right to be equalized in other personal property of the estate

        at its just value and at their free election.

    • Article 1049

      The fruits and interests of the property, subject to collation, are not due to the bulk of the estate, except from the day

      on which the succession is opened.

      • In order to regulate them, the rents and interests of the hereditary property

        of the same class as those brought to collation shall be taken into consideration.

    • Article 1050

      When a question arises among the heirs about the obligation to bring to collation or about the objects which are to be

      brought thereto, the distribution shall not be stopped for such a cause,

      but proper bond shall be given.

  • Section Second  Distribution
    • Article 1051

      No co-heir shall be obliged to continue in the estate in an undivided condition, unless the testator has expressly

      forbidden the distribution.

      • But even when it is so forbidden, the distribution shall always be made

        for any of the causes on account of which partnerships are extinguished.

    • Article 1052

      Every co-heir having the free administration and disposal of his property, may, at any time, ask for the distribution of

      the estate.

      • The lawful representatives of incapables and absentees may ask for the

        distribution on their behalf.

    • Article 1053

      The wife cannot ask for the distribution of the estate without authority of the husband, and, in certain cases, of the

      Judge. When the husband asks for it, in the name of his wife, he shall

      do it with her consent.

      • The co-heirs of the wife cannot ask for the distribution without the institution

        of a joint suit against her and her husband.

    • Article 1054

      The heirs, under condition, shall not ask for the distribution until the condition is fulfilled. But the other co-heirs

      may ask for it, by properly securing the rights of the former for the

      cases in which the condition may be fulfilled, and until it is known that

      it has failed or can no longer be complied with, the distribution shall be considered as provisional.

    • Article 1055

      When, before the distribution is made, one of the co-heirs dies leaving two or more heirs, a petition by one of them shall

      be sufficient; but all those who intervene in such capacity shall appear

      under a single representation.

    • Article 1056

      When the testator makes a distribution of his property by an act

      inter vivos or by a last will, it shall be accepted in so far as it does

      not injure the legitime of the forced heirs.

      • The father, who for the interest of his family, desires to keep undivided

        an agricultural, industrial or manufacturing enterprise, may make use

        of the powers, granted to him by this article, by disposing that the legitimes

        of the other children be paid in cash.

    • Article 1057

      The testator may, by an act inter vivos or mortis causa, confer the mere power of making the distribution, after his death,

      to any person who shall not be one of the co-heirs.

      • The provisions of this and the preceding articles shall be observed, even

        when there may be found a minor or a person subject to guardianship among

        the heirs; but the trustee shall, in this case, make an inventory of the

        property of the inheritance, after summoning the co-heirs, the creditors,

        and the legatees.

    • Article 1058

      When the testator has not made any distribution nor trusted this power to another person, if the heirs are of age and have the free administration of their property, they may distribute the estate in the manner they may deem fit.

    • Article 1059

      When the heirs of age cannot agree about the manner of making the distribution, they shall be free to enforce their rights in the manner prescribed by the Law of Civil Procedure.

    • Article 1060

      When the minors are subject to the parental power and are represented in the distribution by the father or, in his default, by the mother, neither the intervention nor the approval of the Judge shall be required.

    • Article 1061

      In the distribution of the estate,all possible fairness shall be observed by drawing lots or adjudging to each one of the heirs things of the same nature, quality, or kind.

    • Article 1062

      When a thing is indivisible or loses considerable by being divided, it may be adjudged to one of the heirs, under condition

      of paying the excess in cash to the others.

      • But it shall be sufficient if a single one of the heirs ask for its sale

        at public auction and that strange bidders may take part in the auction

        in order that this may be so done.

    • Article 1063

      On making the distribution, the co-heirs shall reciprocally compensate one another for the rents and fruits which each

      of them may have collected from the estate for the useful and necessary

      expenses made on said property or for the injuries caused to it by malice

      or neglect.

    • Article 1064

      The expenses of the distribution, made for the common interests of all the co-heirs, shall be deducted from the estate,

      those made for the particular interest of one of them, shall be borne

      by the same.

    • Article 1065

      The titles of acquisition or of ownership shall be delivered to the co-heir to whom the tenement or tenements, to which they

      refer, were adjudged.

    • Article 1066

      When the same title comprises several tenements adjudged to several co-heirs, or one only which may have been divided

      among two or more, the title shall remain in the possession of the person

      having a greater interest in the tenement or tenements and authenticated

      copies of it shall be furnished to the other parties, at the expense of

      the estate. Should the interests be equal, the title shall be delivered

      to the male heir, and, where there are more than one, to the senior of

      them.

      • When the title is an original one, the person in whose possession it remains

        shall besides be obliged to exhibit it to the other interested parties,

        when they ask him to do so.

    • Article 1067

      When any of the heirs sell their hereditary rights to a stranger, before the distribution, all or any one of the heirs can

      subrogate himself in the place of the purchaser, reimbursing him for the

      value of the purchase, provided they do so with in the term of a month,

      to be counted from the day on which they have been informed of it.

  • Section Third  Effects of the Distribution
    • Article 1068

      A distribution lawfully made confers upon each heir the exclusive ownership of the property adjudged to him.

    • Article 1069

      After the distribution is made, the co-heirs are reciprocally bound to warrant and defend (eviccion y saneamiento) the

      property adjudged.

    • Article 1070

      The obligation, to which the preceding article refers, shall cease only in the following cases :

      • 1

        When the testator himself has made the distribution, unless it may

        appear or be reasonably presumed that he desired to do contrary, it always

        being understood not to conflict with the legitime.

      • 2

        When it has been expressly stipulated on making the distribution.

      • 3

        When the eviction originates from a cause subsequent to the distribution

        or has been caused by the fault of the person to whom it was adjudged.

    • Article 1071

      The reciprocal obligation of the co- heirs, in the case of eviction, is proportional to their respective hereditary shares;

      but if any one of them is insolvent, the other co-heirs shall be liable

      for his part, in the same proportion, deducting the part belonging to

      the one to be indemnified.

      • Those paying for the insolvent co-heir shall retain their action against

        him, until the time when his fortune may improve.

    • Article 1072

      When a credit is allotted as recoverable, the co-heirs shall not be liable for the subsequent insolvency of the debtor

      of the estate, and shall be responsible only for his insolvency, at the

      time the distribution is made.

      • No one shall be responsible for the credits, qualified as unrecoverable,

        but when collected, in whole or in part, the amount collected shall be

        proportionally distributed among the heirs.

  • Section Fourth  Rescission of Distribution
    • Article 1073

      Distribution may be rescinded for the same causes as obligations.

    • Article 1074

      Distribution may also be rescinded on account of lesion exceeding the fourth part, taking into consideration the value

      of the things when they were adjudged.

    • Article 1075

      The distribution made by the testator, cannot be contested on account of lesion, excepting in the cases in which it may

      injure the legitime of the forced heirs, or when it may appear or it may

      be reasonably presumed that the will of the testator was otherwise.

    • Article 1076

      A rescissory action for lesion shall be brought within four years, to be counted from the time the distribution was made.

    • Article 1077

      A defendant heir shall have an option between paying an indemnity for the injury, or consent to a new distribution.

      • The indemnity may be paid in cash or in the same thing in which the damage

        took place.

      • If a new distribution is made, it shall not be effectual as to those who

        were not injured nor to those who did not receive more than was justly

        due them.

    • Article 1078

      An heir, who has alienated the whole or a considerable part of the real property adjudged to him, cannot enforce the rescissory action for lesion.

    • Article 1079

      The omission of one or several objects or values of the estate shall not cause the rescission of the distribution for lesion,

      but only to complete or increase the estate with the objects or values

      omitted.

    • Article 1080

      A distribution, made with preterition of any of the heirs, shall not be rescinded, unless it is proven that there was bad faith or deceit on the part of the other parties concerned, but the latter shall be obliged to pay to the ommitted person the proportionate share belonging to him.

    • Article 1081

      When in a distribution, a person, who was believed to be an heir, without being so, has been included, it shall be null and

      void.

  • Section Fifth  Payment of Hereditary Debts
    • Article 1082

      Creditors, recognized as such, can object to the distribution of the estate being carried into effect, until they are paid or the amount of their credits is secured.

    • Article 1083

      Creditors of one or more of the co-heirs may intervene, at their own expense, in the distribution, in order to prevent it being made in fraud or to the injury of their rights.

    • Article 1084

      After the distribution is made, the creditors may exact the payment

      of the debts, in full, from any of the heirs who have not accepted the

      inheritance under benefit of inventory, or up to the amount of their hereditary

      share in case they have accepted it under such benefit.

      • In both cases the defendant shall have a right to notify and summon his

        co heirs, unless by disposition of the testator or in consequence of the

        distribution, he alone is bound to pay the debt.

    • Article 1085

      The co-heir, who has paid more than corresponds to his share in the estate, may claim from the others his proportionate

      part.

      • The same course shall be pursued, when because of the debt being secured

        by mortgage or consisting in a specified object, he has paid it in full.

        The person to whom it has been adjudged may, in such case, claim from

        his co-heirs only the proportional part, even when the creditor has assigned

        to him his actions and subrogated him in his place.

    • Article 1086

      When one of the tenements belonging to the estate is encumbered with a perpetual rent or real charge, it shall not be extinguished,

      even when redeemable, unless a majority of the heirs agree to do it.

      • When not agreed to or if the charge is not redeemable, its value or principal

        shall be deducted from the value or capital of the tenement, and this

        shall pass with the burden to the person to whom it is allotted or adjudged.

    • Article 1087

      The co-heir, who, at the same time, is a creditor of the decedent, may claim from the others the payment of his credit,

      deducting his proportional part, as such heir, and without prejudice to

      what is established in section fifth, chapter fifth of this title.