TITLE

IS RIGHT = TITLE?
YES: Holland, Lord Blackburn
NO: Salmond,
Austin
5th element of a Right.
Fact or event by reason
of which the right is
vested in the owner

merely an element of the

right.
Difference:
Title indicates the idea of
investitive fact
Right is power, faculty or
capacity founded on the title.

LEGAL RIGHTS
Title is the de facto antecedent, legal right is its de jure
consequent.

Title:
(a) Lawful mode of acquisition
(b) Jural claim to have and hold

Justice Holmes
Every right is a consequence attached by
the law to one or more facts which the law
defines.
Wherever law gives anyone special right
on the ground of certain special facts true
to him.
Special facts = title.

Salmond
Title is the de facto antecedent of which
the right is the de jure consequent.
Right upon one man due to certain facts
true to him (title).
Right may be by birth or personal efforts,
but title is essential.

Holland
Fact giving rise to right is title.
Fact of transfer or extinguishment of right?

Bentham
dispositive facts instead of title.

CLASSIFICATION OF TITLES
Salmond
Bentham
Question of human will

Salmonds Classification
Vestitive
facts

Investitive
facts

Derivative
Title

Alienative
Facts

Original
Title

Salmonds Classification
Vestitive
facts

Relation to Right
(creation, transfer, extinction)

Investitive
Facts

Derivative
Title

Alienative
Facts

Original
Title

Extinctive
Facts

Salmonds Classification
Vestitive
facts

Divestitive Facts
Destroy rights

Alienative
Facts

Extinctive
Facts

Create rights

Investitive
Facts

Derivative
Title

Original
Title

Salmonds Classification
Vestitive
facts

Investitive
facts

Alienative
Facts

Created by transfer of
an existing right

Derivative
Title

Original
Title

De novo
(No previous existence)

Identification
Case:
A caught fish from the river.
He sold the fish to B.

Benthams Classification
Dispositive
facts

Investitive
facts

Collative
facts

Impositive
facts

Divestitive
facts

Destructive
facts

Translative
facts

Exonerative
facts

Benthams Classification
Transferring of
rights and duties

Dispositive
facts

Investitive
facts

Collative
facts

Impositive
facts

Divestitive
facts

Destructive
facts

Translative
facts

Exonerative
facts

Benthams Classification
Dispositive
facts

Investitive
facts

Collative
facts

Confer rights

Impositive
facts

Impose duties

Divestitive
facts

Destructive
facts

Translative
facts

Exonerative
facts

Benthams Classification
Dispositive
facts

Investitive
facts

Collative
facts

Impositive
facts

End rights

Divestitive
facts

Destructive
facts

Release persons
from duties

Translative
facts

Exonerative
facts

Human Will Classification

Vestitive facts

Acts of the
Law

Acts in the
Law

Unilateral

Subject to
dissent

Bilateral

Independent
of dissent

Creative

Contracts

Releases

Extinctive

Assignments

Creative

Grants

Extinctive

Human Will Classification

Vestitive
facts
Acts of
the Law

Acts in
the Law

Unilateral
Will of only one party
is effective or operative
Valid even without
consent of other party

Bilateral
Consenting will of
two or more parties

Identification
Case
A entrusts property to B in trust for C
Unilateral or Bilateral?

Importance of Agreements
1. Evidence of justice
2. Private declaration of rights and duties
. Mutual consent
. Enforced by courts

Kinds of Agreements
1. Create Rights Contracts & Grants
2. Transfer Rights - Assignments
3. Extinguish Rights - Releases

Agreement

Valid

Invalid

Void

Not recognized at all by law.

Will of the parties do not
matter

Voidable

By reason of defect, liable to lose its

effect at the option of one party
Not null from the beginning, but
nullification has retrospective effect
Coercion, fraud or misrepresentation.
Midway between Void and Valid
agreement

Validity of Agreements
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Capacity of Parties
Legal Formalities
Morality and Public Policy
Error or Mistake
Consent
Consideration

1. Capacity of Parties
Certain persons are not competent to
enter into Contracts
Contracts by them are Invalid
Eg. Minors, Lunatics

2. Legal Formalities
Imposed by law to
(a) prove consent of parties
(b) distinguish actual agreement from
negotiations leading to it
Eg. Non registration, omission of
signatures of parties

3. Morality and Public Policy

Declared Invalid by Law
Eg. Wagering contracts, agreements in
restraint of trade

4. Error or Mistake
Mistake :
(a) Essential no consensus ad idem
(b) Inessential external circumstance, induced
consent

5. Consent
Invalid if obtained by means of
compulsion, undue influence or coercion

6. Consideration
Law requires valuable consideration, even
if inadequate.
Sec 25 (ICA) : Agreement without
consideration is Void.
Exceptions exist.

Modes of Acquiring Possession

(1)Animus- Rightful or wrongful
(2)Delivery Actual or Constructive

Modes of Acquiring Ownership

(1)Principle of Occupatio
(2)Prescription

1. Principle of Occupatio
Thing concerned did not belong to
anybody res nullius.
Taking possession is sufficient.

2. Prescription
Long possession
Positive lapse of time confers title
Negative
Limitation of action right exists
Perfect Negative Prescription - Lapse of time
may extinguish right itself
Case : Adverse possession for 20+ years.

Is it fair?
Public Policy certainty
Negative prescription is limited to fixed
period repairs injuries caused by time
Theory of Laches assertion of claim with
promptitude.

THE END