Short answer. If there were no fruits when you sold the land but some exist when you redeem it, Article 1617 splits them by the anniversary of the sale date: the buyer keeps the share corresponding to however much of the last year, counted from that anniversary, he actually possessed the land, and you get the rest as redemptioner.
What the law says
Should there have been no fruits at the time of the sale and some exist at the time of redemption, they shall be prorated between the redemptioner and the vendee
Civil Code, Article 1617 — Fruits on Redemption. Read the full provision →
What the law says
giving the latter the part corresponding to the time he possessed the land in the last year, counted from the anniversary of the date of the sale.
Civil Code, Article 1617 — Fruits on Redemption. Read the full provision →
The proration rule in plain terms
Article 1617 draws a line based on whether fruits existed at the moment the sale was executed. If fruits already existed then and the buyer paid no separate indemnity for them, there is no reimbursement or prorating of whatever fruits exist later at redemption; they simply go with the land. But if there were no fruits at the time of sale and some have grown by the time of redemption, the two parties split them proportionally.
Working through the anniversary-date math
Say a lot was sold on May 1 with no crops on it at the time, and the seller redeems it three years later on August 1. The relevant period is the last twelve months before redemption, counted from the May 1 anniversary. The buyer possessed the land for three of those twelve months, May 1 to August 1, so he keeps roughly three-twelfths of that season's harvest, and the redeeming seller receives the remaining nine-twelfths.
Why the sale-date fruits get different treatment
The no-proration rule for fruits already on the land at the sale reflects that the buyer, by paying the purchase price without a separate charge for those existing fruits, effectively bought them along with the land; reopening that at redemption would give the seller something he was already paid for once. The proration rule only kicks in for fruits that grew fresh during the buyer's own period of possession.
A practical documentation tip
Because this computation turns on exact dates, planting cycles, and possession periods, keeping records of when crops were planted, when the sale and redemption took place, and who cultivated the land during the relevant year is often decisive in redemption disputes over fruits. The anniversary-date calculation depends entirely on those facts being provable, and a seller or buyer without them can end up arguing over a share of the harvest neither side can actually document.
Related provisions
- Civil Code, Article 1617 — Fruits on Redemption
- Civil Code, Article 1616 — What the Vendor Must Pay to Repurchase