Short answer. Yes. Article 652 treats a simple donation differently from a sale, exchange, or partition. Where land acquired by sale, exchange, or partition is landlocked by the transferor's own remaining land, the right of way is free. But in a simple donation, the donee must indemnify the donor for it.
What the law says
In case of a simple donation, the donor shall be indemnified by the donee for the establishment of the right of way.
Civil Code, Article 652 — Land Isolated by Sale, Exchange or Partition. Read the full provision →
The general rule: no indemnity when the transferor caused the isolation
Article 652 addresses land that becomes landlocked specifically because of how it was acquired from someone who still owns the surrounding property. Where land acquired by sale, exchange or partition, is surrounded by other estates of the vendor, exchanger, or co-owner, that transferor shall be obliged to grant a right of way without indemnity. The reasoning is that the transferor's own act of selling, exchanging, or partitioning off a piece of land created the isolation, so he bears the cost of fixing it by granting passage for free.
Donation is treated as the exception
The article carves out donations from that free-of-charge rule. In case of a simple donation, the donor shall be indemnified by the donee for the establishment of the right of way. Here, the roles reverse compared to a sale: it is the donee — the recipient of the landlocked land — who must pay the donor for granting the right of way across the donor's remaining property, rather than the donor being obligated to grant it for nothing.
Why donations get different treatment
The distinction tracks who gave up value in the underlying transaction. In a sale, exchange, or partition, the transferor already received something — a price, an exchanged asset, or his own share of a partitioned property — so requiring him to also grant a free right of way is treated as part of what he owes in fairness for having created the landlocked situation. A donor, by contrast, already gave the land away without receiving anything in return; Article 652 does not additionally require him to give up passage rights on his remaining land for free, leaving the donee to compensate him for that separate benefit. Put simply, the person who profited from the transaction bears the free burden, while the person who gave freely is spared a second, uncompensated sacrifice on top of the gift already made.
What this means in practice for a donee
If you received landlocked land through a simple donation, Article 652 confirms you have a basis to obtain a right of way across the donor's remaining land, but you should expect to pay for establishing it rather than treating it as automatically free the way a buyer in similar circumstances might. The amount of that indemnity is not fixed by this article itself; it depends on the value and impact of the right of way being established across the donor's retained property.