Civil Code, Article 2170 — Commingled Movables of Different Owners

What this article means

When, by accident or other fortuitous event, movables belonging separately to two or more people become commingled or confused with one another, the rules on co-ownership apply to the resulting mixture.

This article addresses confusion or commixtion of movable property — for instance, grain, liquids, or other goods belonging to different owners becoming physically mixed by a flood, storm, or similar accident, with no one at fault and no intent to combine them. Rather than treating the accident as a loss of ownership for whoever's goods end up mixed with another's, the law converts the combined mass into a state of co-ownership, so each original owner holds an undivided share corresponding to what he contributed, to be settled under the Code's general rules on co-ownership rather than claimed outright by whoever holds the mixture.

Questions about this provision

• A flood mixed my movables with my neighbor's — how is ownership sorted out?

Related provisions

• Article 2169 — Government Work Done at the Owner's Expense.
• Article 2171 — Rights of a Finder of Lost Property.

Cases interpreting this article

• Authorities on this article will be added here as each is verified against primary sources.