Text of the provision
Art. 510. The ownership which the proprietor of a piece of land has over the waters rising thereon does not prejudice the rights which the owners of lower estates may have legally acquired to the use thereof.
(415)
Civil Code of the Philippines, Republic Act No. 386, approved June 18, 1949, effective August 30, 1950. Reproduced in full; verified verbatim against the LawPhil and ChanRobles official-text renderings.
What this article means
An owner’s ownership of the water rising on his land does not defeat rights that owners of lower estates have legally acquired to use that water. Established downstream rights survive.
This article distinguishes ownership of the water at its source from the right to use that water further downstream. A landowner on whose property water rises owns that water, but this ownership does not retroactively cancel usage rights that owners of lower estates already validly acquired — for instance, through a concession or a title recognized by law — before or independently of the upstream owner’s claim. The provision protects reliance: once a lower estate’s right to use the water is legally established, the upstream owner’s ownership of the source cannot be used to defeat it.
Questions about this provision
Related provisions
- Article 509 — No Entry To Search For Waters.
- Article 511 — Right To Build Rain Reservoirs.
Cases interpreting this article
- Authorities on this article will be added here as each is verified against primary sources.