Civil Code, Article 619 — Legal and Voluntary Easements

What this article means

Easements are established either by law or by the will of the owners — the former are legal, the latter voluntary easements.

This article supplies the basic vocabulary the rest of the Title builds on. A legal easement arises by operation of law regardless of what the parties want, while a voluntary easement exists only because the owners themselves agreed to create it, typically through a contract. The distinction matters because legal easements carry conditions and limits fixed by the Code itself, whereas voluntary easements are shaped primarily by whatever terms the owners chose when establishing them.

Questions about this provision

• Can my neighbor and I create an easement by agreement, or can easements only be imposed by law?

Related provisions

• Article 618 — Easements Are Indivisible.
• Article 620 — Acquisition by Title or Ten-Year Prescription.

Cases citing this article

• Privatization Management Office vs. Legaspi Towers 300, Inc, G.R. No. 147957, July 22, 2009 — read the decision on LawPhil →
• Sps. Victor Valdez and Jocelyn Valdez etc. vs. Sps. Francisco & Caridad Tabisula, G.R. No. 175510, July 28, 2008 — read the decision on LawPhil →
• Sps. Elizabeth De La Cruz, et al. vs. Olga Ramiscal, G.R. No. 137882, February 4, 2005 — read the decision on LawPhil →
• National Irrigation Administration vs. Court of Appeals and Dick Manglapus, G.R. No. 114348, September 20, 2000 — read the decision on LawPhil →

Compiled automatically from Supreme Court decisions published on LawPhil that expressly cite this article, most frequently cited first. A listing means the decision cites the provision — it is not a statement that the case is the leading authority, and it does not show whether a ruling has since been modified or abandoned. Always read the decision itself.