Court EN BANC
Citation G.R. No. L-19570
Date April 27, 1967
Plaintiff-Appellee JOSE V. HILARIO, JR.
Accused-Appellants THE CITY OF MANILA, defendant-appellee; DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC WORKS, CITY ENGINEER
OF MANILA, FERNANDO BOSUEGO and EUGENIO SESE, defendants- appellants; MAXIMO
CALALANG, intervenor; DIRECTOR OF MINES, intervenor
Ponente BENGZON, J.P., J.
Relevant topic Properties of Public Dominion / Municipal Corporations, Local Government Units, Government
Entities and Patrimonial Property
Prepared by Mark Velasco #CaptainMarVel
DOCTRINE!!! The nature of the banks always follows that of the bed and the running waters of the river. A
river is a compound concept consisting of three elements. (1) the running waters, (2) the bed and
(3) the banks. Since a river is but one compound concept, it should have only one nature, either
totally public or completely private. Since rivers are of public ownership, it is implicit that all the
three component elements be of the same nature also. The law even expressly makes all three
elements public.
FACTS:
• Dr. Jose Hilario was the registered owner of a large tract of land (around 49 hectares area) at Barrio Guinayang, San Mateo,
Rizal.
o Upon his death this property was inherited by his son, Jose Hilario, Jr., to whom a new certificate of title was
issued.
o During the lifetime of plaintiff's father, certain safeguards were employed:
▪ 1) Hilario estate was bounded on the western side by the San Mateo River, 2) To prevent its entry into
the land, a bamboo and lumber post dike or ditch was constructed on the northwestern side & 3)
This was further fortified by a stonewall built on the northern side.
• 1937 - A great & extraordinary flood occurred which destroyed the entire place including the neighboring barrios &
municipalities. The River destroyed the dike on the northwest, left its original bed & meandered into the Hilario estate,
segregating from the rest thereof a lenticular piece of land. The disputed area is on the eastern side of this lenticular
strip which now stands between the old riverbed site and the new course.
• 1945 - U.S. Army opened a sand and gravel plant within the premises & started scraping, excavating & extracting soil,
gravel and sand from the nearby areas along the River. The operations eventually extended northward into this strip of land.
• A claim for damages was filed w/ the U.S. War Department by Luis Hidalgo, the then administrator of Dr. Hilario's estate;
U.S Army paid.
• 1947 - plant was turned over to herein defendants- appellants & appellee who took over its operations and
continued the extractions and excavations of gravel and sand from the strip of land along an area near the River.
• ARGUMENTS OF PARTIES:
o PLAINTIFF HILARIO: Prayed that the latter be restrained from excavating, bulldozing and extracting gravel,
sand and soil from his property and that they solidarily pay to him P5,000.00 as damages (injunction
+damages)
o RESPONDENTS: Extractions were made from the riverbed while counter claiming with a prayer for injunction
against plaintiff who, it was claimed, was preventing them from operations.
▪ Prayed that plaintiff and intervenor Calalang be ordered to remove the fence and allow defendants'
men to continue their operations unhampered.
▪ Manila City denied ownership of the plant and claimed that the City Engineer acted merely as a deputy of
the Public Works Director. Other defendants put up, as special defense, the agreement between plaintiff
and the Public Works Director, and asserted a P1.2 million counterclaim for damages against plaintiff.
The rest renewed the same defense: that the disputed area was part of the public domain, since it
was situated on the riverbanks.
o INTERVENING PARTIES:
▪ BUREAU of Mines complained that the disputed area was within the bed of the River so that plaintiff
should not only be enjoined from making extractions therefrom but should also be ordered to pay
the fees and penalties for the materials taken by him.
▪ Atty. Maximo Calalang claimed that he was authorized by plaintiff to extract materials from the
disputed area but this notwithstanding, the Provincial Treasurer of Rizal collected from him a sand and
gravel fee which would be an illegal exaction if the disputed area turns out to be private ownership.
• LOWER COURT: Defendants City of Manila and the Director of Public Works, to pay solidarily plaintiff the sum of
P376,989.60, as the cost of gravel and sand extracted from plaintiff's land, plus costs.
o Defendant Provincial Treasurer of Rizal, ordering him to reimburse to intervenor Calalang amount of P236.80
representing gravel fees illegally collected.
o Defendants herein are perpetually enjoined from extracting any sand or gravel from plaintiff's property which is two-
fifths northern portion of the disputed area.
▪ On the MR: Denied. the northern two-fifths portion of the area in controversy belongs to the plaintiff with
right to the immediate possession thereof. This area cannot be a part of the bed because of the existence
of vegetation which could not have grown underwater.
▪ 2nd MR: Denied.
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CASE DIGEST
16 - Hilario vs. City of Manila, L-19570, April 27, 1967
Property
ISSUE – HELD – RATIO:
ISSUE #1 HELD
Whether a river, leaving its old bed, changing its original course and opening a YES!!!
new one through private property, would make the new riverbanks lining of
public ownership?
ISSUE #2 HELD
Whether only the northern 2/5 of the disputed area remained as plaintif’s private NO!!!
Property?
ISSUE #3 HELD
Whether defendants have really confined their operations within the banks of the YES!!!
River?
Wherefore, the decision and orders appealed from are hereby set aside and another judgment is hereby entered as follows:
(1) Defendants City of Manila and the Director of Public Works and his agents and employees are hereby absolved from
liability to plaintiff since they did not extract materials from plaintiff's property, but from the public domain.
(2) All that portion within the strip of land in question, starting from the line running parallel to the western waterline of the
river and twenty meters east from the camachile tree in the New Accretion Area measured along line AA in Exhs. 3-Calalang, 13 and
54, and going to the west up to the western boundaries of the Hilario estate, is hereby declared as not part of the public domain
and confirmed as part of plaintiff's private property. No costs.
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