FACTS:
The plaintiffs have been in the continuous and
uninterrupted use of a road or passageway which traversed the land of the
defendants and their predecessors in interest, in going to Igualdad Street and
the market place of Naga City, from their residential land and back, for more
than 20 year. The defendants and the tenants of Vicente Roco, the predecessors
in interest of the said defendants have long recognized and respected the
private legal easement of road right of way of said plaintiffs. On May 12,
1953, the defendants Jose Roco thru his co-defendants, Raymundo Martinez and
their men with malice aforethought and with a view to obstructing the
plaintiffs' private legal easement over the property of the late Vicente Roco,
started constructing a chapel in the middle of the said right of way
construction actually impeded, obstructed and disturbed the continuous exercise
of the rights of the plaintiffs over said right of way. On July 10, 1954 the
new defendants Natividad Roco and Gregorio Miras, Jr. with the approval of the
defendant, Jose Roco and with the help of their men and laborers, by means of
force, intimidation, and threats, illegally and violently planted wooden posts,
fenced with barbed wire and closed hermitically the road passageway and their
right of way in question against their protests and opposition, thereby
preventing them from going to or coming from their homes to Igualdad Street and
the public market of the City of Naga.
The plaintiffs claimed to have acquired the
easement of right of way over the land of the defendants and the latter's
predecessors in interest, Vicente Roco, thru prescription by their continuous
and uninterrupted use of a narrow strip of land of the defendants as passageway
or road in going to Igualdad Street and the public market of Naga City, from
their residential land or houses, and return.
ISSUE:
Whether or not an easement of right of way can be
acquired thru prescription.
DECISION:
The easement of right of way may not be acquired
through prescription. Under the Civil Code old and new, continuous
non-apparent easements and discontinuous ones whether apparent or not, may be
acquired only by virtue of a title. Thus, an easement of right of way being
discontinuous or intermittent, even though it may be apparent, cannot be
acquired through prescription but only by virtue of a title.
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