Possession — 'Nine Points of the Law' — KSLU Jurisprudence Notes

Possession — ‘Nine Points of the Law’

Possession is the continuing exercise of a claim to the exclusive use of a thing. Its two classical elements: corpus possessionis [physical control] and animus possidendi [intention to exclude others] — Savigny’s pairing, with Ihering’s objective correction (possession is whatever the law protects as such, animus or not).

1. Kinds: possession in fact vs in law; mediate (through another — landlord via tenant) and immediate; constructive (keys to the warehouse); adverse (hostile possession that, run long enough, ripens into title by prescription).
2. Modes of acquisition: taking (with or without consent), delivery (actual or constructive), and operation of law.
3. Why law protects possession even against owners: peace (no self-help), evidence of ownership, and the maturing of titles. The rule the problem-question tests: even a true owner may not forcibly dispossess a person in settled possession; he must sue — possession is good against all the world except one with a better legal process, not a stronger arm.