ART. 603. The owner of land encumbered by the easement of pasturage may redeem it by paying the value thereof to those having the right thereto.

In the absence of an agreement, the amount of said redemption shall be fixed upon the basis of 4 per cent of the annual value of the pasturage, fixed by an expert appraisal.

ART. 604. The provisions contained in the preceding article are applicable to easements established for the use of firewood and other products of forests which are private property.

TITLE VIII.-THE REGISTRY OF PROPERTY.

FIRST AND LAST CHAPTER.

ART. 605. The purpose of the registry of property is to enter or record therein the instruments and contracts relating to ownership and other property rights in real property.

ART. 606. The titles of ownership or of other property rights relating to real estate which are not properly recorded or entered in the registry of property shall not prejudice third persons.

ART. 607. The registry of property shall be public for those who have a known interest in ascertaining the condition of real property or property rights recorded or entered therein.

ART. 608. The provisions of the mortgage law shall be observed with regard to the determination of instruments subject to record. or entry, the form, effect, and extinction of the same, the manner of keeping the registry, and value of the entries contained in the books of the same.

Book Third.-DIFFERENT WAYS OF ACQUIRING OWNERSHIP.

PRELIMINARY PROVISION.

ART. 609. Ownership is acquired by retention.

Ownership and other property rights are acquired and transmitted by law, by gift, by testate or intestate succession, and, in consequence of certain contracts, by tradition.

TITLE I.-RETENTION.

ART. 610. Things are acquired by retention which can be appropriated by reason of their nature, which have no owners, such as animals which are the object of hunting and fishing, hidden treasure, and abandoned property.

ART. 611. The right to hunt and fish is governed by special laws. ART. 612. The owner of a swarm of bees shall have a right to pursue them on another's estate, indemnifying the possessor of the latter for the damage caused. Should it be inclosed, he shall require the consent of the owner to enter the same.

Should the owner not have pursued, or should he abandon the pursuit of the swarm for two consecutive days, the possessor of the estate may take or retain it.

The owner of tamed animals may also claim them within twenty days, counted from the date of their retention by another. After this

period has elapsed, they shall belong to the person who may have caught and kept them.

ART. 613. Pigeons, rabbits, and fish, which, from their respective breeding places, should pass to another one, belonging to a different owner, shall be the property of the latter, provided they have not been enticed by means of some trickery or fraud.

ART. 614. A person finding a treasure by chance, hidden on another's property, shall have the right granted him by article 351 of this code.

ART. 615. A person finding any personal property, which is not treasure, must return it to its former possessor. Should the latter be unknown, he must deliver it immediately to the mayor of the town where the find was made.

The mayor shall publish it in the usual manner two consecutive Sundays.

Should it not be possible to keep the personal property found without injury or without incurring expenses greatly reducing its value, it shall be sold at public auction, after eight days have elapsed from the second advertisement, without the owner having appeared, and the proceeds shall be deposited.

After two years have elapsed from the date of the second advertisement, without the owner having appeared, the thing found or its value shall be awarded to the person who found it.

The latter, or the owner in a proper case, shall be obliged to pay the costs.

ART. 616. Should the owner appear, in due time, he shall be obliged to pay, as a reward to the finder of the thing, a tenth part of the sum or of the value of the article found. If the value of the find exceeds 2,000 pesetas, the reward shall be reduced to a twentieth with regard to the excess.

ART. 617. The rights to goods jettisoned, or to those cast ashore by the waves, whatever their nature may be, or to plants and herbs growing on the seashore, are fixed by special laws.

TITLE II.-GIFTS.

CHAPTER FIRST.-Nature of gifts.

ART. 618. A gift is an act of liberality by which a person disposes gratuitously of a thing in favor of another, who accepts it.

ART. 619. A gift is also what is given a person by reason of his merits or for services rendered the donor, provided it does not constitute a recoverable debt, or that which imposes upon the donee a burden inferior to the value of the gift.

ART. 620. Gifts which are to become effective upon the death of the donor partake of the nature of provisions by last will and shall be governed by the laws established for testamentary succession.

ART. 621. Gifts which are to produce their effects inter rivos shall be governed by the general provisions of contracts and obligations in all that is not determined in this title.

ART. 622. Gifts for valuable considerations shall be governed by the laws of contracts, and those for valuable considerations by the provisions of this title with regard to the part exceeding the value of the charge imposed.

ART. 623. A gift is consummated upon the donar having knowledge of its acceptance by the donee.

CHAPTER SECOND.-Persons who can bestow or receive gifts.

ART. 624. All persons who can contract and dispose of their property may bestow gifts.

ART. 625. All persons who are not especially disqualified by law therefor may accept gifts.

ART. 626. Persons who can not enter into contracts can not accept conditional gifts or those involving valuable considerations without the intervention of their legal representatives.

ART. 627. Gifts made to persons, conceived but yet unborn, may be accepted by the persons who would legally represent them if they should already be born.

ART. 628. Gifts made to incapacitated persons are void even though made in a fictitious manner, under the guise of another contract, by a third person.

ART. 629. A gift does not bind the donor nor produce any effect until accepted.

ART. 630. The donee must, under pain of nullity, accept the gift in person or through a person authorized by a special power for the purpose or having a general or sufficient power of attorney.

ART. 631. Persons accepting a gift representing others who can not do so in person are obliged to obtain the notification and record referred to in article 633.

ART. 632. Gifts of personal property may be made verbally or in writing.

The verbal one requires the simultaneous delivery of the thing bestowed as a gift. In the absence of this requisite the gift shall produce no effect if not made in writing and if the acceptance does not appear in the same manner.

ART. 633. In order that a gift of real property may be valid it shall be made in a public instrument, stating therein in detail the property bestowed as a gift and the amount of the charges, which the donee must satisfy.

The acceptance may be made in the same instrument bestowing the gift or in a different one; but it shall produce no effect if not made during the life of the donor.

If made in a different instrument the acceptance shall be communicated to the donor in an authentic manner, and this proceeding shall be recorded in both instruments.

CHAPTER THIRD.-Effects and limitations of gifts.

ART. 634. A gift may include all the actual property of the donor or a part thereof, provided the latter reserves, by legal title or in usufruct, what is required for his support in a condition corresponding to his circumstances.

ART. 635. A gift can not include future property.

By future property is considered that which the donor can not dispose of at the time of the gift.

ART. 636. Notwithstanding the provisions of article 634, no person can give nor receive, by way of gift, more than what he can give or receive by will.

A gift shall be considered void in all that exceeds said limits. ART. 637. When a gift has been made to several persons jointly, it shall be understood as in equal shares; and there shall be among them no right of accretion unless the donor has otherwise ordered.

From these provisions are excepted gifts made jointly to husband and wife, who shall have such right if the donor has not disposed

otherwise.

ART. 638. The donee is subrogated to all the rights and actions which, in case of eviction, would correspond to the donor. The latter on his side is not obliged to warrant the things bestowed as a gift, unless the gift is for a valuable consideration, in which case the donor shall be liable for the eviction to the amount of the charge.

ART. 639. The donor may reserve to himself the right to dispose of some of the property bestowed as gift or of an amount as a charge thereon; but should he die without having made use of this right, the property or the sum which may have been reserved shall belong to the donee.

ART. 640. Ownership can also be bestowed as a gift to a person, and the usufruct to another or others, with the limitations established by article 781 of this code.

ART. 641. The reversion in favor of the donor only, in any case and under any circumstances, may also be validly established, but not in favor of other persons, except in the same cases and under similar limitations, as prescribed in this code for testamentary substitutions. The reversion, stipulated by the donor in favor of a third person in contravention of the provisions of the foregoing paragraph, is void, but it shall not cause the annulment of the gift.

ART. 642. When the gift has been bestowed, imposing on the donee the duty of paying the debts of the donor, if the clause should contain no other declaration, the former shall only be bound to pay those contracted before the bestowal of the gift.

ART. 643. Should there be no stipulation as to the payment of debts the donee shall be liable for them only if the gift has been made to defraud creditors.

The gift shall always be presumed as having been made to defraud creditors when, at the time of bestowing it, the donor has not reserved to himself property sufficient to pay the debts contracted prior thereto.

CHAPTER FOURTH.-Revocation and reduction of gifts.

ARTICLE 644. Every gift inter vivos made by a person having no legitimate children nor descendants nor legitimized by a subsequent marriage is revoked by the mere fact of the occurrence of any of the following cases:

1. When the donor, after the gift, should have legitimate or legitimized or acknowledged natural children, even should they be posthumous.

2. When the child of the donor, whom he supposed dead when he bestowed the gift, is found to be alive.

ART. 645. If the gift is rescinded by the subsequent birth of children, the things bestowed as a gift shall be returned to the donor, or their value, if the donee has sold them.

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Should they be mortgaged, the donor may cancel the mortgage, paying the sum secured by it, being entitled to demand the sum paid of the donee.

When the things can not be restored they shall be appraised at their value at the time of the bestowal of the gift.

ART. 646. The action of revocation by the subsequent birth of children shall prescribe after five years, counted from the birth of the last child, or from the legitimation or acknowledgment or from the time news was received of the existence of the one who was believed dead. This action can not be renounced and is transmitted on the death of the donor to his children and to their legitimate descendants.

ART. 647. The gift shall be revoked at the instance of the donor if the donee has not complied with any one of the conditions imposed upon him by the former.

In such case the things bestowed as a gift shall revert to the donor, all the alienations made by the donee and the mortgages he may have placed thereon being rendered void with the limitation with regard to third parties established in the mortgage law.

ART. 648. A gift may also be revoked at the instance of the donor, by reason of ingratitude, in the following cases:

1. When the donee commits any crime against the person, the honor, or the property of the donor.

2. When the donee charges the donor with any of the crimes giving rise to official proceedings or public accusation, even though he proves it, unless the crime should have been committed against the donee himself, his wife, or the children under his authority.

3. When the latter improperly refuses him support.

ART. 649. When a gift is revoked by reason of ingratitude, the alienations and mortgages made prior to the entry of the complaint for revocation in the registry of property shall, nevertheless, be valid. Subsequent ones shall be void.

ART. 650. In the case referred to in the first paragraph of the preceding article the donor shall have a right to exact from the donee the value of the property alienated, which he can not recover from the third persons, or the amount for which they have been mortgaged.

For the appraisal of the value of such property the time the gift was bestowed shall be taken into consideration.

ART. 651. If the gift should be revoked for any of the reasons stated in article 644 or for ingratitude, or when it should be reduced on account of being void, the donee shall not return the fruits, except from the date of the institution of the complaint.

If the revocation should be based on the failure to comply with any one of the conditions imposed by the gift, the donee shall, besides the property, return the fruits he may have collected after the non fulfillment of the condition.

ART. 652. The action granted the donor for causes of ingratitude can not be renounced in advance. This action prescribes after one year, counted from the time the donor had knowledge of the fact and was able to institute the action.

ART. 653. This action shall not be transmitted to the heirs of the donor if the latter should have been able to institute it and did not do so.

Neither can it be instituted against the heirs of the donee, unless at his death the suit had already been brought.