4 Ownership vs. Possession

The classic tabular contrast (memorize; it appears in nearly every examination):PointPossessionOwnershipNatureFact — physical control + animusRight — title recognized and enforced by lawSourceAcquired by taking, delivery, or operation of lawAcquired by purchase, inheritance, gift, prescription (limitation), accessionDurationLost by abandonment, ouster, loss of the thingIndefinite; not lost by non-use; lost only by transfer, expropriation, prescriptionProtectionProtected against all but the person with a better rightProtected against all absolutely (right in rem at full strength)EvidencePrima facie evidence of ownershipThe fact to be proved; ownership need not be physically manifestedRemediesPossessory (recovery of possession, injunction)Proprietary (declaration of title, eviction, mesne profits, account)Relation between themCan exist without ownership (tenant, thief, bailee)Can exist without possession (landlord, mortgagor not in possession, owner of goods bailed)The interplay — four analytical points that earn marks:1. Possession is the image of ownership: law protects possession largely because it is ownership's usual outward form — the presumption possessio vigit ex praesumptione dominii (possession holds by the presumption of ownership).2. They can part company in both directions: a thief possesses without owning; an absentee landlord owns without possessing. Neither situation confuses a first-year student who has mastered the fact/right distinction.3. Possession can ripen into ownership: the doctrine of adverse possession/prescription — open, continuous, hostile possession for the limitation period extinguishes the owner's right and matures the possessor's title. It is the point where…