REPUBLIC VS. VDA.

DE
CASTELLVI, digested
GR # L-20620 August 15, 1974 (Constitutional Law Eminent Domain, Elements of Taking)
FACTS: After the owner of a parcel of land that has been rented and occupied by the
government in 1947 refused to extend the lease, the latter commenced expropriation proceedings
in 1959. During the assessment of just compensation, the government argued that it had taken the
property when the contract of lease commenced and not when the proceedings begun. The owner
maintains that the disputed land was not taken when the government commenced to occupy the
said land as lessee because the essential elements of the taking of property under the power of
eminent domain, namely (1) entrance and occupation by condemnor upon the private property
for more than a momentary period, and (2) devoting it to a public use in such a way as to oust the
owner and deprive him of all beneficial enjoyment of the property, are not present.
ISSUE: Whether or not the taking of property has taken place when the condemnor has entered
and occupied the property as lesse.
HELD: No, the property was deemed taken only when the expropriation proceedings
commenced in 1959.
The essential elements of the taking are: (1) Expropriator must enter a private property, (2) for
more than a momentary period, (3) and under warrant of legal authority, (4) devoting it to public
use, or otherwise informally appropriating or injuriously affecting it in such a way as (5)
substantially to oust the owner and deprive him of all beneficial enjoyment thereof.
In the case at bar, these elements were not present when the government entered and occupied
the property under a contract of lease.