How to recover movables?

The law provides certain actions or conditions for recovery of possession of movable property. One is replevin and the other is prescription.

Replevin is an action for manual delivery of property. Prescription of right involving ownership of movables sets in in 4 years, if the possessor is in good faith, or 8 years, if the possessor is in bad faith.

Article 434 of the Civil Code of the Philippines provides the requisites for recovery of property:

[1] Property must be identified; and

[2] Plaintiff must rely on the strength of his title and not on weakness of defendant’s title.

A right must be founded on positive title and not on lack or insufficiency of defendant’s. Ei incumbit probatio qui dicit, non qui negat: He who asserts, not he who denied must prove.