Last Updated on June 28, 2021 by LawEuro
German Civil Code (BGB) German law
Subtitle 5
Appropriation
Section 958
Acquisition of ownership of ownerless movable things
(1) A person who takes proprietary possession of an ownerless movable thing acquires ownership of the thing.
(2) The ownership is not acquired if the appropriation is prohibited by law or if the taking possession injures the right of appropriation of another.
Section 959
Abandonment of ownership
A movable thing becomes ownerless if the owner, in the intention of waiving ownership, gives up the possession of the thing.
Section 960
Wild animals
(1) Wild animals are ownerless as long as they are free. Wild animals in zoos and fish in ponds or other self-contained private waters are not ownerless.
(2) Where a captured wild animal regains freedom, it becomes ownerless if the owner fails to pursue the animal without undue delay or if he gives up the pursuit.
(3) A tamed animal becomes ownerless if it gives up the habit of returning to the place determined for it.
Section 961
Loss of ownership of bee swarms
Where a swarm of bees takes flight, it becomes ownerless if the owner fails to pursue it without undue delay or if he gives up the pursuit.
Section 962
Right of pursuit of the owner
The owner of the swarm of bees may, in pursuit, enter on plots of land belonging to others. If the swarm has entered an unoccupied beehive belonging to another, the owner of the swarm, for the purpose of capturing it, may open the hive and remove or break out the combs. He must make compensation for the damage caused.
Section 963
Merging of bee swarms
If bee swarms of more than one owner that have moved out merge, the owners who have pursued their swarms become co-owners of the total swarm captured; the shares are determined according to the number of swarms pursued.
Section 964
Intermixture of bee swarms
If a bee swarm has moved into an occupied beehive belonging to another, the ownership and the other rights in the bees that were occupying the beehive extend to the swarm that has moved in. The ownership and the other rights in the swarm that has moved in are extinguished.
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