FRUITS. — The legal concept of *fruits* is far broader than the natural and common understanding. Juridically, *fruits* are everything that a thing produces naturally or through human activity.
I. CIVIL FRUITS
Two categories of *fruits* are recognized: *natural fruits*, which derive directly from the thing, whether or not human labor is involved (such as agricultural produce, animal offspring, forestry and mining products); and *civil fruits*, which are obtained from the thing as compensation for another’s enjoyment of it (such as interest on capital, enfiteutic rents, annuities, and rents; Italian Civil Code, art. 820).
The legal status of fruits may vary: while still attached to the producing thing (e.g., wool on sheep), they are called *pendent*; once detached by natural forces (apples falling from a tree) or by human action (sheared wool), they are *separated*; and if detached naturally and taken into possession by someone, they are *perceived*. If detachment occurs through human action, separation and perception occur simultaneously. *Percipiendi* are fruits that could have been collected but were not. Depending on their current existence in nature, fruits are classified as *existing* (*extantes*) or *consumed* (*consumpti*).
Fruits constitute a category of accessory goods relative to the principal thing that produces them. Before separation, they form part of the thing itself and share its legal status. However, they may be disposed of as future goods (art. 820). Once separated, they acquire independent commercial value.
Normally, fruits belong to the owner of the producing thing, but they may also belong to others, such as a legal entity, a user, a usufructuary, a bona fide possessor holding the thing without the owner’s knowledge, an apparent heir, etc. (art. 820).
The legal act that ordinarily determines the acquisition of natural fruits is separation. The acquisition of civil fruits, by contrast, is determined by daily maturation; they are acquired day by day, in proportion to the duration of the right (art. 820).
Thus, a legal entity holding the same rights over a property’s fruits as the owner acquires them upon separation (art. 959). Similarly, a user or usufructuary acquires civil fruits through daily maturation and natural fruits through separation, without needing to perceive them: at the end of the usufruct or use, they may retain all separated natural fruits, even if not yet perceived. Both types of fruits belong to them for the duration of their right. If the beginning or end of the usufruct or use occurs during the production period, such that the owner and the usufructuary or user succeed each other in enjoyment of the thing, the total fruits must be divided between them in proportion to the duration of their respective rights during that period (arts. 984, 1026); *V. Uso; usufrutto*.
A bona fide possessor who holds the thing without the owner’s knowledge acquires natural and civil fruits—respectively separated and matured—only up to the day the owner judicially demands their return. From the moment of such a demand, the possessor must restore not only the perceived fruits but also those that, through negligence, they failed to perceive. A mala fide possessor is liable for perceived and *percipiendi* fruits even before a judicial demand (arts. 1148); *V. Possesso; possessore di buona fede*.
The same principles governing the acquisition of fruits by a bona fide possessor also apply to an apparent heir who bona fide possesses inherited property (art. 535).
Special rules govern the acquisition and division of dowry fruits in cases of marital dissolution (arts. 108–109).
II. IN CANON LAW
Canon law shares with civil law—derived from the common source of Roman law—the doctrinal principles regarding things and their fruits, and adopts the same norms as civil law, provided they do not conflict with divine law or pertain to situations directly regulated by canon law itself (canons 1529, 1508), as is the case, for example, with fruits of a benefice, pious foundations, and the dowries of religious women.
Fruits of a benefice belong to the beneficiary from the moment of possession. They may be enjoyed and freely disposed of, by right, only within the limits necessary for decent and honest support, with any surplus owed to the poor or pious causes (canons 1472–73). Unlike a usufructuary, the beneficiary acquires both civil and natural fruits day by day, *pro rata temporis*, regardless of separation. Based on this principle, fruits—after deducting liabilities—are allocated and divided in cases of succession to the benefice (canon 1480).
Vacant benefice fruits, after deducting expenses and other liabilities, are divided: half to increase the benefice’s endowment, and half to the church or chapel in which the benefice was established (canon 1481).
Those who lose the fruits of a benefice include those excommunicated *a sententia* (canon 2266), those who refuse to make the required profession of faith (canon 2403), those who fail to fulfill residency obligations (canons 2381 n. 1, 2168 § 1, 2170, 2172), those suspended from the benefice (canon 2280 § 2), and those under interdict (canon 729 n. 2); *V. BENEFICIO*.
The distribution of fruits from a pious foundation must be strictly regulated by the bishop in the foundation’s statutes (canon 1545); *V. FONDAZIONE PIA*.
Fruits belonging to religious women must be administered by the superior of the monastery or institute, under the supervision of the local ordinary (canon 550). Already matured fruits remain with the monastery or institute if the religious takes final vows. If she transfers to another institute, the new institute enjoys the dowry fruits from the start of the novitiate (canon 551).
Zaccaria da San Mauro