This paper deals with the problems
related to the legal position of honest and
dishonest possessors in relation to the owner of things, that is, it analyses
the rights
belonging to the possessors of things and the demands that possessors may
require
from the owners of things to whom the possessors must submit those things.
Also, in
contrast, the rights and requirements are analysed of the owners of things in
relation to
honest and dishonest possessors. In practice, a dilemma arises in defi ning the
essential
and benefi cial expenditure incurred by honest possessors, what the
presumptions are
for and until when the right of retention may be exercised for the sake of
remuneration
of that expenditure, when the statute of limitations expires on that claim, and
the
signifi cance of the provisions of the Civil Obligations Act in relation to
unjust
enrichment, management without mandate and the right of retention, and which
provisions regulate these or similar issues. The answers to some of these
dilemmas
have been provided in case law, and therefore the basic method used in the
paper was
analysis and research of case law, especially decisions by the Supreme Court of
the
Republic of Croatia.
The introduction to the paper provides the basic characteristics of the concept
of
possession and possession of things, and the type and quality of possession, to
provide
a basis for the subsequent analysis of the legal position of the possessor of a
thing in
relation to the owner of that thing.