COMMUNITY (Lat. communis, common). In Civil Law. A corporation or body politic. Dig. 3. 4.
"We can find in our law books no such terms as corporation, body corporate, body politic, though we may read much of con vents, chapters and communities. The larg est term in general use is community, com monalty or commune, in Latin, communitas or communa. It is a large, vague word. . . . But we dare not translate it by cor poration, for if, on the one hand, it is de scribing cities and boroughs which already are, or at least are on their way to become, corporations, it will stand equally well for counties, hundreds and townships which in the end •have failed to acquire a corporate character. . . 1 Poll. & Maitl. Hist. E. L. 494.
In French Law. A species of partnership which a man and woman contract when they are lawfully married to each other.
Conventional community is that which is formed by express agreement in the contract of marriage. • By this contract the legal community which would otherwise subsist may be modified as to the propor tions which each shall take, and as to the things which shall compose it.
Legal community is that which takes place by virtue of the contract of marriage itself.
The French system of community prop erty was known as the dotal system. The Spanish system was the Ganancial System, q. v. The conquest of Mexico by the Span iards and their acquisition of the Florida territory resulted in the introduction on American soil of the Spanish system. Lou isiana, originally a French colony, was aft erwards ceded to Spain when the Spanish law was introduced. It again reverted to the French and from them was acquired by the United States. The Louisiana Code has, with slight modifications, adopted the dotal system of the Code Napoleon as regards the separate rights of husband and wife, but as to their common property it retained the es sential features of the Spanish ganancial sys tem. Texas and California have adopted the community system of Spain and Mexico or modified it by their constitutions. New Mex ico appears to have followed the Spanish law of property rights of married persons in its entirety. The community system as
adopted in older community states has been adopted by Nevada, Washington, and Idaho, with certain modifications. Hence it may be said that the American community system prevails at this day in Louisiana, Texas, Cal ifornia, Nevada, Arizona, Washington, Ida ho, Montana, and New Mexico, and in Porto Rico, and is indebted to Spain for its origin. See Ballinger, Community Property, § 6; Chavez v. McKnight, 1 N. M. 147. It is said to be the only remains in those states (except Louisiana) of the civil law.
Property (in Washington Territory) acquir ed during marriage with community funds became an acquet of the community and not the sole property of the one in whose name the property was bought, although by the law existing at the time the husband was given the management, control and power of sale of such property ; this right being vested in him, not because he was the ex clusive owner, but because by law he was created the agent of the community. War burton v. White, 176 U. S. 484, 20 Sup. Ct, 404, 44 L. Ed. 555.
The community embraces the profits of all the effects of which the husband has the ad ministration and enjoyment, either of right or in fact ; and of the estates which they may acquire during the marriage, either by donations made jointly to them, or through their outlay or industry as well as the fruits of the bienos proprios which each one brought to the matrimony, and of all that which this acquisition produced by whatever title acquired ; Ballinger, Community Prop. § 5, or by purchase, or in any other similar way, even although the purchase be made in the name of one of the two, and not of both; because in that case the period of tlme when the purchase is made is alone attended to, and not the person who made the purchase; Davidson v. Stuart, 10 La. 146; Brown v. Cobb, la La. 172; Clark v. Norwood, 12 La. Ann. 598. The debts contracted during the marriage enter into the community, and must be acquitted out of the common fund; but not the debts contracted before the marriage.