Community Property

1
Community Property

• Richard M. Cartier
• San Joaquin College of Law
• Class 13 611-699

2
Four kinds of relationships

• Lawful marriage
• In California
• Outside of California
• Putative Relationship
• Good faith belief in existence of a valid
  marriage
• Nonmarital relationship
• Registered Domestic Partners
• /No common law marriage in CAL but Full Faith
  Credit

3
Five characterizations of property

• Separate property
• Community property
• Community Estate Personal Injury Damages
• Quasi-marital property
• Quasi-community property

4
Quasi-community property

• Property that would have been community property
  if acquired during marriage while domiciled in
  California
• Constitutional and statutory limitations on QCP
• On disso Fam Code 125
• On death Probate Code 66

5
QCP case law handout

• Thornton p. 643 QCP statute unconstitutional
• Addison p. 650 Current statute is
  constitutional
• Roesch p. 657
• But see Martin (an Arizona case) p. 660
• Jacobsen p. 666
• Fransen p. 669
• Ben-Yehoshua p. 675
• /Discussion notes

6
Turn the tables

• California spouses acquire out-of- state property
• Property is characterized at time of acquisition
  based on the law of the parties domicile
• California spouses move to a common law state and
  choose to divorce or die there
• How should a common law court treat property
  acquired in a community property state by
  domiciliaries
• See note 2, p. 680

7
Distribution on death

• Recapture of unauthorized gifts
• Dargie v Patterson p. 611
• Widows election
• Estate of Prager p. 616
• Estate of Wolfe p. 618
• /Apportionment of debts 626-630
• /Ancestral Property Succession Statute 630-634