Court Opinion

ID: 9792912
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 02:39:10.15968+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:01:36.708950
License: Public Domain

TRAYNOR, J.
I concur in the judgment. The decisions that existing statutes changing the rights of husbands and wives in community property can have no retroactive application have become a rule of property in this state and should not now be overruled. It is my opinion, however, that the constitutional theory on which they are based is unsound. (Warburton v. White, 176 U.S. 484 [20 S.Ct. 404, 44 L.Ed. 555]; Arnett v. Reade, 220 U.S. 311 [31 S.Ct. 425, 55 L.Ed. 477].) That theory has not become a rule of property and should not invalidate future legislation in this field intended by the Legislature to operate retroactively. (See Johnston, *624Community and Separate Property: Constitutionality of Legislation Decreasing Husband’s Power of Control Over Property Already Acquired, 27 Cal.L.Rev. 49.)