CHAPTER 4

CONJUGAL PARTNERSHIP OF GAINS

In case the spouses agree upon the regime of conjugal partnership of gains.
They shall place in common fund the fruits of their separate properties and income
from their work or industry. And those acquired and by either or both by chance. The
word effort connotes an activity or undertaking which may or may not be rewarded
and the word chance includes activities like gambling and betting.
The conjugal nature of a property is determined by law and not by the will of
one of the spouses. The proof of acquisition of the property during the marriage
suffices to render the statutory presumption of conjugality attached.
Upon the dissolution of the marriage, the net gains or benefits obtained shall
be divided equally between the spouses unless they have stipulated another
proportion in their marriage settlement.
Should the spouses agree upon the conjugal partnership of gains, its
application shall commence at the precise moment when the marriage ceremony is
celebrated. What is considered is the hour and not the date of the marriage.
As in the case of the absolute community regime, no waiver of rights,
interests, shares, and effects of the conjugal partnership of gains can be made
during the marriage except upon judicial separation of property.
Unlike the absolute community of property where in the rules on co-ownership
apply in a suppletory manner, the conjugal partnership shall be governed by the
rules on the contract of partnership in all that are not in conflict with what is expressly
determined by the spouses in their marriage settlements.
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EXCLUSIVE PROPERTY OF EACH SPOUSES

Under the conjugal partnership regime, all properties brought into the
marriage by the contracting parties belong to each of them exclusively. The
partnership does not produce the merger of the partnership. Hence, they can
exercise all rights dominion or of ownership over these exclusive properties. The
nature of the property as separate property shall remain unless the contrary is
proved by positive and convincing evidence.
Anything received by each spouse from any source by way of act of liberality
of the giver, such as donation or gift, shall belong exclusively to the spouse-recipient
and will not belong to the conjugal partnership property. This include moderate gifts
given by one spouse to another during family occasions. An honorarium may be
included as property acquired by gratuitous title as it has as it has been defined as
something given mot as a matter of obligation but in appreciation for service
rendered, a voluntary donation in consideration of services which admit no
compensation in money.
It must be observed that, in the conjugal partnership property regime, the
income and the fruits of the property acquired by gratuitous title shall be considered
conjugal.