Cowell; Bract, fol. 2. If It be universal, it is common law; if particular to this or that place, it is then properly custom. 3 Salk. 112. Customs result from a long series of actions constantly repeated, which have, by such repetition, and by uninterrupted acquiescence , acquired the force of a tacit and common consent. Civil Code La. art. 3. It differs from prescription , which is personal and is annexed to the person of the owner of a particular estate; while the other is local, and relates to a particular district. An instance of the latter occurs where the question ia upon the manner of conducting a particular branch of trade at a certain place; of the former, where a certain person and his ancestors, or those whose estates he has, have been entitled to a certain advantage or privilege, as to have common of pasture in a certain close, or the like. The distinction has been thus expressed: “While prescription is the making of a right, custom is the making of a law.” Law- son, Usages & Oust. 15, note 2. Classification . Customs are general, local or particular. General customs are such as prevail throughout a country and become the law of that country, and their existence is to be determined by the court. Bodtish v. Fox, 23 Me. !)5; 39 Am. Dec. 611. Or as applied to usages of trade and business, a general custom is one that is followed in all cases by all persons in the same business in the same territory, and which has been so long established that persons sought to be charged thereby, and all others living in the vicinity, may be presumed to have known of it and to have acted upon it as they had occasion. Sturges v. Buckley, 32 Conn. 267; Railroad Co. v. Harrington, 192 111. 9, 61 N. E. 622 ; Bonham v. Railroad Co., 13 S. O. 267. Local customs are such as prevail only in some particular district or locality, or in some city, county, or town. Bod- fish v. Fox. 23 Me. 95, 39 Am. Dec. 611; Clough v. Wing, 2 Ariz. 371, 17 Pac. 457. Particular customs are nearly the same, being such as affect only the inhabitants of some particular district. 1 Bl. Comm. 74.
Black’s Law Online Dictionary
