Bailey v. Alice C. Plantation & Refinery Inc.

152 So. 2d 336, 1963 La. App. LEXIS 1545
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMarch 29, 1963
DocketNo. 5821
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 152 So. 2d 336 (Bailey v. Alice C. Plantation & Refinery Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bailey v. Alice C. Plantation & Refinery Inc., 152 So. 2d 336, 1963 La. App. LEXIS 1545 (La. Ct. App. 1963).

Opinion

ELLIS, Judge.

In this proceeding for a declaratory judgment the plaintiff-appellant, Fairfax Foster Bailey, seeks to have the half interest acquired from appellant’s father on August 31, 1944, in all of the properties particularly described in Exhibit “1” of the judgment of the court below in St. Mary Parish and’ the three-eighths (3/8ths) mineral interest reserved to appellant under the act of sale by her and her father to Alice C. Plantation & Refinery Inc. on March 31, 1947, as< amended on May 19, 1947, in all of the immovable property particularly described in Exhibit “2” of the judgment of the court below recognized as the separate and para-phernal property of appellant, forming no' part of the community formerly existing between her late husband, James J. Bailey,, and herself. The suit below was brought individually by appellant and in her capacity as executrix of the estate of her late-husband. Defendants are the minor children of the marriage, represented by an attorney at law appointed by the court, and1 the Alice C. Plantation and Refinery Inc. (hereinafter designated Alice C.), a purchaser of the bulk of the immovable property in dispute.

After trial the Lower Court rendered' judgment declaring that the property de~ [337]*337scribed in Exhibit “1” attached to said judgment and made part thereof is owned by the community of acquets and gains formerly existing between Fairfax Foster Bailey and James J. Bailey. It was further decreed that there be judgment in favor of Alice C. Plantation & Refinery Inc. and against Fairfax Foster Bailey, individually and as executrix of the Succession of James J. Bailey and against the minor children of said Fairfax Foster Bailey and James J. Bailey, namely, James J. Bailey, III, Prescott Foster Bailey, and Virginia Palfrey Bailey declaring that Alice C. Plantation & Refinery Inc. acquired a good and valid title to the property described in Exhibit “2” attached thereto and made part thereof, and further maintaining the ten year acquisitive prescription pleaded by Alice C. Plantation & Refinery Inc.

To this judgment plaintiff-appellant has appealed and prays that it be reversed and judgment should be rendered in her favor individually and against the succession and her minor children decreeing that the half interest acquired from appellant’s father on August 31, 1944, in all of the properties particularly described in Exhibit “1” of the judgment of the Court below and the three-eighths (3/8ths) mineral interest reserved to appellant under the act of sale by her and her father to Alice C. Plantation & Refinery Inc. on March 31, 1947, as amended on May 19, 1947, in all of the immovable properties particularly described in Exhibit “2” of the judgment of the court below be recognized as the separate and paraphernal property of appellant.

The salient facts are undisputed and well stated in appellant’s brief as follows:

“On August 31, 1944, appellant’s father, the late W. Prescott Foster, sold to appellant, then married and living with her husband, James J. Bailey, Jr., an undivided one-half interest in a number of immovable properties for $150,000.-00, entirely on credit. To secure the purchase price, appellant granted a mortgage on all of the property purchased, represented by six mortgage notes, each for the sum of $25,000.00— the first maturing one year after date and the other maturing in successive years thereafter. This act of sale recites that appellant purchased the property with her separate and paraphernal funds, under her separate control and management, and for her separate estate. Appellant’s late husband intervened in the act of sale and acknowledged that appellant was purchasing the property with her paraphernal funds, under her separate control and management, and that the property purchased and all proceeds therefrom were to be the separate property of appellant, and formed no part of the community estate.
“On March 31, 1947, appellant and her father, the late W. Prescott Foster, sold to Alice C. a large number of immovable properties, and one-fourth of the minerals thereunder; and on May 19, 1947, all of the parties to this act of sale executed an instrument of correction thereof. These two instruments conveyed to Alice C. appellant’s half interest in most of the lands in which she had acquired a half interest from her father, Mr. Foster * * * less the mineral rights reserved as mentioned above. Appellant’s late husband intervened in both of these instruments and acknowledged that the property which appellant was selling was her separate property, acquired with her parapher-nal funds under her separate control and management, and that this property had never entered the community existing between himself and appellant.”

It is freely admitted that appellant’s share of the revenues from Alice C. fell into the community existing between her and her husband because appellant did not execute and file the declaration of para-phernality as required by Article 2386, LSA-Civil Code as amended by La.Acts [338]*3381944, No. 286, S. 1. Matthews v. Hansberry, 71 So.2d 232 (La.App.1954).

One of the mortgage notes was paid in 1946 and the second in 1952. Both payments were made by bookkeeping entries, setting off the notes against amounts due the community from Mr. Foster arising out of the operation of the Alice C.

The attorney appointed to represent the minor children of appellant contend in the trial court that the undivided one-half interest acquired by appellant and not sold to Alice C. is community property and that Alice C. never acquired a valid title to the half interest in the immovable properties sold by appellant as her separate property. The second of these two contentions has been abandoned and is not before this court. The trial judge was correct in his holding that Alice C. acquired a good and valid title as a result of the conveyance of March 31, 1947, corrected by authentic act on May 19, 1947, whether or not the property conveyed was separate property.1

In order for one to sustain a claim that property purchased during the existence of the community is separate property, positive affirmative proof is required. (Pope v. Foster, 24 La.Ann. 521; Ford v. Ford, 1 La. 201; Houghton v. Hall, 177 La. 237, 148 So. 37; Lotz v. Citizens Bank & Trust Co., La.App., 17 So.2d 463, 466). In the leading case on the subject of para-phernal acquisition of property purchased on credit in the name of the wife, (Fortier v. Barry, 111 La. 776, 35 So. 900), Chief Justice Monroe, speaking for a unanimous court, said:

“The presumption of law is that property purchased during the existence of the community, whether in the name of the one or the other of the spouses, belongs to the community, and, where the wife claims it as separate estate, the burden rests on her to establish, by proof dehors the recitals of the act by which it has been acquired, (1) the possession of some paraphernal funds under her administration, and available for investment, (2) that the cash portion of the price bears such a relation to the whole as to make the property purchased sufficient security for the credit portion, and (3) that her para-phernal property and revenues are such as to enable her to make the purchase with reasonable expectation of meeting the deferred payments.”

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203 So. 2d 769 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1967)

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Bluebook (online)
152 So. 2d 336, 1963 La. App. LEXIS 1545, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bailey-v-alice-c-plantation-refinery-inc-lactapp-1963.