Barnett v. Barnett

56 So. 3d 1044, 2010 La. App. LEXIS 1766, 2010 WL 5174465
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedDecember 22, 2010
DocketNo. 45,721-CA
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 56 So. 3d 1044 (Barnett v. Barnett) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Barnett v. Barnett, 56 So. 3d 1044, 2010 La. App. LEXIS 1766, 2010 WL 5174465 (La. 2010).

Opinion

DREW, J.

| ¡Jimmie Barnett appeals a judgment ordering him to pay to his former wife one-half of an early withdrawal penalty that was incurred when his sister, to whom he [1046]*1046had granted power of attorney, removed former community property from an annuity.

Concluding that the trial court erred in denying Jimmie’s exception of insufficiency of service of process, we vacate the judgment and dismiss the claims against him without prejudice.

FACTS

Jimmie Barnett and Yvonne Barnett were married in 1970. Yvonne filed for divorce on January 20, 2004. A judgment of divorce was rendered on February 1, 2005.

On September 28, 2004, Jimmie granted a power of attorney to his sister, Julia Budwah. Jimmie revoked this power of attorney the next month. |sOn November 19, 2004, Jimmie again granted a power of attorney to Budwah. However, it was not until January 5, 2006, that Budwah accepted the power of attorney.

Jimmie and Yvonne each owned one-half of former community funds held in five annuities managed by AmerUS Annuity Group. Two of these annuity accounts, numbered 17168 and 32609, listed Jimmie as the policyholder.1 Four of the accounts contained less than $10,000. Account 17168 held over $400,000.

Jimmie had lingering health problems and had been placed in a nursing facility when Budwah accepted power of attorney in 2006.

Jimmie’s only income at the time was from Social Security benefits. Concerned about how Jimmie’s medical expenses would be paid, Budwah went to a local Medicaid office, where she was told that Jimmie was not eligible for Medicaid because of the annuities.

On February 14, 2006, Budwah wrote to AmerUS requesting the withdrawal of all funds and the closing of account 32609 and any other accounts at AmerUS. AmerUS wrote to Budwah 10 days later that it had received Budwah’s request, but because the annuity was community property subject to a pending divorce settlement, the funds from the annuity |4could not be distributed at that time. AmerUS added that upon receipt of a copy of the final settlement, it would process Budwah’s request.

On May 31, 2006, Yvonne requested a partial withdrawal of funds from account 32609. Yvonne wrote on the policy disbursement request form that the withdrawal was to be without penalty because Jimmie had been in a hospital or a nursing home since December of 2005. The next month, AmerUS wrote to Yvonne’s counsel that it was unable to process the request for withdrawal of funds by Yvonne because there was a restraining order.

Yvonne and Budwah, on behalf of Jimmie, executed an Act of Partition and Settlement of Community Property (“settlement”) on September 27 and October 3, 2006. The settlement provided, in relevant part:

[A]n agreement was made between the parties on November 22, 2004, that the AmerUS and Alliance annuities would be divided by withdrawing the maximum amount that could be withdrawn each year, without penalty, and that each party or their agent would sign the necessary forms to do so and that the party receiving the check would make a copy of the check and send one-half (1/2) of the amount to the other party along with a copy of the check. The parties are equal owners of these accounts and all [1047]*1047injunctions and restraining orders are hereby vacated.
In the event either party makes a withdrawal from any of the aforementioned accounts, said party shall endorse the check, forward the check to Sandra S. Salley, attorney for Yvonne Sanders Barnett, who shall make copies of said | scheck, place it in the Salley & Salley, LLC, IOLTA account and issue individual checks for Jimmie Carl Barnett and Yvonne Sanders Barnett. Said check will be accompanied by a copy of the check received by and placed into the account of Salley & Salley, LLC.

The partition was approved by the court on July 25, 2007.

AmerUS wrote to Budwah on November 6, 2006, that it had received the papers granting her power of attorney over Jimmie. Four days later, Budwah completed a policy disbursement request form on behalf of Jimmie seeking all of the funds in accounts 17168 and 32609. She checked a box indicating that she elected to surrender the accounts for their outstanding balances “net of any applicable surrender charges.”

On November 13, 2006, AmerUS wrote to Jimmie to ensure that he understood that surrender penalties of approximately $48,000 in account 17168, and approximately $943 in account 32609, would be incurred as a result of the requested withdrawal of funds from those accounts. On November 20, 2006, Budwah completed and signed forms on behalf of Jimmie indicating that he still wanted to proceed with the withdrawals.

On November 29, 2006, AmerUS sent Jimmie checks in the amounts of $357,551.14 and $8,432.36. The gross distribution for account 17168 was $406,308.11, with a surrender penalty of $48,756.97. The gross distribution for account 32609 was $9,363.22, with a surrender penalty of $842.69.2

|fiOn December 6, 2006, Budwah purchased a 6-month CD at Capital One for $300,000. The CD bore an interest rate of 4.89%, and its ownership was listed as Jimmie or Budwah. The remainder of the money was retained by Budwah to pay outstanding medical bills and future bills as they would be received.

Yvonne stated that in December of 2006, she received a $6,000 check from Budwah to repay her for money that she had loaned to Budwah to pay for Jimmie’s medical expenses. She assumed the money came from one of the smaller annuities. Yvonne considered Budwah to be evasive about the annuities, and claimed that she first found out that Budwah had closed the largest annuity when her attorney informed her of this in January of 2007.

Yvonne’s counsel received a letter from Capital One on March 5, 2007, stating that in accordance with Budwah’s request, $57,551.14 from AmerUS had been deposited into an account to pay past-due bills and ongoing expenses for Jimmie.

PROCEDURAL HISTORY

On January 2, 2008, Yvonne filed a petition for return of funds against Jimmie and Budwah. It asserted that Budwah violated the settlement agreement when she removed the funds, incurred the penalty, and did not notify Yvonne. Yvonne prayed that she be reimbursed for the penalties |7caused by the violation of the settlement agreement. Service was requested only upon Budwah.

The petition was amended to assert jurisdictional and venue grounds. This time, service was requested upon Jimmy through Budwah.

[1048]*1048Jimmie filed the exception of insufficiency of service of process, among other exceptions. The exceptions were denied in April of 2009 and reduced to judgment on June 15, 2009.

Following a trial on the merits, the exception of prescription was denied, and the trial court concluded that Jimmie owed $24,3783 to Yvonne. Jimmie has appealed that judgment. The claims against Bud-wah were dismissed at the trial, and this dismissal is reflected in a separate judgment that has not been appealed.

DISCUSSION

Prescription

Jimmie contends on appeal that Yvonne’s January 2, 2008, lawsuit is prescribed as her claims are for conversion and accordingly subject to a prescriptive period of one year.

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Bluebook (online)
56 So. 3d 1044, 2010 La. App. LEXIS 1766, 2010 WL 5174465, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/barnett-v-barnett-la-2010.