Carter v. Carter

538 So. 2d 1121, 1989 La. App. LEXIS 266, 1989 WL 14525
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedFebruary 15, 1989
DocketNo. 88-CA-607, 88-CA-608
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 538 So. 2d 1121 (Carter v. Carter) 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
Carter v. Carter, 538 So. 2d 1121, 1989 La. App. LEXIS 266, 1989 WL 14525 (La. Ct. App. 1989).

Opinion

BOWES, Judge.

Appellant, Drionne M. Carter (hereinafter Drionne), now a major, appeals a judgment in favor of her father, A. Adrian Carter (hereinafter Carter), dismissing her claim against him for money set aside for her when she was a minor. We affirm.

Plaintiff is the daughter of Carter and Margaret McNab Carter. Mr. and Mrs. Carter were judicially separated on September 12, 1974, at which time Drionne was seven years old and her brother, Adrian, II, was eight years old. At the time of the separation, an agreement between the parties contained the following clause:

The said A. Adrian Carter agrees that Mrs. Margaret McNab Carter shall have the legal custody of the said minor children, and the joint custody of their savings accounts designated as follows, to-wit:
Special Savings Certificate No. 13297 in First Homestead and Savings Association, in the face amount of $5,700.00, standing in the name of Adrian Carter, II Special Savings Certificate No. 13296 in First Homestead and Savings Association, in the face amount of $5,700.00, standing in the name of Dori K. Carter or Mr. or Mrs. A. Adrian Carter. Special Savings Certificate No. 13298 in First Homestead and Savings Association, in the face amount of $5,700.00, standing in the name of Droinne [sic] Carter.

On August 4, 1986, Adrian, II, filed suit against Carter for delivery of the funds in the First Homestead Account, which Adrian asserted belonged to him (including accrued interest) and of which his father was alleged to have taken possession and failed to deliver. On August 29, 1986, Drionne filed a virtually identical suit against Carter. Carter reconvened, alleging various loans to both Adrian, II, and Drionne and claiming that they owed him $19,166.58 and $15,871.47, respectively. The cases were consolidated for trial. After trial on the merits, the trial court dismissed the claims of both plaintiffs, as well as both reconven-tional demands. Only Drionne has appealed.

On appeal, Drionne urges that the district court erred in ruling that defendant was entitled to use the money belonging to plaintiff in whatever manner he saw fit, urging that Carter had neither usufruct [1122]*1122nor authority to administer the estate of his daughter after the divorce. The flaw in Drionne’s reasoning on appeal is her initial error — i.e., assuming that the funds in question belonged to her.

At trial, the only testimony on the origin of the funds came from Carter, Adrian and Drionne. The former Mrs. Carter, mother of Drionne, did not testify. Carter testified repeatedly that he had, on several occasions, deposited money in the three accounts for the children.

“My intent was to accumulate the money, keep it in my name so when they would go to college I would have a cushion to send them to college.”

Carter stated that he was the owner of the money and that he placed the accounts in the names of the children and in his name “for tax purposes, for one thing, to have money for their benefit when they got older and in the event of my death they would be the beneficiary of the account.”

No one else other than Carter either deposited or withdrew money from the accounts. Carter started the account when the children were about one year old with money he had “accumulated”. Carter had at all times possession of the passbooks. Shortly after the divorce, he withdrew the money from the accounts. Carter gave Dori Carter (actually his stepdaughter) the funds from the account in her name. The funds from the accounts for Adrian and Drionne were placed initially into a safety deposit box and later Carter established separate accounts at South Lafourche Bank and Trust Company for Adrian and Drionne. No further deposits were made. The Lafourche account, for Drionne, was entitled “Drionne Carter or Adrian or Ena Carter” (Ena Carter was the second Mrs. Carter).-

Adrian simply testified that he put no money into the account, and that he was unaware of the existence of the account until, at age 18, he was given an interest statement on the account by Carter and told to declare the interest as income in 1984.

Drionne similarly was given such an interest statement in 1984, at which time she, too, was surprised to learn about the existence of any such account. She stated that she had asked her father about the account, but did not receive a definite answer. She had never made any deposits in the account and had never signed a signature card authorizing withdrawals, etc.

There was absolutely no evidence whatsoever, other than the testimony of Carter, about the origin of the money in the accounts. Carter stated that he had placed his money into the accounts specifically for the purpose of their future education and other needs they might have in the future.

In Basco v. Central Bank and Trust Company, 231 So.2d 425 (La.App. 8 Cir.1970), the court considered ownership of funds in a similar situation:

We agree with the trial judge that the funds in the above-mentioned savings account were owned by the decedent, Louis Basco. He opened the account, he made the only deposit which was ever made to it, and he was the only person who was authorized to make withdrawals from it. The evidence shows that plaintiff did not make any deposits to the account, he was never authorized to make any withdrawals from it and there is nothing in the record which indicates that he had any proprietary interest in it, even though Louis Basco opened the account in plaintiffs name.
We also conclude that Louis Basco did not make a valid donation of the funds in that account to plaintiff. A donation inter vivos of an incorporeal thing, such as a credit, right or action, is not valid unless it is made by an act passed before a notary public and two witnesses. LSA-C.C. Art. 1536. Generally, an account on deposit in a bank is an incorporeal right, and a valid donation of such an account requires compliance with the provisions of Article 1536 of the Civil Code.
Basco, supra [citations omitted]
The court concluded:
The savings account was owned by the decedent, Louis Basco, and since there had been no compliance with the requirements of Article 1536 of the Civil Code, [1123]*1123plaintiff never acquired the account, or the funds in it, by donation inter vivos. Basco, supra

The Supreme Court cited Basco with approval in Broussard v. Broussard, 340 So.2d 1309 (La.1976). There, the court had to characterize funds which had been separate property of the husband, and which were used to buy a certificate of deposit in the names of both husband and wife after the marriage, and later used to purchase savings certificates in both names. Mrs. Broussard argued the purchase of the certificates was a donation to her. The court disagreed.

A donation inter vivos is an act by which the donor divests himself, at present and irrevocably, of the thing given, in favor of the donee who accepts it. La.C.C. art. 1468. Louisiana Civil Code Articles 1536, 1538 and 1539 regulate the donation of incorporeals and movable property:
“Art. 1536. An act shall be passed before a notary public and two witnesses of every donation inter vivos

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
538 So. 2d 1121, 1989 La. App. LEXIS 266, 1989 WL 14525, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/carter-v-carter-lactapp-1989.