Casadaban v. Casadaban

638 So. 2d 1230, 93 La.App. 1 Cir. 1889, 1994 La. App. LEXIS 2025, 1994 WL 278562
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJune 24, 1994
DocketNo. CA 93 1889
StatusPublished

This text of 638 So. 2d 1230 (Casadaban v. Casadaban) 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
Casadaban v. Casadaban, 638 So. 2d 1230, 93 La.App. 1 Cir. 1889, 1994 La. App. LEXIS 2025, 1994 WL 278562 (La. Ct. App. 1994).

Opinion

jaWHIPPLE, Judge.

This appeal concerns the applicability of LSA-C.C. art. 156 (now repealed), which provided that the party against whom a separation was pronounced lost all the advantages or donations the other party conferred during the marriage, to a mutual fault separation based on LSA-C.C. art. 141 (now repealed). Defendant appeals the trial court’s judgment declaring plaintiff to be the owner of certain real estate and improvements thereon, which he had donated to defendant during their marriage. We affirm.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Ernest Batiste Casadaban, Jr., plaintiff, and Cheryl Baxter Casadaban, defendant, were married in August, 1979. On March 30, 1990 (during the marriage), the parties executed two authentic acts of sale, in which plaintiff purportedly sold to defendant two pieces of property which comprised part of his separate estate.1 The two acts of sale were recorded in St. Tammany Parish. On the same day that the acts of sale were executed, the parties also executed two acts of donation involving the same two pieces of property, one being an act of donation and the other an act of donation and assumption of mortgage. In these acts of donation, plaintiff purportedly donated the two pieces of property at issue to defendant. These ’ acts of donation were in authentic form, but were not recorded.

[1232]*1232Subsequently, by judgment dated October 3, 1991, the parties were granted a legal separation and divorce. The judgment included a finding by the trial court that the parties were mutually at fault in causing their separation.2

On November 19, 1991, plaintiff filed a petition styled “SUIT FOR DECLARATORY JUDGMENT AND MANDATORY INJUNCTION,” seeking to have | athe acts of sale recognized as simulated sales and donations, and to have the donations thus declared “null and void under the provisions of article 156 of the Civil Code.”3

Mrs. Casadaban thereafter filed a motion in limine to exclude any parol evidence to vary the terms of the authentic acts of sale between the parties. The trial court heard arguments on the motion on the morning of trial and took the motion under advisement.

On June 15, 1992, the trial court rendered judgment, declaring that the acts of sale between plaintiff and defendant were simulated sales and donations. The trial court pretermitted the issue of the applicability of LSA-C.C. art. 156 and ordered a continuance on all remaining issues, pending a decision by this court on the issue of defendant’s fault. By judgment dated August 31,1992, the trial court also denied defendant’s motion in li-mine to- exclude parol evidence.

Defendant appealed from these judgments, and in an unpublished opinion, this court affirmed both the judgment denying her motion in limine and the judgment declaring the acts of sale between the parties to be simulated sales and donations. Casadaban v. Casadaban, 632 So.2d 1234 (La.App. 1st Cir. 1993) (unpublished opinion), writ denied, 634 So.2d 375 (La.1994).

Shortly after this court affirmed the trial court’s finding that defendant was also at fault in causing their separation, the parties filed cross motions for summary judgment on the issue of whether LSA-C.C. art. 156 applied to revoke the donations made by plaintiff to defendant during their marriage. A hearing on the cross motions for summary judgment was held on June 2, 1993. The trial court concluded that LSA-C.C. art. 156 applied to the instant Lease to revoke the donations. Accordingly, on June 22, 1993, the trial court rendered judgment granting Mr. Casadaban’s motion for summary judgment, denying Mrs. Casadaban’s motion for summary judgment and declaring Mr. Casa-daban to be the owner of the property he had donated to her during their marriage.

From this judgment, defendant appeals, assigning the following as error: (1) the trial court erred in not dismissing plaintiffs suit based on equity, and (2) the trial court erred in revoking the donations based on former Civil Code article 156.

SUMMARY JUDGMENT

Generally, a motion for summary judgment should be granted only if the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories and admissions on file, together with affidavits show there is no genuine issue as to a material fact and that the mover is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. LSA-C.C.P. art. 966; Thompson v. South Central Bell Telephone Company, 411 So.2d 26, 27 (La.1982). The burden is upon the mover for summary judgment to show that no genuine issue of material fact exists, and only when reasonable minds must inevitably conclude that the mover is entitled to judgment as a matter of law is summary judgment warranted. Robertson v. Our Lady of Lake Regional Medical Center, 574 So.2d 381, 384 (La.App. 1st Cir.1990), writ denied, 573 So.2d 1136 (La.1991).

[1233]*1233Appellate courts review summary judgments de novo, using the same criteria applied by the trial courts in determining whether summary judgment is appropriate. Schroeder v. Board of Supervisors of Louisiana State University, 591 So.2d 342, 345 (La.1991).

ASSIGNMENT OF ERROR NO. 1

Defendant contends that on the basis of equity, plaintiff should not be allowed to invoke judicial action to set aside a sale which he instigated to avoid a potential creditor. In support of this contention, defendant cites Dipuma v. Dipuma, 136 So.2d 505 (La. App. 1st Cir.1961). In Dipuma, the plaintiff had the title to property purchased from a third party placed in the name of his concubine, in an attempt to defraud his forced heirs. The parties | slater married and eventually divorced. Thereafter, plaintiff filed suit to be recognized as the owner of the property; however, his suit was dismissed on the basis that plaintiff could not use the courts to correct a fraud which he had instigated. Dipuma, 136 So.2d at 508. Mrs. Casadaban contends that the same equitable argument should be applied in the present ease. We disagree.

Equity applies only when there is no express or positive law governing. LSA-C.C. art. 4; Mayor and Council of City of Morgan City v. Jesse J. Fontenot, Inc., 460 So.2d 685, 688 (La.App. 1st Cir.1984). Where the rights of parties are provided for by express law, equity may not intervene. Curlee v. Curlee, 567 So.2d 1166, 1168 (La.App. 3rd Cir.1990). LSA-C.C. art. 156 is positive law which governs the revocation of donations between spouses upon obtaining a judgment of separation. The only question in this appeal is whether the provisions of former LSA-C.C. art. 156 applied to the facts of this case, and thus, automatically revoked the donations at issue. See Vaughn v. Coco, 409 So.2d 282, 285 (La.App. 1st Cir.1981).

Accordingly, defendant’s contention that this court should rely on equity is without merit.

ASSIGNMENT OF ERROR NO. 2

In this assignment of error, defendant contends that the trial court erred in concluding that the donations made to her by plaintiff were revoked pursuant to LSA-C.C. art. 156, arguing that art. 156 does not apply to mutual fault separations. The facts of this ease are not in dispute, and, in fact, the trial court’s determination that the transfers at issue were actually donations is now final and definitive.

Thus, the only issue that remains is a legal question: whether the provisions of LSA-C.C. art.

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Curlee v. Curlee
567 So. 2d 1166 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1990)
Robertson v. OUR LADY OF LAKE MED. CTR.
574 So. 2d 381 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1990)
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Bluebook (online)
638 So. 2d 1230, 93 La.App. 1 Cir. 1889, 1994 La. App. LEXIS 2025, 1994 WL 278562, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/casadaban-v-casadaban-lactapp-1994.