Crain v. Crain

206 So. 2d 521, 1968 La. App. LEXIS 5230
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJanuary 29, 1968
DocketNo. 7246
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 206 So. 2d 521 (Crain v. Crain) 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
Crain v. Crain, 206 So. 2d 521, 1968 La. App. LEXIS 5230 (La. Ct. App. 1968).

Opinion

REID, Judge.

This suit is the aftermath of a previous suit filed by the same plaintiffs against the same defendants wherein the plaintiffs sought and obtained a judgment setting aside and annuling two acts of sale by their father W. J. Crain to W. Edmond Crain and J. Berkley Crain. See Crain et al. v. Crain, reported in 175 So.2d 665. In this first suit this Court found that the two sales by the late William J. Crain and his wife, Julia Warner Crain, to J. Berkley Crain and W. Edmond Crain were donations in disguise and simulated sales.

Subsequently the same plaintiffs brought this suit against the same defendants seeking a partition by licitation of three tracts of land, first for 125 acres and second for 35 acres and the third for 27 acres, all situated in Section 37, T 1 S R 12 E., St. Helena Meridian, Parish of Washington, Louisiana.

The petition set forth the names of all the heirs and their respective interests. All the surviving brothers and sisters had an undivided l/12ths interest each and three of them who had died had their interest divided among their respective heirs of each of the deceased children.

The petition alleges that the. above said three parcels of land constituted all the property belonging to the Successions of W. J. Crain and Julia Warner Crain and further alleged that there was no inheritance tax due.

They further allege that they were unwilling to remain coowners in indivisión any longer and desired a partition by lici-tation. To this petition the defendants W. Edmond Crain and J. Berkley Crain filed exception of lack of procedural capacity on the grounds that there was no allegation that the Succession of W. J. Crain and Julia Warner Crain had been opened, or any allegation that the plaintiffs and defendants had been recognized as the sole and forced heirs of W. J. Crain and Julia Warner Crain, nor had they been sent in possession as such forced heirs. The Trial Court overruled the exception of lack of procedural capacity and the defendants W. Edmond Crain and J. Berkley Crain filed an answer denying all the allegations of plaintiffs’ petition except the allegation that there was no inheritance tax due and further answering in that respect averred that the descriptive list attached did not reflect the actual value of the property described, nor did it show the indebtedness for the estates involved and said the descriptive list should be stricken from the record.

Then, assuming the position of plaintiffs in reconvention, the said two defendants set forth claims for money and time expended in caring for their father and improving the land and sought reimbursement of the said sum of money — W. Edmond Crain seeking the sum of $3639.00 and J. Berkley Crain seeking the sum of $700.00.

They asked for judgment in the alternative for the respective sums and with legal interest from demand until paid, to be paid out of the proceeds of the sale.

Subsequently defendants W. Edmond Crain and J. Berkley Crain filed an amended answer and reconventional demand, W. Edmond Crain seeking the sum of $6111.10 and J. Berkley Crain seeking the sum of $1880.60.

Plaintiffs filed an answer to the recon-ventional demand and an amended recon-ventional demand denying the allegations.

The Tutor-ad-Hoc appointed to represent the absent defendants DeWitt Crain and Jessie D. Crain filed an answer denying all the allegations of plaintiffs’ petition for [523]*523lack of sufficient information to justify belief. Subsequently the plaintiffs filed a supplemental and amending answer to the reconventional demand and amended re-conventional demands of the plaintiffs in reconvention, denying the allegations and in the alternative pleading prescription to these particular claims.

The matter was duly tried on the merits and the Trial Judge rendered judgment in favor of the plaintiffs and against the defendants ordering a partition by licitation and decreeing the property free from inheritance tax but taxing the fee of the plaintiffs’ inheritance tax collector in the amount of $20.00 and costs and recognizing the plaintiffs and defendants as the sole and only h'eirs 'in the proportions set out in the petition of the decedents W. J. Crain and Julia Warner Crain and as such the owners in indivisión of the property, and ordering the same sold by licitation to affect a partition.

From this judgment the defendants J. Berkley Crain and W. Edmond Crain have appealed suspensively to this Court.

Pending this appeal Harvey Crain, a plaintiff, died on January 29, 1967 and on motion his heirs Lillie Rae Crain Seal and Katherine Julia Crain Galloway were substituted herein in his place.

The defendants and appellants set forth three errors by the Trial Court: First, that the exception of the defendants should have been maintained; second, that exception of plaintiffs (defendants in reconvention) should not háve been maintained and third, that the defendants and plaintiffs in reconvention proved by a preponderance of the evidence their right to be reimbursed for improvements made by them upon the succession property and for the services in connection therewith.

There is no question but what plaintiffs are entitled to demand and get a partition of property held in common with their coowners.

“No one can be compelled to hold property with another, unless the contrary has been agreed upon; any one has a right to demand the division of a thing held in common, by the action of partition.” Article 1289 Civil Code of Louisiana.
“The action of partition will not only lie between heirs and co-legatees, but between all persons who hold property in common, from whatever cause they may hold in common.” Article 1308 Civil Code of Louisiana.

With regard to the exception of lack of procedural capacity based on the fact that the Succession of the deceased had not been opened and the heirs recognized and sent into possession and on the further proposition that the property described in the petition was not all the property of the deceased and you cannot have a partial partition by licitation the Trial Judge in his written reasons relied upon the case of Dobrowolski v. Dobrowolski, 215 La. 1078, 42 So.2d 760 (1949).

This case of Dobrowolski v. Dobrowolski, supra, holds as follows:

“We are of the opinion that the plaintiffs, co-owners in indivisión with the defendants of the property here sought to be partitioned and unwilling to continue such ownership in indivisión, have an absolute right to have this property partitioned, Raceland Bank & Trust Co. v. Toups, 173 La. 742, 138 So. 652; Mitcham v. Micham, 186 La. 641, 173 So. 132, and Fabacher v. Fabacher, 214 La. 940, 39 So.2d 426 * * * ”

The defendants offered no evidence to substantiate their claim that there was other property belonging to the Succession in which all the heirs had an interest. This Court found in the first suit, Crain v. Crain, supra, that the property described within said suit was “all the property owned by the deceased, W. J. Crain and Julia Warner Crain.” In fact, this was one of the reasons the two respective sales to [524]*524the two defendants were set aside, because under LSA-C.C. Art. 1497 a donor cannot by donation inter vivos divest himself of all his property.

The case of Montz v. Montz, La.App., 2 So.2d 251, holds as follows:

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Bluebook (online)
206 So. 2d 521, 1968 La. App. LEXIS 5230, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/crain-v-crain-lactapp-1968.