Devillier v. Devillier

371 So. 2d 1230
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJuly 3, 1979
Docket6930
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 371 So. 2d 1230 (Devillier v. Devillier) 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
Devillier v. Devillier, 371 So. 2d 1230 (La. Ct. App. 1979).

Opinion

371 So.2d 1230 (1979)

Louella DEVILLIER, wife of Forrest Joseph Langlinais, Plaintiff-Appellant,
v.
Joseph Ravis DEVILLIER et al., Defendants-Appellees.

No. 6930.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Third Circuit.

May 23, 1979.
Writ Refused July 3, 1979.

*1231 Champagne, Colomb & Brumbaugh, Vincent J. Saitta, Lafayette, for plaintiff-appellant.

Nathan A. Levy, Jr., and Levy & Burleigh, Morgan City, Bernard F. Levy, Monroe, for defendant-appellee.

Before WATSON, STOKER and DOUCET, JJ.

STOKER, Judge.

In this suit plaintiff seeks to have a tract of land partitioned by licitation. The trial court sustained an exception of no cause of action and dismissed the suit. The trial court's reasons for judgment were grounded on an interpretation of Article 543 of the Louisiana Civil Code as enacted by Act Number 103 of the 1976 session of the Louisiana Legislature. LSA-C.C. art. 543. *1232 Plaintiff appealed. The appeal brings up for consideration the right to partition property not subject to division in kind which is burdened by a conventional usufruct granted by less than all the original owners of the perfect ownership. The question appears to be res nova.

FACTS

The plaintiff is Louella Devillier Langlinais who is married to Forrest Joseph Langlinais. Plaintiff's mother, Bertha Latiolais, died leaving 20.47 arpents of land in St. Martin Parish, Louisiana, as her separate property. The deceased was married to plaintiff's father, Wade Devillier, who survived her. During the regime of the community of acquets and gains which existed between them the Devilliers apparently built a house on the 20.47 arpents. There are three other children of the marriage, siblings of plaintiff, namely Joseph Ravis Devillier, Ida Mae Devillier Johnson, and Jasper John Devillier. In this action, plaintiff sues her father and her sister and two brothers.

Upon the death of their mother, Louella Devillier Langlinais and her brothers and sister became the sole heirs in full ownership of the 20.47 arpent tract of land by inheritance from the separate estate of their mother. After the mother's death, plaintiff's sister and two brothers, in an apparent attempt to insure that their father be enabled to continue to live in the family home located on the property, granted a conventional usufruct of their undivided interests in the property to their father, defendant, Wade Devillier.

The situation thus created left plaintiff with her one-quarter undivided interest in her mother's separate property in perfect ownership. Her father, Wade Devillier, owns the usufruct of an undivided three-quarter interest in the property. The other three children own the naked ownership of the three-quarter undivided interest over which they have given their father the usufruct. The usufruct is for the duration of the father's natural life.

The brief of plaintiff-appellant asserts that it was stipulated at the trial level that the property in question is not susceptible of division in kind. While we find no evidence of such a stipulation in the record, it is of no moment because plaintiff alleges in her petition, paragraph 4, that the property is not divisible in kind without diminution of value and she prays for a partition by licitation. Since an exception of no cause of action is before us, the pleaded facts are accepted as true for the purpose of deciding the exception.

ACTION OF THE TRIAL COURT

The trial court's brief reasons for judgment simply cite LSA-C.C. art. 543 and three cases mentioned in the official Comments under the article and concludes that the article and cases "establish that defendants' exception of no cause of action is good and must be sustained." The three cases cited are Smith v. Nelson, 121 La. 170, 46 So. 200 (1908); Succession of Glancey, 112 La. 430, 36 So. 483 (1904) and Fricke v. Stafford, 159 So.2d 52 (La.App. 1st Cir. 1963).

These appear to be the only Louisiana authorities on the question. However, the excellent briefs setting forth the arguments of counsel indicate that a very serious question of interpretation is presented by the codal article and the meager jurisprudence.

STATEMENT OF THE ISSUES

The basic issue presented to this court is whether a co-owner can burden his interest with a conventional usufruct in favor of a third person and thereby extinguish the rights of another co-owner to obtain a partition by licitation. In resolving this issue, two basic rights come into conflict. The first is the right "to dispose of one's property in the most unlimited manner." LSA-C.C. art. 491. The second is a principle stated in Article 1289 of the Civil Code that "[n]o one can be compelled to hold property with another . . .".

The pertinent Civil Code provisions effective January 1, 1977, under the revision pertaining to personal servitudes effected *1233 by Act Number 103 of 1976 of the Louisiana Legislature are as follows:

Art. 541. Divisibility of usufruct
Usufruct is susceptible to division, because its purpose is the enjoyment of advantages that are themselves divisible. It may be conferred on several persons in divided or undivided shares, and it may be partitioned among the usufructuaries.
Art. 542. Divisibility of naked ownership
The naked ownership may be partitioned subject to the rights of the usufructuary.
Art. 543. Divisibility of the property in kind
A coowner whether or not he is also a usufructuary of an undivided part of a thing may demand its partition in kind to the extent necessary to enable him to obtain the perfect ownership of a determined part. Partition by licitation is not allowed even though there is a person who is both a usufructuary and an owner.

Paragraphs (b) and (c) under the official Comments under 543 read as follows:

(b) The second sentence of this article excludes partition of the entire property by licitation even though there is a person who is both a usufructuary and a naked owner. It restates a rule established by Louisiana jurisprudence and does not change the law. Smith v. Nelson, 121 La. 170, 46 So. 200 (1908); Succession of Glancey, 112 La. 430, 36 So. 483 (1904); Fricke v. Stafford, 159 So.2d 52 (La.App. 1st Cir. 1963).
(c) In the absence of elements held in common, partition in kind or by licitation among naked owners and usufructuaries is excluded. Smith v. Nelson, 121 La. 170, 46 So. 200 (1908); 2 Aubry et Rau, Droit civil francais 639 (7th ed. Esmein 1961). These persons do not hold the same type of interest by undivided shares, I. e., they do not possess rights of the same nature over the same object. Partition upon demand of the usufructuary would constitute, in effect, denial of ultimate perfect ownership; partition upon demand of the naked owner would result in termination of the usufruct or in its transfer to the proceeds of the sale of the property.

Although the trial court founded its reasons for judgment on LSA-C.C. art. 543 as enacted in 1976, the defendants' peremptory exception of no cause of action is stated to be based on LSA-C.C. art. 1289. This article was unaffected by the 1976 revision and is contained in the Louisiana Civil Code of 1870. It reads as follows:

Art. 1289. Basis of right to demand partition
Art. 1289.

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Bluebook (online)
371 So. 2d 1230, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/devillier-v-devillier-lactapp-1979.