Fontenot v. First Federal Savings of Opelousas

736 So. 2d 864, 98 La.App. 3 Cir. 1066, 1999 La. App. LEXIS 185, 1999 WL 44846
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedFebruary 3, 1999
DocketNo. 98-1066
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 736 So. 2d 864 (Fontenot v. First Federal Savings of Opelousas) 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
Fontenot v. First Federal Savings of Opelousas, 736 So. 2d 864, 98 La.App. 3 Cir. 1066, 1999 La. App. LEXIS 185, 1999 WL 44846 (La. Ct. App. 1999).

Opinion

LAMY, Judge.

The defendant savings and loan institution appeals the lower court’s determination that two individual retirement accounts, which were delivered to a succession pursuant to a court order, be reinstated to the plaintiff, the named beneficiary of one of the accounts and the owner of the remaining account. The defendant asserts a variety of affirmative defenses, in particular, prescription and equitable estoppel.

Factual and Procedural Background The instant matter was brought by the plaintiff, Warren Earl Fontenot, to recover two individual retirement accounts (IRAs) held by the defendant, First Federal Savings of Opelousas (First Federal). The record indicates that these two accounts were created by Mr. Fontenot and his late wife Monez P. Fontenot on April 5, 1982. First Federal was named as the custodian for each of the IRAs. The first account at issue, hereinafter referred to as Account 151, was established by Mr. IgFontenot, as grantor, with Mrs. Fontenot named as the beneficiary. The second account, Account 152, was established by Mrs. Fontenot, as grantor, with Mr. Fontenot named as the beneficiary. Each of the accounts was initially opened with a corpus of $2,000.00. Testimony at trial indicates that each IRA was invested in certificates of deposit rather than a standard savings account. Over the following years, Mr. and Mrs. Fonte-not continued to make deposits to the accounts.

Mrs. Fontenot died on February 19, 1988 leaving her husband, the plaintiff, and a daughter by a previous marriage, Beverly Todd. The record indicates that the ensuing succession proceedings have a complex history. The instant case, not strictly a succession matter, was consolidated in the lower court with a suit by Mr. Fontenot against the succession and a suit by the succession against Beverly Todd.

Mr. Fontenot alleges that, following his wife’s death, he went to First Federal and requested the proceeds in Account 152, that in which he was named as beneficiary. He testified that he was denied access to the funds by the account manager at First Federal, Rose Benoit, who told him that the account could not be released as his wife had died and the funds were part of the succession. Benoit confirmed that Mr. Fontenot arrived at the bank on February 28, 1988 and that she told him the bank required a death certificate before the account could be delivered. Although Benoit testified that she told the plaintiff that he would be required to present a death certificate, she further stated that it was standard policy for the bank to require a judgment of possession or a court order before releasing such an account. Wayne Gilmore, president and chief executive officer of First Federal, confirmed that First Federal employees, including Rose Benoit, are instructed that accounts can only |sbe released pursuant to a judgment of possession or court order if one of the parties is deceased.

The record indicates that, on May 18, 1988, a district judge1 signed an order appointing Beverly Todd as administratrix of Mrs. Fontenot’s estate. Furthermore, on May 20,1988, the judge signed an order authorizing and directing Todd to pay debts of the succession and specifically ordering First Federal to release, to Todd, the two accounts now at issue in the present matter.2 Benoit testified that on May 20, Todd came to the bank and, pursuant to the court order, the funds were released to her. Todd testified that she opened a succession account with the First Federal funds.

[866]*866Benoit testified that she was never contacted by an attorney on behalf of the plaintiff who complained of the release of the funds. Benoit also testified that, in December 1988, an IRA Fair Market Value report was sent to the plaintiff for each of the IRA accounts. These reports, which were entered into evidence, indicate that each of the accounts was reported as having a $0.00 balance.

On August 31, 1993, counsel for the plaintiff directed a letter to First Federal requesting reinstatement of Account 151 and Account 152, alleging that “[n]either of these accounts formed a part of the succession of Monez Fontenot, and hence were improperly paid to Beverly Todd as admin-istratrix of this succession.” The instant matter was instituted on March 24, 1994 when the plaintiff filed a “Petition for | ¿Reinstatement of Individual Retirement Account” against First Federal. No particular theory of recovery was advanced in the petition. Rather, the plaintiff related the creation of the accounts, his inability to access the accounts, the delivery of the accounts to Todd, and then asserted that the accounts had not been reinstated following his letter of August 31, 1993. By way of the petition, he sought reinstatement of each of the accounts retroactive to May 20,1988 plus accrued interest.

In response to the March 1994 petition, First Federal filed an exception of prescription alleging that the action complained of by the plaintiff was an action in tort and, therefore, subject to the prescriptive period of one year provided by La.Civ. Code art. 3492. Any conduct in 1988, therefore, had prescribed before the filing of the petition in 1994. In a subsequent exception of prescription, First Federal argued that IRAs are trust accounts governed by the one-year prescriptive period of La.R.S. 9:2234. Alternatively, First Federal asserted that the five-year prescriptive period of La.Civ.Code art. 3498 is applicable.

Initially, in reasons for judgment dated June 7, 1995, the lower court found that the IRAs are trust agreements and, therefore, the one-year peremptive period of La.R.S. 9:2234 was controlling. Thus, he found that the matter had prescribed. Pursuant to an application for new trial, however, the trial court reversed this earlier judgment. In reasons for judgment rendered on August 18, 1995, the trial court determined that, as for Account 151, that in which the plaintiff was the grantor and Mrs. Fontenot the beneficiary, the ten-year period of La.Civ.Code art. 3499 was applicable and, therefore, the cause of action had not prescribed. As for Account 152, |fithat in which the plaintiff was named as beneficiary, the trial court concluded that La.R.S. 9:2234 could apply, but deferred ruling on this account to the merits.

After the lower court overruled the exception of prescription as to Account 151 and referred the remainder to the merits, First Federal filed an answer to the petition wherein several affirmative defenses were asserted. Namely, the defendant argued that recovery in this matter should be barred by the doctrines of laches and equitable estoppel, as the funds were released pursuant to a court order and suit was not filed until more than five years after the release of the funds. Additionally, First Federal reurged the prescriptive periods asserted in the exceptions of prescription and maintained that any obligation by First Federal had been extinguished by Mr. Fontenot’s receipt of a check from the succession which was in excess of the funds in the accounts at issue. In addition to these defenses, First Federal filed a third party demand against Beverly Todd as Administratrix of the Succession of Monez P. Fontenot.

For our immediate purposes, the next critical stage in this matter was the trial on the merits held on July 29, 1996.

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736 So. 2d 864, 98 La.App. 3 Cir. 1066, 1999 La. App. LEXIS 185, 1999 WL 44846, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fontenot-v-first-federal-savings-of-opelousas-lactapp-1999.