Gray v. Gray

189 So. 2d 735, 1966 La. App. LEXIS 4694
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJuly 8, 1966
DocketNo. 6741
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 189 So. 2d 735 (Gray v. Gray) 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
Gray v. Gray, 189 So. 2d 735, 1966 La. App. LEXIS 4694 (La. Ct. App. 1966).

Opinion

LOTTINGER, Judge.

The plaintiff filed this suit against his former wife, alleging that they had been divorced on November 5, 1963, by judgment of the Circuit Court of Montgomery County, Maryland. He further alleged that during their marriage he and the defendant had acquired immovable property which he described in his petition, and went on to allege that he and his wife had executed a property settlement agreement under date of February 21, 1963, a duplicate original of which he attached to his petition. He alleged that in the property settlement agreement the defendant had relinquished all of her right, title and interest in and to his property, and had further agreed that [736]*736she would execute a deed and release of claim or other instrument necessary to effect the conveyance to him. He alleged that he had requested of her that she transfer her interest in the property described in his petition to him, and that :she had refused to do so. Pleading alternatively, the petitioner urged that in event that the Court should find that the agreement between him and the defendant unenforceable or void, the property they would own in indivisión, and described in his petition, should be sold to effect a partition between them. The petitioner prayed that the Court find the property settlement agreement was valid and enforceable and that the Court specifically enforce the agreement and decree that the defendant’s former community interest in the property was divested from her and vested exclusively in him.

The defendant answered the petition admitting that she and her husband had been divorced and that the property described in the petition was purchased during the time that they were married, however she denied that the document attached to the plaintiff’s petition was a property settlement agreement. She denied that by that agreement she had relinquished any of her undivided one-half interest in either the community property described in the plaintiff’s petition or to any other property belonging tO' the community of acquets and gains which existed between her and her former husband prior to the divorce. She urged that the property described in the plaintiff’s petition was property belonging to the community of .acquets and gains existing between her and her husband in which she had an undivided one-half interest and that therefore she was the owner of an undivided one-half interest in the property and that she had not transferred her interest in this property. She alleged that in addition to the property described in the petition, there were other items of movable property held by the petitioner which belonged to the community of acquets and gains and that she was entitled to her undivided one-half interest thereto. She asked for an accounting to disclose the items that petitioner held and she propounded interrogatories to him asking him to disclose such items which he held that had belonged to the community of acquets and gains.

The plaintiff filed an exception of prematurity and of no right of action to the defendant’s reconventional demand and a motion to suppress the interrogatories propounded by her. The Trial Court overruled the exceptions of prematurity and of no right of action and denied the motion to suppress the interrogatories, and ordered the plaintiff to answer the interrogatories.

The plaintiff filed an answer to the reconventional demand denying that the defendant had not transferred her interest in the community property described in his petition, and further denying that she was a co-owner in indivisión of the property which formerly belonged to the community of acquets and gains and prayed that the Court decree that the property settlement agreement was governed by the laws of Maryland and binding upon both the plaintiff and the defendant.

The plaintiff answered the interrogatories, his answers disclosing that he held several items of movable property which formerly belonged to the community of acquets and gains which had existed between him and the defendant at the time of the divorce.

Thereafter the defendant filed a supplemental and amending reconventional demand in which she listed those items of movable property held by the petitioner, and alleged that she had an undivided one-half interest in those items, and asked that she be recognized as the owner of said one undivided one-half interest.

After a trial on the merits, at which no oral testimony was introduced, the Trial Court rendered judgment decreeing that the property settlement agreement entered [737]*737into between the parties was valid and enforceable and ordering that the agreement be specifically performed. The judgment went on to decree that the defendant, within fifteen days from the signing of the judgment, execute and deliver to the plaintiff a quit claim deed transferring and conveying to the plaintiff all of the defendant’s right, title and interest in and to the two certain lots of ground in the Parish of East Baton Rouge described in the plaintiff’s petition. The judgment further ordered that in default of the execution and delivery of the quit claim deed by the defendant that the judgment would have the operation and legal effect of such conveyance and transfer so as to vest in the plaintiff all of defendant’s right, title and interest in and to the described property. The judgment further rejected the defendant’s reconventional demand and ordered that the defendant pay all costs. It is from this judgment that the defendant has appealed.

In his written reasons for judgment, the Trial Judge recited the facts, noted that the parties were living together in East Baton Rouge Parish and subsequently the defendant moved to the State of Maryland where she lived for some three to three and one-half years. The plaintiff continued to reside in East Baton Rouge Parish, and during the early part of 1963, the defendant, through her attorney, had corresponded with the plaintiff in an attempt to work out a property settlement agreement, although the parties were still married at that time. He noted that the net result of this correspondence was the “property settlement agreement” which was prepared in the State of Maryland and forwarded to the plaintiff in Baton Rouge, where he signed the document. He noted that the document was then sent back to Maryland where it was executed on Nevember 27, 1963, by the defendant. The document was then filed as an exhibit in the divorce case in Maryland. The first several paragraphs of the agreement referred to custody and child support, as well as the right of visitation by.the husband. There were also agreements between the parties relative to endowment insurance policies for the benefit of the parties’ son and a waiver by the wife of all future claims for the wife’s support and maintenance.

Paragraph 5 of the agreement reads as follows:

“The wife hereby relinquishes all statutory of common law rights or interest which she now has or may in the future have in or to any of the husband’s property, whether real, personal or mixed, and wheresoever situated, that he now has or may hereinafter own or acquire, and she further agrees that she will, upon request, execute and deliver any further assurances that may be required with respect to her release of such interest.”

The paragraph goes on to state that the husband likewise relinquishes and releases such claims that he may have in the property of his wife. It does not state or describe in any manner the property to which the parties have reference.

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Related

Fisher v. Fisher
261 So. 2d 85 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1972)
Gray v. Gray
191 So. 2d 142 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1966)

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Bluebook (online)
189 So. 2d 735, 1966 La. App. LEXIS 4694, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gray-v-gray-lactapp-1966.