Hinckley v. Hinckley

583 So. 2d 125, 1991 WL 113132
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJune 27, 1991
Docket89-CA-2215
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 583 So. 2d 125 (Hinckley v. Hinckley) 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
Hinckley v. Hinckley, 583 So. 2d 125, 1991 WL 113132 (La. Ct. App. 1991).

Opinion

583 So.2d 125 (1991)

Wanda Scheuerman HINCKLEY
v.
Norbert Reynaud HINCKLEY.

No. 89-CA-2215.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Fourth Circuit.

June 27, 1991.
Rehearing Denied August 27, 1991.

Philip R. Riegel, Jr., New Orleans, for plaintiff-appellee.

Joseph V. Bologna, New Orleans, for defendant-appellant.

*126 Before KLEES, BYRNES and WILLIAMS, JJ.

BYRNES, Judge.

Norbert Reynaud Hinckley appeals a judgment of partition of property following a judgment of divorce. We affirm as amended.

Norbert Reynaud Hinckley and Wanda Scheuerman Hinckley were married in 1947. Their divorce was granted on June 10, 1987. Thereafter, the trial court filed a judgment of partition on August 25, 1989, as well as an amended judgment regarding an earlier transfer of stock on October 23, 1989. Mr. Hinckley appeals the judgment of partition, contending that the trial court erred in finding that: (1) certain oil and gas interests were the separate property of Ms. Hinckley; (2) an interest in property which Mr. Hinckley acquired from his brother, Richard Hinckley, was community property; (3) stock which Mr. Hinckley donated to Ms. Hinckley was her separate property; and (4) various assets claimed to be Mr. Hinckley's separate property were community.

Mr. Hinckley argues that oil and gas royalties from mineral leases in Pointe Coupee Parish, which Ms. Hinckley acquired by donation from her family during the marriage, fell into the community of acquest and gains because Ms. Hinckley failed to record her declaration reserving the royalties as her separate property in the public records of Pointe Coupee Parish where the property was located. In June, 1980, Ms. Hinckley executed and recorded the declaration in East Baton Rouge Parish, the matrimonial domicile. At the time of the declaration, La.C.C. Art. 2386 had been substituted by LSA-C.C. Art. 2339, which became effective on January 1, 1980. A few months later Article 2339 was changed to include royalties among the fruits that fell into the community, effective September 12, 1980.

Originally LSA-C.C. Art. 2386 provided in pertinent part:

The fruits of the paraphernal property of the wife, wherever the property be located and however administered, whether natural, civil, including interest, dividends and rents, or from the result of labor, fall into the conjugal partnership, if there exists a community of acquest and gains; unless the wife, by written instrument, shall declare that she reserves all of such fruits for her own separate use and benefit and her intention to administer such property separately and alone. The said instrument shall be executed before a Notary Public and two witnesses and duly recorded in the Conveyance Records of the Parish were the community is domiciled.

On January 1, 1980, the new matrimonial regimes legislation, enacted in 1979, came into effect. Louisiana C.C. Art. 2339, applicable when Mrs. Hinckley executed and recorded her declaration, read in pertinent part as follows:

The natural and civil fruits of the separate property of a spouse and bonuses, delay rentals, and shut-in payments arising from mineral leases are community property. Nevertheless, a spouse may reserve them as his separate property by a declaration made in an authentic act or in an act under private signature duly acknowledged by the spouses.
As to the fruits and proceeds of immovables, the declaration is effective when filed for registry in the conveyance records of the parish in which the immovable property is located. (Act 1979, No. 709, § 1, eff. Jan. 1, 1980).

The amended version of LSA-C.C. Art. 2339, which became effective September 12, 1980, provides in pertinent part:

The natural and civil fruits of the separate property of a spouse, minerals produced from or attributable to a separate asset, and bonuses, delay rentals, royalties, and shut-in payments arising from mineral leases are community property. Nevertheless, a spouse may reserve them as his separate property by a declaration made in an authentic act or in an act under private signature duly acknowledged.
As to the fruits and revenues of immovables, the declaration is effective when filed for registry in the conveyance *127 records of the parish in which the immovable property is located. As to the fruits of movables, the declaration is effective when filed for registry in the conveyance records of the parish in which the declarant is domiciled. (Emphasis added.)

Prior to the enactment of LSA-C.C. Art. 2339 in effect from January 1, 1980 until September, 1980, royalties were classified as fruits falling into the community of acquest and gains. Milling v. Collector of Revenue, 220 La. 773, 57 So.2d 679 (La. 1952). At the time of the declaration, royalties were not classified as fruits in Art. 2339. That article was amended to include royalties as fruits effective September 12, 1980. "The classification of royalties and in kind mineral payments attributable to separate property from January 1, 1980 until September 12, 1980, were separate property without the necessity of the Article 2339 declaration." Spaht, Developments in the Law of Matrimonial Regimes, 42 La.L.Rev. 347. There was no requirement to record the declaration in Pointe Coupee Parish where the mineral interests were located in June of 1980. The trial court properly found that the mineral royalties were the separate property of Mrs. Hinckley.

Mr. Hinckley contends that the lot located at 2815 Jefferson Avenue in New Orleans is his separate property. The former husband inherited one-half interest in the house from his mother, Mrs. Inez Reynaud Hinckley, in 1963. By act of sale on March 12, 1965, appellant's brother, Richard A. Hinckley sold to Norbert Reynaud Hinckley his one-half interest in the house. The trial court found that 50 percent of the property is the separate property of Norbert Hinckley and the remaining 50 percent is community property. The trial court ordered the lot to be sold with 50 percent of the proceeds to be split between the parties.

Mr. Hinckley argues that the interest acquired in the first transaction after the judgment of possession in a succession of an ancestor amounts to a partition of the asset and the purchaser merely adds to his separate property which he already owns. Tullier v. Tullier, 464 So.2d 278 (La.1985); Katz v. Katz, 423 So.2d 1277 (La.App. 4th Cir.1982), writ denied 427 So.2d 860 (La. 1983); Wood v. Wood, 424 So.2d 1143 (La. App. 1st Cir.1982). However, aside from his own testimony, Mr. Hinckley failed to provide any records showing that he purchased his brother's interest with his separate funds. He noted that his salary for employment as a chemist was minimal and that Mrs. Hinckley was not employed. Therefore, he asserts that purchase of his brother's interest in the house was paid by Mr. Hinckley's separate funds inherited from his mother.

The party asserting the separate nature of the property acquired during the marriage has the burden of overcoming the strong presumption in favor of the community. LSA-C.C. Art. 2340; Tullier v. Tullier, id. To meet this burden, the proof must be clear, positive and of a legally certain nature that the property was separate instead of community. Allbritton v. Allbritton, 561 So.2d 125 (La.App. 3d Cir. 1990), writ denied, 565 So.2d 445 & 565 So.2d 454 (La.1990).

Mrs.

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Bluebook (online)
583 So. 2d 125, 1991 WL 113132, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hinckley-v-hinckley-lactapp-1991.