In re Cook

244 So. 3d 686
Louisiana Court of Appeal·Decided September 27, 2017·No. No. 51,586–CA·Published

Opinions

MOORE, J.

Elizabeth Dianne Cook, the former executrix of the succession of her father, Joseph Robert Cook, appeals a partial summary judgment that ordered her to return $161,005 to the estate and to pay a statutory 20% penalty for her failure to return the money when first ordered. Finding genuine issues of material fact, we reverse and remand.

FACTS

Joseph Cook died on January 18, 2013. Five days later, January 23, his daughter, Dianne, filed a petition to probate a will he executed in July 2012. This will left all his property to Dianne. Dianne filed a petition for possession on February 27, and the 26th Judicial District Court granted her a *688judgment of possession on March 1, 2013. Before and after obtaining the judgment of possession, Dianne began disposing of succession assets, largely to pay off her personal debts.

On August 30, 2013, Joseph Cook's other two children, Robert and David Cook ("the petitioners"), filed a petition to annul the 2012 will on grounds of undue influence. They proffered an earlier will, executed in 1998, in which Joseph Cook had left his estate to all three children in equal portions. The matter proceeded to trial, after which the district court found that Dianne had indeed exerted undue influence over her elderly, feeble father. The court rendered judgment on September 2, 2014, annulling the 2012 will, and a second judgment, on December 9, 2014, vacating the judgment of possession. Dianne appealed devolutively.

Meanwhile, the petitioners filed a rule to show cause for return of succession property or for an accounting; as part of discovery, they took Dianne's deposition in March 2015. At this time she admitted having disposed of or mortgaged virtually all succession assets. The court ordered her to return all succession property by April 30, 2015, and to provide an accounting for all succession assets; she provided neither. The petitioners then filed the instant petition for contempt, return of succession property, and a money judgment, which they estimated at $240,000.

On March 30, 2016, this court rendered its opinion in Succession of Cook , 50,111 (La. App. 2 Cir. 3/30/116), 189 So.3d 409 (on rehearing), affirming the finding of undue influence and the nullity of the 2012 will. The Supreme Court unanimously denied writs, 2016-0795 (La. 6/17/16), 192 So.3d 768.

On September 12, 2016, the petitioners filed this motion for partial summary judgment regarding Dianne's conversion of succession funds. They itemized five assets (a 2004 mobile home, a Citizens National Bank account, a fraternal death benefit, Joseph Cook's 50% interest in Kelzan LLC, and various movable fixtures) and, using the values submitted in Dianne's detailed descriptive list, demanded the total of $171,875. They also demanded, for the first time, the statutory penalty of 20% per annum for failing to place succession funds in an estate account, as required by La. C. C. P. art. 3222. They calculated the penalty-three years at 20% per annum-at $109,864.58.

Dianne opposed the motion, urging there were material facts as to the values of the assets. She acknowledged her duty to account for succession funds, but urged that she spent much of them on succession expenses, on the decedent's funeral, and on (unsuccessfully) defending the 2012 will against the petitioners' challenge. She claimed that after the setoff of legitimate expenses, she needed to account for only $95,639.72. She also argued the penalty could not apply because she took all her actions under color of the judgment of possession; hence, she had acted "in accordance with law," as permitted by Art. 3222. In support, she filed her own affidavit setting out the various expenses and asserting the mobile home was worth only $30,000, not the $40,000 she initially declared in the detailed descriptive list.

The petitioners responded that there is no right of compensation (or "setoff") if one of the obligations is to return a thing of which the owner was unjustly dispossessed, La. C.C. art. 1894, and that amounts owed to a succession must be paid in full before any equalizing payment is made, Succession of Comberrel , 2012-1589 (La. App. 4 Cir. 6/12/13), 119 So.3d 897.

At a hearing on November 7, 2016, the petitioners argued that using the reduced *689value of the mobile home and making a minor adjustment to the funeral expenses, the unaccounted funds came to $161,005.00. Dianne admitted that she never deposited any estate funds in a succession account, but argued that this failure did not cause the loss; she did everything legally, under the judgment of possession, and she was entitled to setoff for various expenses. The district court found that setoff did not apply to succession funds, citing Comberrel , supra , and Succession of Songne , 94-1198 (La. App. 3 Cir. 11/2/95), 664 So.2d 556, writ denied , 95-2877 (La. 2/2/96), 666 So.2d 1101. It granted partial summary judgment for $161,005, reserved Dianne's reimbursement claims, and assessed the 20% per annum penalty of Art. 3222.

The court held a final hearing, on January 9, 2017, on designating the judgment an appealable partial final judgment, La. C. C. P. art. 1915. The court reiterated that the partial summary judgment covered only the uncontested amount, and certified it as immediately appealable.

Dianne has appealed, raising two assignments of error.

APPLICABLE LAW

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