In Re Succession of Steckler

712 So. 2d 1066, 1998 WL 265011
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMay 27, 1998
Docket97-CA-1243
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 712 So. 2d 1066 (In Re Succession of Steckler) 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
In Re Succession of Steckler, 712 So. 2d 1066, 1998 WL 265011 (La. Ct. App. 1998).

Opinion

712 So.2d 1066 (1998)

In re The SUCCESSION OF Therese Delaune STECKLER.

No. 97-CA-1243.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Fifth Circuit.

May 27, 1998.

*1068 Dan A. Smetherman, New Orleans, for Appellant Donaldson L. Steckler.

Edward D. Wegmann, Laura Leigh Blackston, New Orleans, for Appellee Julian P. Brignac, Testamentary Executor for The Succession of Therese D. Steckler.

Before DUFRESNE, CANNELLA and DALEY, JJ.

CANNELLA, Judge.

Plaintiff, Donaldson L. Steckler, appeals from the district court judgment awarding him a total of $41,283 on his claim as a creditor in his mother's succession. For the reasons which follow, we affirm.

Plaintiff's father, Lester R. Steckler, died intestate in 1971. He had been married to Therese Delaune Steckler (Mrs. Steckler) and they had one child of the marriage, plaintiff. Therefore, plaintiff inherited his father's share of the community property subject to the usufruct of his mother. Mrs. Steckler died some twenty years later, on April 17, 1991. She had executed a last will and testament in which she sought to disinherit plaintiff for failure to communicate with her for a period of over two years prior to the execution of her will. The will further provided that if the disinhersion provision of the will was not effective, then plaintiff's forced portion was to be held in trust. Except for a few special bequests, she left the remainder of her estate in trust to plaintiff's children, her grandchildren. Julian P. Brignac (Mr. Brignac) was named as the testamentary executor of Mrs. Steckler's estate.

On April 29, 1991, Mr. Brignac filed a petition for probate of the will and confirmation as testamentary executor. Plaintiff filed his first petition in this matter on July 9, 1991, seeking to have the will declared null for lack of testamentary capacity. Plaintiff thereafter filed five supplemental and amending petitions and the "Petition" involved in this appeal, filed April 16, 1992, in which he makes claims as a creditor in his mother's succession. The case has also been before this court previously on appeal. Succession of Steckler, 95-227 (La.App. 5th Cir. 11/28/95), 665 So.2d 561; Succession of Steckler, 617 So.2d 997 (La.App. 5th Cir.1993).

In the April 16, 1992 petition, plaintiff made the following claims against Mrs. Steckler's succession, claiming a total due him of "$199,800.29":[1]

1) Plaintiff makes a claim for "$80,466.83" in cash for certain unspecified property belonging to him over which Mrs. Steckler had the usufruct until her death.
2) Plaintiff makes a claim for "$43,624.01" in damages for Mrs. Steckler's alleged "neglect and intentional damage" to certain immovable property, subject to Mrs. Steckler's usufruct.
3) Plaintiff makes a claim for "$20,059.45" for movable property over which Mrs. Steckler had a usufruct.
4) Plaintiff makes a claim for "$54,000" for property of his (cash, stocks, bonds, and other marketable securities) which he alleges Mrs. Steckler "held".
5) Plaintiff makes a claim for "$1,493.30" for tools that were donated to him, but which remained in his mother's possession.
6) Plaintiff makes a claim for an undetermined amount due from rents collected *1069 from the immovable property after his mother's death.

The matter was tried on March 25, 1997 and judgment, with detailed reasons, was rendered on August 21, 1997. The court awarded plaintiff the sum of $45,351.50 as the value of his one-half interest in the consumable community assets of his father, which included $173 for inherited items from his father, less $4,068.50 which plaintiff owed the estate of Mrs. Steckler for repairs, maintenance, insurance and taxes on the immovable property which he owned with the succession. Plaintiff's other claims were denied. It is from this judgment that plaintiff appeals.

On appeal, plaintiff assigns eleven errors which can be grouped into three main arguments: (1) he contends that the trial court erred in reducing his claim because of debts of his father's succession that were paid by his mother; (2) he contends that the trial court erred in assessing the condition and care of and expenses for the immovables of his father's succession; and (3) he contends that the trial court erred in its determination of what movables belonged to plaintiff and assessing a value for those movables.

Plaintiff's first argument concerns the valuation of his one half interest in the movable community property from his father's succession, of which he was given the naked ownership and his mother the usufruct. After valuing the property at $162,742.65, the community debts of $31,919.91 were deducted, consisting of miscellaneous debts ($565.33), taxes and insurance $3,783.24 and expenses of last illness ($27,571.34). It was thus determined that plaintiff's one-half of the assets was valued at $65,411.37. From that was deducted $20,059.87 of separate debts, consisting of funeral costs ($1,947.04), court costs and legal fees ($8,616.03), inheritance taxes ($896.80) and estate taxes ($8600). It is with these deductions that plaintiff takes issue.

Plaintiff contends that the right of Mrs. Steckler's succession to claim these deductions has prescribed. Plaintiff contends that the action to recover any sums paid by her which were debts of her husband's succession was personal to her and has prescribed, under La. C.C. art. 3499, ten years from the closing of her husband's succession. We disagree.

Contrary to plaintiff's argument, La. C.C. art. 592 expressly addresses the situation where a usufructuary pays the debts of the succession and states that "[w]hen the usufructuary advances funds needed for the discharge of the debts of the succession, he shall be reimbursed without interest at the end of the usufruct."[2] Accordingly, we find that the right of Mrs. Steckler, as the usufructuary, to be reimbursed for the funds she advanced to pay the debts of her husband's succession commenced "at the end of the usufruct" and has not prescribed.

Next, plaintiff argues that the trial court erred in deducting from the value of the movables the sum representing the expenses of his father's last illness ($27,571.34). Plaintiff contends that the expenses of the last illness were covered by insurance payments and were not paid by Mrs. Steckler.

The Executor of Mrs. Steckler's estate argues to the contrary that the trial court correctly assessed the sum as a debt of Lester R. Steckler's succession for which, as sole heir, plaintiff was liable. The Executor points out that plaintiff offered and presented no evidence of medical insurance policies covering this amount, nor did he have evidence of payments of these debts by insurance. The Executor argues further that resolution of this issue involves a question of fact and credibility, which the trial court correctly made against plaintiff and which should not be overturned absent a finding of manifest error.

At the outset we point out, and it is well settled, that on appellate review of a factual determination, the reviewing court may not set aside the trial judge's findings of *1070 fact in the absence of manifest error or unless they are clearly wrong. Also, where there is a conflict in the testimony, reasonable evaluations of credibility and reasonable inferences of fact should not be disturbed upon review, even though the appellate court may feel that its own evaluations and inferences are as reasonable. Rosell v. ESCO, 549 So.2d 840 (La.1989); Arceneaux v.

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Bluebook (online)
712 So. 2d 1066, 1998 WL 265011, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-succession-of-steckler-lactapp-1998.