Jones v. Jones

611 So. 2d 193, 1992 WL 385063
Louisiana Court of Appeal·Decided December 29, 1992·No. 91-CA-2611·Published·Cited by 2 cases

Opinion

611 So.2d 193 (1992)

In the Matter of Harriet Seidler, Wife of/and Lawrence Blake JONES
v.
Lawrence Blake JONES.

No. 91-CA-2611.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Fourth Circuit.

December 29, 1992.
Rehearing Denied January 13, 1993.
Writ Denied March 26, 1993.

*194 James G. Derbes, Derbes & Waldrup, New Orleans, for appellant.

Robert C. Lowe, Terence L. Hauver, Suzettee Marie Smith, Jeanne M. Gravois, Lowe, Stein, Hoffman, Allweiss & Hauver, New Orleans, for appellee.

Before BARRY, WARD and JONES, JJ.

JONES, Judge.

Appellant, Lawrence Blake Jones, appeals the trial court's judgment partitioning the community of acquets and gains which formerly existed between the parties. Appellee, Harriet Seidler, joins in the appeal.

This appeal is from a judgment rendered by the trial court pursuant to a hearing in which both parties raised exceptions to the Commissioner's findings of fact and recommended judgment. We adopt the Commissioner's statement of the case, reproduced herein:

The parties in the instant case are seeking a partition of their community property.
*195 In October, 1984, Harriet Seidler filed a petition for partition of Community Property and for an accounting. According to her, the parties were judicially separated on October 28, 1981; divorced on August 23, 1982; and the community terminated at the filing of the separation petition, which was October 20, 1981.
Harriet Seidler also seeks "a settlement of the accounts between the parties' separate estates."
The parties initially filed separate Descriptive Lists and subsequently filed a Joint Amended Descriptive List.
The central issues in this case are related to the property located at 1116-1118 Valmont Street in New Orleans. According to Mr. Jones, he purchased the property prior to marriage, and it thus constitutes separate property.
Ms. Seidler, on the other hand contends she and Mr. Jones entered into a contract prior to the marriage whereby she would provide design services in connection with the renovation work to be done on the house and be compensated at the rate of $50 hourly. (Ms. Seidler is a graduate Architect, but she has never been licensed to practice.)
Ms. Seidler also makes claims for supervisory services performed by her after the marriage. Additionally she contends the property in question became "community" (joint) by virtue of a donation from Mr. Jones.

The Commissioner issued findings and a recommended judgment, to-wit: that the parties did not have a contract for services, that Mr. Jones intended to transfer a half-interest in the 1116-1118 Valmont Street property to Ms. Seidler, and that the Amended Title was not defective to effect such a transfer, that Ms. Seidler was entitled to one-half of the rent actually collected on the Valmont Street property, and that in settlement of the community of acquets and gains Mr. Jones owed Ms. Seidler the sum of $67,544.31.

The trial court issued a judgment inconsistent with the Commissioner's recommendation only in so far as it adopted the appraised value on the Valmont Street property, higher values on an FNBC account and Mr. Jones' law practice, and classified E.F. Hutton account # N463344618 as Mr. Jones' separate property.

From this judgment both parties appeal.

By his first assignment of error, Mr. Jones argues that the trial court erred in failing to grant his Exception of No Cause of Action. Mr. Jones relies on La. C.C. article 2338 in arguing that a partition action is limited to property acquired "during the existence of the legal regime." Mr. Jones also cites La.C.C. article 2325 which defines "matrimonial regime" as "a system of principles ... governing ownership and management of the property of married persons as between themselves and third parties." Termination of the legal regime under La.C.C. article 2356 occurs at the time of death of a spouse or by judgment of divorce, separation from bed and board, or separation of property. (prior to 1990 amendment.) Mr. Jones further cites La. R.S. 9:2801 which governs actions for partition of community property `when the spouses are unable to agree on a partition of community property or on the settlement of the claims between the spouses arising from the matrimonial regime.' Emphasis added.

We disagree with Mr. Jones that the question of whether Ms. Seidler was a co-owner arose after the community ceased to exist. Although not specifically pled, the substance of Ms. Seidler's arguments is that she invested her community labor, in addition to community funds, into the Valmont Street property. Ms. Seidler testified that she was concerned about being made a co-owner on the Valmont Street property because of the investment of her time and money in something that was not hers. We find that the record supports a finding that the Valmont Street property changed classification from separate property to community property as a result of a pattern of commingling and treating the property as a community asset throughout the marriage.

It is undisputed that Ms. Seidler rendered architectural services and other labor associated with the renovation of and addition *196 to the Valmont Street property. She claims to have devoted 6400 hours of service to the project. Mr. Jones testified that Ms. Seidler was a principal on the project but he maintains that her input was as his wife.

Ms. Seidler testified that prior to their marriage Mr. Jones asked her to prepare a design concept and presentation plans. She discussed a fee with him of $50.00 an hour. She claims that over a six month period she did four programs before Mr. Jones accepted the fifth and final program. She estimates to have spent a total of 400-500 hours on this aspect of the project and values her service at $20,000.00. She also testified that Mr. Jones promised to pay her for the work done prior to their marriage when he settled one of his personal injury cases. At no time did Mr. Jones request Ms. Seidler to do a billing or accounting on the house. Mr. Jones concedes that he treated the Valmont Street property as partially Ms. Seidler's because she planned to marry him and live in the house.

Ms. Seidler testified that at the time they were scheduled to be married in June of 1979 Mr. Jones had not made her a co-owner and she threatened not to marry him. She married him based on his assurance that he would make her a co-owner.

Subsequent to the marriage, Ms. Seidler testified that she spent 6,000 hours supervising construction on the house. Ms. Seidler testified that throughout their marriage they discussed her status as a co-owner on the Valmont Street property almost daily. Ms. Seidler continued to direct activity while the house was being worked on even after the marriage terminated. Clearly, the expectation of the parties was that the property would be jointly owned.

Mr. Jones admitted that he borrowed substantial amounts of cash in connection with the Valmont Street renovation, totalling some $130,000.00 by February 1982. Whitney Bank Account # XXXXXXXX, interchangeably referred to as LBJ Special Account and the 1116-18 Valmont Street Account, was a joint checking account established after the parties were married. The trial exhibits reveal that money flowed in and out of this account over the course of the marriage for the sole purpose of renovating and adding to the Valmont Street property.

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