Lawson v. Lawson

535 So. 2d 851, 1988 WL 85629
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedAugust 17, 1988
Docket19840-CA
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 535 So. 2d 851 (Lawson v. Lawson) 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
Lawson v. Lawson, 535 So. 2d 851, 1988 WL 85629 (La. Ct. App. 1988).

Opinion

535 So.2d 851 (1988)

Wynell S. LAWSON, Plaintiff-Appellant,
v.
Rodney B. LAWSON, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 19840-CA.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Second Circuit.

August 17, 1988.

Hargrove, Guyton, Ramey and Barlow by Joseph L. Shea, Jr. and Philip E. Downer, III, Shreveport, for plaintiff-appellant.

Love, Rigby, Dehan, Love & McDaniel by Kenneth Rigby, Shreveport, for defendant-appellee.

Before MARVIN, JASPER E. JONES and LINDSAY, JJ.

MARVIN, Judge.

In this action on two promissory notes executed by her son while he was married, plaintiff appeals a judgment that rejected her demands against her ex-daughter-in-law. Plaintiff contends her son's ex-wife is personally liable for the debt up to the value of the ex-wife's interest in the property formerly comprising the community estate which terminated when the son and *852 daughter-in-law were separated before plaintiff brought her action. Only plaintiff's son signed the notes. The trial court found the obligation on the notes was not a community obligation but a separate obligation of plaintiff's son. Plaintiff does not contest this finding.

The ex-wife concedes that the property of the former community may be seized and sold to satisfy the debt, but contends she is not personally liable for the debt. At this juncture under this record, the ex-wife has not moved to partition the former community estate or to assert claims for reimbursement against her ex-husband.

We affirm the judgment which cast only the son for the $50,000 due on the notes, with interest, and attorney fees. CC Arts. 2345, 2357.

NON-DEBTOR SPOUSE'S LIABILITY

CC Arts. 2345 and 2357 identify the property available to a creditor for satisfaction of obligations incurred before or during the debtor's marriage, if the spouses live under a community property regime:

Art. 2345. Satisfaction of obligation during community.
A separate or community obligation may be satisfied during the community property regime from community property and from the separate property of the spouse who incurred the obligation.
Art. 2357. Satisfaction of obligation after termination of regime.
An obligation incurred by a spouse before or during the community property regime, may be satisfied after termination of the regime from the property of the former community and from the separate property of the spouse who incurred the obligation.
If a spouse disposes of property of the former community for a purpose other than the satisfaction of community obligations, he is liable for all obligations incurred by the other spouse up to the value of that community property.
A spouse may by written act assume responsibility for one-half of each community obligation incurred by the other spouse. In such case, the assuming spouse may dispose of community property without incurring further responsibility for the obligations incurred by the other spouse.

These articles were part of the extensive community property law revisions enacted in Act 709 of 1979, effective January 1, 1980. Recent cases and law review commentaries discuss and explain the import and meaning of these articles. We have omitted footnotes from all law review excerpts quoted in this opinion.

Under Art. 2345 and the first paragraph of Art. 2357, the creditor of a spouse has the same property available to satisfy the debt after the community regime has ended as he had during its existence: all assets of the community, including the interest of the non-debtor spouse, as well as the separate property of the spouse who incurred the debt. Note, Termination of the Community, 42 La.L.Rev. 789 (1982), at 789-791, 793. The creditor cannot seize the non-debtor spouse's separate property to satisfy the other spouse's obligation unless the non-debtor spouse disposes of property of the former community for a purpose other than the satisfaction of community obligations, or assumes in writing responsibility for half of each community obligation incurred by the other spouse. Riley, Analysis of the 1980 Revision of the Matrimonial Regimes Law of Louisiana, 26 Loy.L.Rev. 453 (1980), at 509-510.

The above analysis criticizes the legislature's decision to make one spouse's interest in community property available to satisfy the other spouse's separate debt:

Article 2357 ... permits the separate creditor of one spouse to seize all the assets of the former community whether or not they are still in the possession of his debtor. The creditor can thus demand payment of one spouse's separate debt out of property that belongs to the other spouse —the half-interest in the former community property now owned exclusively by the non-debtor spouse. Nothing in the article limits such a creditor's right to the not-yet-partitioned property; therefore, he can apparently *853 follow it even after partition. This gives separate debtor spouses and their creditors far greater rights than those enjoyed by husbands and their separate creditors prior to the 1980 revision; the result is at once bad law and bad economics....
Before 1980, a husband who ceased to be head and master of the former community property upon dissolution of the regime had no right to use more than his own one-half interest in the former community property to pay his separate obligations; nor had his creditor any right against his wife's interest. 26 Loy.L. Rev. at 507-508. Our emphasis.

The legislature's intent to protect creditors in the second paragraph of Art. 2357 is suggested in 42 La.L.Rev., Termination of the Community, supra, at 793-794:

Article 2357 reflects a creditor-oriented scheme, an orientation which pervades the entire scope of the revisions. Evidence of the concern for creditors' rights is found in the second paragraph of article 2357, under which a spouse who disposes of property of the former community for a purpose other than the satisfaction of a community obligation becomes liable for all obligations incurred by the other spouse up to the value of the disposed property. Our emphasis.

Professor Riley's Analysis, supra, describes the second paragraph of Art. 2357 as "a valiant attempt to preserve for all creditors the entire assets of the former community, by imposing upon the spouse who disposes of them for other purposes a penalty in the form of personal liability for all obligations, separate and community, incurred by the other spouse, up to the value of the property thus disposed." 26 Loy.L.Rev. at 512, with our emphasis.

When the first two paragraphs of Art. 2357 are read together, it is apparent that the non-debtor spouse is not personally liable for separate or community debts incurred by the other spouse unless the non-debtor spouse has disposed of former community property, which would have been available to satisfy all pre-termination obligations incurred by either spouse, and has done so for a purpose other than the satisfaction of community obligations. If personal liability attaches, it extends to the value of the former community property which is no longer available to the creditor, and not to the value of the non-debtor spouse's interest in the entire community estate, as plaintiff argues.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
535 So. 2d 851, 1988 WL 85629, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lawson-v-lawson-lactapp-1988.