Marcello v. Marcello

178 So. 2d 416, 1965 La. App. LEXIS 3975
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJuly 1, 1965
DocketNo. 6427
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 178 So. 2d 416 (Marcello v. Marcello) 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
Marcello v. Marcello, 178 So. 2d 416, 1965 La. App. LEXIS 3975 (La. Ct. App. 1965).

Opinion

BAILES, Judge.

Plaintiffs, Virginia Marcello, divorced wife of Nick Benedetto, and Mary Mar-cello, widow of Marianno Rand,azzo, bring this suit against their two brothers, Charles Marcello and Phillip Marcello, and against the sole and only children of their deceased brother, Anthony Marcello, viz: Michael Marcello, Victor Marcello, Frank Marcello and Lena Marcello, wife of Isaac Sha-heen, as well as against Michel Marcello, the sole and only child of Frank Marcello, a deceased brother of the plaintiffs. In this suit the plaintiffs seek to set aside, as a disguised donation, a certain authentic act of conveyance of certain property located in Ascension Parish wherein plaintiffs transferred their interest therein to their then living four brothers, which brothers or their legal heirs and representatives are made defendants.

Defendants filed an exception of prescription of one year, four years, five years and ten years to the demands of the plaintiffs. The trial court sustained the exception of five years prescription and dismissed plaintiffs’ suit at their costs. From this judgment of dismissal, plaintiffs prosecute this appeal.

Plaintiffs, for a cause of action, allege that their father and mother were married but once and then to each other; that they were-domiciled in Ascension Parish; that their father died in January, 1945, and their mother died in June, 1949, both having died testate; and that at the time of their death they were the joint owners of certain immovable property, all of which property was described in the authentic act of conveyance made the subject of this litigation. Further, the plaintiffs allege the last wills and testaments of their parents were nuncupative wills by public acts and are on file in the notarial records of Ascension Parish; that by the terms of the said last wills and testaments, plaintiffs were bequeathed each a lot of ground 30' x lSCT, and two small lots were bequeathed to their sister (not a party to this litigation) Cecile Marcello, and the balance of the immovable property, described in the above referred to act of conveyance was bequeathed to plaintiffs’ four brothers; [418]*418that the said wills were never admitted to probate nor ordered executed, and therefore are of no effect whatsoever at this time; that under the laws of descent and distribution of this State each of them was, upon the death of their parents, seized of an undivided one-seventh (%th) interest in the said immovable property. Plaintiffs further allege that on the recommendation of the family’s legal adviser, they executed the act of conveyance herein sought to be set aside; that the document was never explained to them other than as a paper necessary to settle their deceased parents’ estate; that the recited consideration for this purported sale is not serious, is out of all proportion to the value of the thing transferred, and is in truth and in fact a donation in disguise. Additionally there are allegations setting forth the value of the property that each of the plaintiffs owned at the time of the execution of the said act of conveyance.

Plaintiffs seek the following recited relief in the prayer of their petition: “* * that the transfer of all of their interest in their deceased parents’ succession to their brothers be found to be a donation in disguise; * * * that said donation be adjudged and decreed a donation omnium bonorum, * * * that . . . there be judgment herein in favor of petitioners and against defendants for the revocation of said donation recognizing petitioners each to be the owner of an undivided one-seventh (%th) interest in and to all of the above described property, or in the alternative for the return of a sufficient amount of said property to satisfy petitioners’ interest in the estate of their deceased mother and father. * * * ”

It is alleged in petition, and it is supported by the copy of the act of conveyance attached to their petition, that the said act of conveyance was by authentic act dated February 23, 1950, and the petition commencing this action was filed on December 21, 1963, or more than 13 years after the execution of the said act of conveyance.

In ruling on 'the exception of five years prescription, the trial judge assigned the following reasons:

“We do not find that the questioned transaction is a donation omnium bonorum for the reason that the donors did not divest themselves of all their property although it may be true that the value of the property retained or received by them was not of equal value with the shares received by the defendants. We are not concerned with values under the pleas of prescription.
“We find further that the suit is not one for an entire succession or for the partition of an undivided succession. The prescription of thirty years provided by C.C. 3548 is not applicable. The authentic act of sale partitioned all of the property belonging to the successions. Accordingly, we hold that the prescription provided by C.C. 3542 is applicable.
“For these reasons the plea of five years prescription is maintained and the suit of the plaintiff be and the same is hereby dismissed at their cost.”

The trial court found that the act of conveyance was not a donation omnium bonorum for the reason that the donors did not divest themselves of all their property, and in this finding we concur.

While we concur in the result of the finding of the trial court that the act of conveyance was not a donation, we concur in this finding not for the reason stated by the trial court, but rather for the reason that we find the act of conveyance to be an act of partition. We do, as did the trial court, find that plaintiffs did not divest themselves of all their property, because in the act of conveyance, which, as aforesaid, we find to be an act of partition, plaintiffs received certain property in addition to the transfer to the plaintiffs of the undivided interest of their brothers in the portion coming to said plaintiffs.

[419]*419The authentic act executed by the plaintiffs (together with their sister who is not a party to this action) on February 23, 1950, contains the following language, to wit: (plaintiffs together with their sister did) “grant, bargain, sell, convey, assign, set over and deliver all their right, title and interest in and to * * * ” the land described therein to their four brothers, and the act of conveyance further provided:

“This sale is made and accepted for good and valuable consideration which the vendors have acknowledged to have received; that is the carrying into effect of the terms of the last wills and testaments of their father and mother, Michele Marcello and Antonia Mar-cello, which said wills are recorded in Book of Wills ‘C’, pages 97 and 99, by which vendor, Virginia Marcello, divorced wife of Nick Benedetto, receives the proceeds of the sale of that certain lot set out in said wills, and vendor, Cecile Marcello Sotile, wife of Anthony Sotile, receives Lots Nos. Twenty-nine (29) and Thirty-six (36) in Square Seven (7), in Suburb Mc-Galliard, together with all improvements tliereon or the property set out in the aforesaid wills, and Mary Marcello Randazzo, vendor, receives the property set out in said will, by act of sale this day executed before George R.

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Related

Cheramie v. Cheramie
380 So. 2d 166 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1979)
Cortez v. Cortez
376 So. 2d 517 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1979)
Marcello v. Marcello
179 So. 2d 275 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1965)

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Bluebook (online)
178 So. 2d 416, 1965 La. App. LEXIS 3975, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/marcello-v-marcello-lactapp-1965.