Ohanna v. Ohanna

129 So. 2d 249
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedApril 24, 1961
Docket19
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 129 So. 2d 249 (Ohanna v. Ohanna) 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
Ohanna v. Ohanna, 129 So. 2d 249 (La. Ct. App. 1961).

Opinion

129 So.2d 249 (1961)

Mrs. Marguerite Sassoon OHANNA
v.
Aholiab OHANNA, also known as Al Ohanna.

No. 19.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Fourth Circuit.

April 24, 1961.
Rehearing Denied May 15, 1961.
Certiorari Denied June 22, 1961.

*251 Weinstein & Bronfin and Martin L. C. Feldman, New Orleans, for plaintiff and appellee.

Maurice R. Woulfe, New Orleans, for defendant and appellant.

McBRIDE, Judge.

After finality of the judgment of divorce in her favor the plaintiff petitioned for and obtained a judgment ordering a partition of the community, the court referring the parties to a designated notary public, he being authorized and directed to effect a partition in kind. Said official, after preparing and presenting his proposed act of partition to the court, which the parties had refused to sign, cited them to show cause why it should not be homologated and the partition consummated in accordance therewith. Both parties filed opposition and after a hearing, several judgments were rendered amending the proposed partition, the act ultimately being approved and homologated as amended and so far as not opposed. The husband appealed from the judgment of approval and homologation. The wife has answered the appeal.

(1) Bills of Dr. W. Randolph Unsworth aggregating $335. Defendant unsuccessfully sought an amendment to the proposed partition allowing him a credit for having paid these bills. However, at the hearing on the opposition no attempt was made either to prove the verity of the bills or their payment.

(2) The defendant is claiming he paid a total of $368 for Blue Cross hospitalization for his family over a four-year period and is a creditor of the community therefor. He could not testify what, if any, payments he made nor could he produce receipts. Moreover, he abandoned the claim in the court below.

(3) Defendant seeks credit for $335.44 paid Touro Infirmary for hospitalization for himself. No evidence at all was introduced respecting this item and we know nothing of it.

(4) In 1942 defendant owned and operated a mercantile establishment. On August 8 of that year the parties were married. The husband now claims he brought $9,713.86 into the marriage for which he seeks recognition as a creditor of the community. The only evidence regarding this claim emanates from a certified public accountant who testified that as of June 30, 1942, his firm made a statement of defendant's net worth which "was reasonably stated or fairly stated as being $9,700." The statement of net forth referred to although offered in evidence is not a part of the record. According to the accountant's testimony the property consisted of $700 cash and the stock in trade in defendant's business. It was not shown what happened to the husband's alleged assets during the forty-day interim between the accountant's statement and the date of the marriage, and nothing goes to show defendant still possessed the property or any portion of it at the commencement of the community, and there is no illustration as to how the community may have been benefited, if at all, from whatever so-called separate property appellant may have had. But assuming that it is true he had some property when he married, we know of no law to the effect that at the dissolution of the community each separate estate is owed the value of whatever property the spouse had at the time of the marriage. Succession of Geagan, 212 La. 574, 33 So.2d 118. There is no fixed rule or standard of proof required to establish that the contribution of the separate property of the husband had been used to benefit the community, but to establish *252 such a claim it must appear with reasonable certainty that the community still had the benefit of the contribution at the time of its dissolution, and that the separate funds were not wasted by the husband or disposed of for his separate benefit. Succession of Bell, 194 La. 274, 193 So. 645, and cases therein cited.

(5) Berger Bros. holds four notes aggregating $10,000, dated respectively September 8, 1953, August 5 and November 4, 1954, and April 30, 1955, and the defendant is contending that the community is obligated for the payment thereof and maintains that Berger Bros. should be recognized as a community creditor. A representative of Berger Bros. testified the notes represented loans made defendant, and he produced the four cancelled checks said to have been given defendant in consideration for the notes. Three of the checks are payable to A. Ohanna and the payee in the fourth is A. Ohanna, Inc. The endorsements on the checks show that each and every one of them was deposited in the banking account of A. Ohanna, Inc., a corporation.

There can be no question the loans were negotiated by the husband for the account of his corporation, A. Ohanna, Inc., and that the notes representing the loans were issued as obligations of the corporation. The signature "A. Ohanna" appears under the corporate name on each note, but there is no necessity for deciding the question of defendant's personal liability vel non on the notes.

On March 10, 1952, the wife brought a suit for separation from bed and board against defendant on the ground of cruel treatment. On March 29, 1954, she sued him for the divorce on the ground of two years separation. The judgment of divorce, rendered on November 30, 1954, was affirmed by the Supreme Court, March 26, 1956 (229 La. 942, 87 So.2d 299). It will be noted that the first of the four notes held by Berger Bros. was executed during the pendency of the suit for separation from bed and board and the other three were executed after the action for divorce had been instituted.

It is now settled in Louisiana that the community of acquets and gains is dissolved as of the date of the judgment of separation or divorce. Ruffino v. Hunt, 234 La. 91, 99 So.2d 34; Abraham v. Abraham, 233 La. 808, 98 So.2d 197; Messersmith v. Messersmith, 229 La. 495, 86 So.2d 169; Tanner v. Tanner, 229 La. 399, 86 So.2d 80. LSA-C.C. art. 2432 which provides that the judgment which pronounces the separation of property is retroactive as far back as the day on which the petition for the same was filed is not applicable to a suit for separation from bed and board or divorce brought by either the husband or wife, the article applying only in actions for separation of property instituted by the wife.

However, LSA-C.C. art. 150 provides:

"From the day on which the action of separation shall be brought, it shall not be lawful for the husband to contract any debt on account of the community, nor to dispose of the immovables belonging to the same, and any alienation by him made after that time, shall be null, if it be proved that such alienation was made with the fraudulent view of injuring the rights of the wife."

Defendant argues that the provisions of the above-quoted article have no application to any debts he might have incurred on account of the community because such debts were created in good faith and not with the fraudulent view of injuring his wife's rights. A reading of the article compels a conclusion that it does not establish as a standard that the debts must be fraudulent. LSA-C.C. art. 150 plainly distinguishes between contracting a debt on account of the community and the disposing of or alienating the community immovables and provides that a fraudulent alienation shall be null. No requirement is made that *253 a contract of indebtedness to be unlawful must be made with the view of defrauding the wife.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Stream Family Ltd. Partnership v. Marathon Oil Co.
27 So. 3d 354 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2009)
Flemmons v. Administrator, Office of Security, Dept. of Labor
401 So. 2d 561 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1981)
Primeaux v. Bennett Homes, Inc.
339 So. 2d 1251 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1976)
Hodson v. Hodson
292 So. 2d 831 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1974)
Robinson v. Allstate Insurance Company
267 So. 2d 257 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1972)
Wilson v. Polacek
486 P.2d 819 (Court of Appeals of Arizona, 1971)
Devillier v. City of Opelousas
247 So. 2d 412 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1971)
Malone v. Malone
243 So. 2d 100 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1970)
Succession of Videau
197 So. 2d 655 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1967)
Pennison v. Pennison
187 So. 2d 747 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1966)
Landreneau v. Ceasar
153 So. 2d 145 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1963)
Sciambra v. Sciambra
153 So. 2d 441 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1963)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
129 So. 2d 249, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ohanna-v-ohanna-lactapp-1961.