Pryor v. Desha

15 So. 2d 891, 204 La. 575
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedNovember 8, 1943
DocketNo. 36964
StatusPublished

This text of 15 So. 2d 891 (Pryor v. Desha) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Pryor v. Desha, 15 So. 2d 891, 204 La. 575 (La. 1943).

Opinion

ODOM, Justice.

This is a suit to partition 580 acres of land, all in one tract or body. The land was acquired by Jesse S. Pryor, who died intestate on January 5, 1913. He was survived by his wife, Mrs. Carrie Wade Pryor, and five children, issue of the marriage, all now living. The land was acquired during the marriage and therefore fell into the community. It is now owned in indivisión, and in the proportions named, by the following persons: % by Mrs. Carrie Wade Pryor, the widow, and 1/10 by each of the following named children: Blanche, now Mrs. Desha; Debet, now Mrs. Hempel, and Georgia, Wade K., and James T. Pryor.

The suit for partition was brought by the widow and Wade K. Pryor, one of the children. They alleged that they were not willing to remain any longer co-owners in indivisión of the land, that it could not be conveniently divided in kind, and prayed for judgment ordering it sold for cash in order to effect a partition.

The other four children, all made parties, filed several exceptions, some of which were overruled and some seem to have been abandoned. The ruling of the trial judge on the exceptions is not now contested.

The defendants, Mrs. Blanche Pryor Desha and Miss Georgia Pryor, who were majors at the time their father died, filed answer, in which they admitted the ownership of the property as alleged by plaintiffs, and denied plaintiffs’ allegations that the property could not be conveniently divided in kind. They specifically alleged that it could be conveniently divided in kind and prayed for judgment ordering it so partitioned.

The other two defendants, James T. Pryor and Mrs. Debet Pryor Hempel, who were minors on the date of their father’s death and were later represented by their mother, who qualified as their tutrix, filed a separate answer and alleged, as did the defendants Georgia Pryor and Blanche Pryor Desha, that the property could be conveniently divided in kind, and prayed for judgment ordering it so divided.

These two defendants, James T. Pryor and Mrs. Hempel, by way of answer, and therefore collaterally, attacked certain sales of their interest in portions of the real estate which their father owned at the time of his death, which sales were made during their minority by their mother, acting as their natural • tutrix. They alleged that at the time of his death on January 5, 1913, their father owned 1,120 acres of land, all of which belonged to the community which existed between their father and their mother; that in the month of June, 1913, their mother, acting as their tutrix, attempted to partition a portion of the real estate by selling their interests in 160 acres [579]*579of land to Wade K. Pryor, in 200 acres of land to Blanche Pryor, now Mrs. Desha, and in 140 acres of land to Miss Georgia Pryor.

They alleged that, although these sales were made 'upon the advice and recommendation of a family meeting approved by the court, the sales were nevertheless null and void, and-that the entire interest in the lands thus attempted to be sold is now a part of the succession of their deceased father and should be partitioned along with the remaining 580 acres. In other words, the contention of these two defendants, as set up in their answer, is that these sales should be ignored and that all of -the land owned by their father at the time of his death should be partitioned in this proceeding.

There was judgment ordering a partition by licitation of the 580 acres of land, as prayed for by plaintiffs. From this judgment defendants appealed.

Before discussing the question as to whether the partition of this land should be made by licitation or in kind, we dispose first of the contention made by James T. Pryor and Mrs. Debet Pryor Hempel that the entire 1,120 acres of land owned by J. S. Pryor at the time of his death should not be considered as belonging to his succession and partitioned in this proceeding.

The record discloses that, at the time J. S. Pryor died on January 5, 1913, he owned 1,120 acres of land, 40 acres of which were purchased by him before his marriage. The remaining land, 1,080 acres, was acquired by him after his marriage and therefore belonged to the community. On February 13, 1913, the widow, Mrs. Carrie Wade Pryor, petitioned the court to be appointed administratrix of the succession .of her deceased husband, alleging that the succession owed debts amounting to “some two thousand dollars”. An inventory of the succession property was made, and an abstract thereof was filed according to law. For some reason not explained, she did not qualify as administratrix.

Thereafter, on March 25, 1913, Mrs. Pryor petitioned the court to be appointed and confirmed as natural tutrix of her two minor children, James T., aged 15, and Debet,, aged 13, and alleged that one of her other children, Wade K. Pryor, was then 20 years of age but had been emancipated. An inventory and appraisement were made, and an abstract thereof filed according to law, and on June 27, 1913, the clerk of the district court signed an order confirming Mrs. Pryor as natural tutrix and appointing J. M. Wade" under-tutor. The tutrix and the under-tutor qualified by' taking the oath required by law.

On June 27, 1913, the tutrix presented a petition to the district court, alleging that she had been appointed and confirmed as natural tutrix of her two minor children, James T. and Debet Pryor, and that she was then in possession of, and administering, all the property belonging to the community which had existed between her and her deceased husband, Jesse S. Pryor. She further averred that the community owed debts to the amount of more than $2,000, and that the five children, issue of her marriage to Jesse S. Pryor, owned together [581]*581an undivided % interest in all of the property, and that she as widow in community owned the other %. She alleged “that in order to pay the debts due by the community, as well as to effect a partition of some of the land it is necessary to sell same, and because of the delay and the greater cost for a judicial or public sale it is and will be more advantageous to petitioner and to the minors to sell the five lots of land herein below named at private sale”.

Lot No. 1, as set forth in her petition, contained 200 acres; Lot No. 2, 240 acres; Lot No. 3, 80 acres; Lot No. 4, 160 acres, and Lot No. 5, 140 acres.

She prayed that a family meeting be ordered and held before the clerk of court, to advise and recommend “whether it be to the best interest'of the said minors to sell the five lots of land respectively, herein above described”.. The clerk of court ordered that a family meeting be convened to advise and recommend as to the best interest of the minors. The family meeting was held as ordered. It fixed a value on each of the lots of land, and advised and recommended that it was to the best interest of the minors that the lots be sold at private sale and at not less than the appraisement. The recommendations of the family meeting were approved and homologated by the clerk of the district court on June 27, 1913. As to the powers and duties of clerks of the district courts in matters of this kind, see Section 3, Act 43 of 1882; Lemoine v. Ducote, 45 La.Ann. 857, 12 So. 939; Holliday v. Hammond State Bank, 118 La. 1000, 43 So. 656; Cole v. Richmond, 156 La. 262, 100 So. 419.

On the same day, June.27, 1913, Mrs. Carrie Wade Pryor, on her own behalf and as tutrix for the two minor children, joined by Misses Blanche and Georgia Pryor, two of the major heirs, sold to Wade K, Pryor, the other major heir, Lot No.

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Bluebook (online)
15 So. 2d 891, 204 La. 575, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pryor-v-desha-la-1943.