Slater v. Culpepper

129 So. 2d 499, 1961 La. App. LEXIS 2102
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMarch 10, 1961
DocketNo. 9441
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 129 So. 2d 499 (Slater v. Culpepper) 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
Slater v. Culpepper, 129 So. 2d 499, 1961 La. App. LEXIS 2102 (La. Ct. App. 1961).

Opinion

GLADNEY, Judge.

This suit has for its object the adjudication and proper offsetting of certain claims and counterclaims which have arisen between the community estate of Charles E. Bynum and Mary Isabella Conner Bynum and the separate estate of Mrs. Isabella Conner Bynum. Plaintiffs are Lewis C. Slater, the administrator of the Succession of Charles E. Bynum, and the heirs of Mr. Bynum; defendants are Mrs. Elizabeth Schulze Culpepper, the executrix of the Succession of Mrs. Mary Isabella Conner Bynum, and the universal legatees named in the will of Mrs. Bynum. Generally speaking, the action is one of accounting. Many of the legal issues which arose herein have been resolved in three trials by the district court and on two appeals taken to the Supreme Court of this state (222 La. 962, 64 So.2d 234, 37 A.L.R.2d 1216 and 233 La. 1071, 99 So.2d 348). Upon consideration of the second appeal the Supreme Court annulled the prior judgment of the district court and remanded the case for further proceedings consistent with the views set forth in the opinion of the court. On remand the cause was tried upon the issues presented and judgment rendered. The defendants were granted orders of appeal returnable in the Supreme Court on or before July 29, 1959. The appeal was perfected and the record lodged in that appellate court on June 18, 1959. It was transferred to this court where it was filed on December 13, 1960. On January 26, 1961 appellees filed an answer to the appeal, asking that the judgment of the lower court be amended by increasing the amount of the offset in favor of the community estate against the separate estate from $13,987.33 to $21,097.45.

The decree of the Supreme Court ordering the remand left the case open for hearing by the trial court of additional evidence and the rendition of a final judgment with the following ruling:

“Respecting a remand of the case, it is appropriate to mention at this juncture that we believe the nature of the case is such as to require the setting aside of the entire judgment below and the remanding of the matter to the trial court for the hearing of any additional evidence, which may have pertinence to the legal conclusions herein announced, and a balancing of accounts between the litigants, with respect to the various disputed claims and counter claims, so that whatever final judgment is rendered in favor of one side may be offset by whatever judgment is due the other.” 99 So.2d 348, 359.

The Court further, by way of per curiam made the following explanation:

“Accordingly, in the case at bar, defendants are entitled under their re-conventional demand to offset against any monies finally held to be due by them to plaintiffs the total of all para-phernal funds of Mrs. Bynum deposited in her bank account between the periods December 24, 1940 until August 1, 1944, when all income thereafter derived from her paraphernal property fell into the community. In addition, they are entitled to recover the inheritances received by Mrs. Bynum which were deposited in her account after December 24, 1940.
“Although we did not explicitly say so in our opinion on rehearing, we, of course, intended to reserve to plaintiff the right to offset, as against the amount due Mrs. Bynum in restitution of her paraphernal funds, any amount or amounts withdrawn by her from her bank account which she used for her separate estate.” Id., at page 360.

The following relevant facts are extracted from the Supreme Court decision (99 So.2d 348, 355):

[501]*501“Charles E. Bynum, Sr., was married twice; the first time in 1882 and, of this union, one child was born, Miss Pearl Bynum. His wife died in 1885 and, in 1888, Mr. Bynum married Miss Mary Isabella Conner. A son, Charles Bynum, Jr., was born of this marriage in 1890. At various dates between 1899 and 1925 Mrs. Bynum acquired, through inheritance from her parents and her brother, an undivided 14 interest in the estate of her parents consisting, in the main, of valuable revenue producing real property. * * * ■Charles Bynum, Jr., died in 1940 and ■each parent inherited from him about $21,000. * * * On December 2, 1939, Mr. Bynum, then an elderly man, was struck by an automobile and injured. Infection set in resulting in the amputation of his leg. He also underwent operations for other ailments on July 7, 1940 and September 25, 1942 and the testimony indicates that, after the second operation, Mr. Bynum was mentally, as well as physically, incapable of managing his affairs. Pearl Bynum died on June 25, 1945. * * * Her entire estate, which was in excess of $50,000, was bequeathed to Mrs. Bynum, her stepmother, who had cared for her during the last years of her life. Mr. Bynum appeared in the succession proceedings and waived his leg-itime but, in another suit before the district court, he was found to have been mentally incapable at the time he executed the waiver. After Mr. By-num became incapacitated, the community affairs were handled by Mrs. Bynum and various deposits were made of community funds in the separate account standing in her name, as well as in the community account. Withdrawals were also • made in payment of household expenses and for other items which are not identified herein.”

Additional relevant facts reveal that Mrs. Bynum died testate July 24, 1948, naming the defendants herein as her universal legatees. Mr. Bynum died intestate on March 7, 1950. The administrator of his estate instituted this suit on November 15, 1950. The last decree of the Supreme Court held that by reason of commingling of community with separate funds in Mrs. By-num’s bank account in the Central Savings Bank & Trust Company, such account became a community account as of December 24, 1940. The account as it stood at the death of Mrs. Bynum on July 24, 1948, was reduced by debts of the last illness of Mrs. Bynum to the sum of $20,170.16. Most of the issues to be disposed of by the lower court related to withdrawals from Mrs. Bynum’s account, and in order to determine which disbursements were for the community and which were for the separate estate, that court appointed prior to trial J. S. Garelick and Robert Turner, public accountants, to prepare and analyze a list of the withdrawals from Mrs. By-num’s account between the dates of December 24, 1940, and July 24, 1948. After the accountants’ report was filed, counsel for all parties stipulated its correctness as to dates, amounts and payees, but neither side admitted the report was correct as to the method of allocation or the manner in which the items should be debited or credited.

The judgment of which appellants are aggrieved tersely summarized, held: (1) certain described stocks, bonds and cash ($133,892.91) were assets of the community of acquets and gains existing between Charles E. Bynum and Mrs. Isabella Conner; (2) certain identified bonds ($56,000) were assets of the separate estate of Mrs. Bynum; (3) certain sums of money ($44,-602.37) received by the community estate during its existence were assets of the separate estate of Mrs. Bynum; (4) certain withdrawals ($13,897.33) by Mrs. By-num from her bank account were used for the benefit of her separate and paraphernal estate and should be offset against item (3); and (5) that the difference between (3) and (4) should in turn, be offset against [502]*502(1). The result ($103,277.87) was held to be due the community estate by the separate estate of Mrs. Bynum and one-half of this ($51,638.93) was due the estate of Mr. Bynum after division of the community.

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Related

Culpepper v. Slater
131 So. 2d 76 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1961)
Gardiner v. Goertner
149 So. 186 (Supreme Court of Florida, 1932)
Fisher v. Guidy
142 So. 818 (Supreme Court of Florida, 1932)
Thursby v. Stewart
137 So. 7 (Supreme Court of Florida, 1931)

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Bluebook (online)
129 So. 2d 499, 1961 La. App. LEXIS 2102, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/slater-v-culpepper-lactapp-1961.