Succession of Barr

203 So. 2d 769, 1967 La. App. LEXIS 4725
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedOctober 30, 1967
DocketNo. 10872
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 203 So. 2d 769 (Succession of Barr) 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
Succession of Barr, 203 So. 2d 769, 1967 La. App. LEXIS 4725 (La. Ct. App. 1967).

Opinion

BARHAM, Judge.

Thomas Earl Barr died testate during his marriage to and while living with his second wife. Mrs. Hazel Brooks Barr, hereinafter referred to as Wife II. However, his will named his first wife, Mrs. Hazel Smythe Barr, hereinafter referred to as Wife I, as universal legatee and testamentary executrix. The will was admitted to probate and Wife I was confirmed as executrix. The Notary Public filed an inventory showing a community estate for the deceased valued at $5,899.08. On January 21, 1966, this inventory was approved and homologated.

Wife I filed a rule to traverse the inventory alleging that all of the property owned by and all of the assets held by Wife II were part of the community, and, therefore, the inventory should be amended to include these assets as part of the deceased’s estate. The rule requested a complete accounting, the delivery of all assets held by Wife II, the filing of her financial statement, and the reply to interrogatories which were attached thereto. Wife II and the Notary Public filed an exception of no cause or right of action to the rule urging that it did not support the community nature of the other assets.

As reflected by minute entry dated September 26, 1966, Wife II was relieved by court order from answering interrogatories and from producing a financial statement. Wife I applied for writs from that ruling to this Court and to the Supreme Court which were denied.

The rule to traverse the homologation of the inventory was set for trial. A stipulation of facts was filed in the record, and numerous exhibits were attached as part of this stipulation. When the rule was submitted to the lower court for trial on the stipulation of facts, the exception of no cause and no right of action was sustained. It is from this judgment dismissing her rule that Wife I appeals.

It is not disputed that the deceased and Wife II lived together from November 30, 1944, the date of marriage, until August 5, 1965, the date of his death. It is stipulated that Wife II had a net worth of approximately $10,000.00 at the time of the marriage in 1944. The nature of this separate estate is not clearly defined except as being partly comprised of a restaurant and boarding house business, but not including the ownership of any real property. The stipulation is that Wife II used the funds derived from the sale of these businesses in 1945 to begin developing and selling real estate. Pertinent to this decision is the following portion of the stipulation:

“She purchased some acreage on the Greenwood Road and first developed Guerry Park Subdivision, consisting of some 44 lots. She had the streets and utilities placed in the subdivision and completely developed it; selling some of the lots to other builders and building some homes herself for sale to others. Mrs. Hazel B. Barr estimates that she [771]*771made some 40 or SO thousand dollars out of this development. None of Mr. Barr’s earnings went into Mrs. Barr’s real estate transactions. All funds came from her account at the First National Bank, which Mr. Barr could not draw on, and all profits and proceeds went back into this account.”

The stipulation further lists other real estate development and operations which were conducted in a similar manner.

The exhibits attached to the stipulation show that most of the deeds of acquisition contain a claim by Wife II that the properties were acquired with her separate and paraphernal funds and were to be her separate and paraphernal estate. The deceased joined in most of these deeds with an affidavit of paraphernality in her behalf. However, some deeds of purchase do not contain such affidavits by the husband and many of the deeds of sale executed during this marriage are made as joint sales by Wife II and the deceased.

LSA-C.C. art. 2402 states:

“This partnership or community consists of the profits of all the effects of which the husband has the administration and enjoyment, either of right or in fact, of the produce of the reciprocal industry and labor of both husband and wife, and of the estate which they may acquire during the marriage, either by donations made jointly to them both, or by purchase, or in any other similar way, even although the purchase be only in the name of one of the two and not of both, because in that case the period of time when the purchase is made is alone attended to, and not the person who made the purchase. * * * ”

LSA-C.C. art. 2405:

“At the time of the dissolution of the marriage, all effects which both husband and wife reciprocally possess, are presumed common effects or gains, unless it be satisfactorily proved which of such effects they brought in marriage, or which have been given them separately or which they have respectively inherited.”

The presumption contained in LSA-C.C. arts. 2402 and 2405 is commented upon in Houghton v. Hall, 177 La. 237, 148 So. 37 (1933):

“This presumption is not overcome by the declaration of the spouses in a deed to the wife that the latter is purchasing with her own separate and paraphernal funds, under her separate administration, Shaw v. Hill, 20 La.Ann. 531, 96 Am. Dec. 420; Gogreve v. Dehon, 41 La.Ann. 244, 6 So. 31. The wife, and those claiming through or from her, to overcome the presumption in favor of the community, must establish three crucial facts, namely: (1) the paraphernality of the funds; (2) the administration thereof separately and apart from her husband; and (3) investment by her. Stauffer, Macready & Co. v. Morgan, 39 La.Ann. 632, 2 So. 98.”

See also Succession of Joseph, 180 So.2d 862 (La.App. 3d Cir. 1965):

“Under our Louisiana community property law, all property acquired during a marriage is presumed to be community, with certain limited exceptions such as property inherited by or donated to the wife or acquired by her with her separate funds. LSA-C.C. Arts. 2334, 2402, 2405. The burden of overcoming the presumption of the community nature of property acquired during the marriage rests upon the party asserting its separate and paraphernal nature; to satisfy this heavy burden, the proof must be strict, clear, positive, and legally certain that the property was acquired with separate and paraphernal funds. Monk v. Monk, 243 La. 429, 144 So.2d 384; Prince v. Hopson, 230 La. 575, 89 So.2d 128, and jurisprudence there referred to.”

LSA-C.C. art. 2386:

“The fruits of the paraphernal prop-perty of the wife, wherever the property be located and hotivever administered, whether natural, civil, including interest, [772]*772dividends and rents, or from the result of labor, fall into the conjugal partnership, if there exists a community of ac-quets and gains; unless the wife, by written instrument, shall declare that she reserves all of such fruits for her own separate use and benefit and her intention to administer such property separately and alone. The said instrument shall be executed before a Notary Public and two witnesses and duly recorded in the Conveyance Records of the Parish where the community is domiciled.” (Italics supplied)

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

Related

Succession of Barr
219 So. 2d 817 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1969)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
203 So. 2d 769, 1967 La. App. LEXIS 4725, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/succession-of-barr-lactapp-1967.