Succession of Desina

65 So. 556, 135 La. 402, 1914 La. LEXIS 1788
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedMarch 16, 1914
DocketNo. 20370
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 65 So. 556 (Succession of Desina) 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
Succession of Desina, 65 So. 556, 135 La. 402, 1914 La. LEXIS 1788 (La. 1914).

Opinions

BREAUX, C. J.

Appellants question the validity of a judgment whereby it is held that an exception of vagueness, want of capacity to bring suit, and of no cause of action was well taken and properly before the court for its consideration, and for that reason sustained. Appellants also complain of the judgment in that it holds that there is a conflict of interest between the under-tutor and the minor; also in that it holds that it is the duty of the undertutor to provoke proceedings against the tutor and directs Maestri to file proceedings against the tutor of Gladys Maestri, Marco Desina; also in directing that a suit be instituted to determine whether or not the will of Gladys Desina, deceased wife of Walter Maestri, is null and void, and, if not null and void, that it contains donations in excess of the disposable portion; also in that it directs the under-tutor to institute action for the removal of the tutor on the ground that he has failed to disclose to the court a conflict of interest be[406]*406tween .him and his ward. Appellants also object to the discharge of one of them (that is, B. Sbisa); also in directing that the executor anfl natural tutor opposes the account and in restricting the tutor in the exercise of his functions as natural tutor.

The facts are that Gladys Desina was a minor when she became the wife of Walter S. Maestri in 1912, and of this marriage was born a child on March 25, 1913. Two days later, the mother, Gladys Desina Maestri, departed this life. On the 21st of January, 1913, although not 16 years of age, she made her will bequeathing all her estate to her husband, Walter S. Maestri, and appointing her father-in-law, Natal Maestri, executor of the will.

The father-in-law, appointed executor, presented the will for probate to division B of the district court. It was accordingly probated and letters issued to him.

On April 11, 1913, Marco Desina, maternal grandfather of the child, Gladys Maestri, filed a petition in which he asked that the will be decreed null and void and the order admitting it to probate recalled for the reason that the’ testatrix had given birth to a child subsequent to the making of the will and for the further reason that she was hot 16 years of age at the time that she made the will. He prayed in the alternative that the legacy in favor of Walter S. Maestri be reduced, should the court hold the will legal. He also asked that Walter S. Maestri, father of the child, be excluded from the tutorship owing to the conflict of interests existing between him and the child, and to his unfaithfulness in the duties he owed his child in not renouncing the legacy made in his favor and to the prejudice of the child’s interest. He further prayed for the appointment of a tutor for the child.

Natal Maestri and Walter S. Maestri are plaintiffs in exceptions filed on -the 6th of May, 1913, averring that the petition- is vague and indefinite; that Marco Desina is without right to stand in judgment; and that his petition disclosed no right of action.

The judge of division B was ill on the day that the exception was called for trial, and the question arises at this point whether the exception was timely filed.

We are informed that the account of tutorship was rendered by Marco Desina as tutor of his daughter, Gladys Desina Maestri, who died March 31, 1913.

Marco Desina applied to the court for instructions as to which court his account as tutor of his deceased daughter should be rendered, division B or division O. It was decided that it should be filed in division B. This was done, and he asked that a tutor ad hoe be appointed to represent the minor, Gladys Maestri, in matter of the account, as the minor, as alleged by Marco , Desina, was not represented by any qualified tutor, whereupon we are informed that the judge of division A, acting for the judge of division B, absent, appointed John B. Sbisa tutor ad hoc of the minor, Gladys Maestri.

Natal Maestri and Walter S. Maestri opposed the account.

On June 10, 1913, Natal Maestri, paternal grandfather of Gladys Maestri, executor before named, and Walter- S. Maestri, the father, who had not been confirmed as natural tutor, by motion asked that the order appointing John B. Sbisa tutor ad hoc be set aside, it is stated, on the ground that the account of the tutor, rendered by Marco Desina, should have been rendered to the executor of the estate of Gladys Desina Maestri, and that the appointment of a tutor ad hoc was a mere supererogation.

Marco Desina filed an exception to this motion, urging that the judgment of court whereby a tutor ad hoc was appointed to Gladys Maestri could not be attacked collaterally, and that plaintiffs in rule were without right of action for the reason that [408]*408the will of Gladys Desina Maestri was null and void.

But it happens that Walter S. Maestri petitioned the judge of division B for letters of tutorship on November 11, 1913, and asked at the same time that an undertutor be appointed. The court granted letters of tutorship to Walter S. Maestri, and Caesar Maestri was appointed undertutor. A few days thereafter, to wit, November 24, 1913, Marco Desina appeared in court and asked that the order confirming Walter S. Maestri as the tutor of Gladys Maestri and appointing Caesar Maestri undertutor be recalled and set aside for the reason that his petition was passed on on April 21, 1913, without any notice to him and without a hearing. He claims that he was deprived of a right, as he was entitled to a hearing on the issues presented.

The judge of division B of the district court rendered judgment on November 28, 1913, dismissing the petition of Marco Desina, filed April 21, 1913, and maintaining the exceptions of want of capacity and of no right of action filed against the petition. And he further held that Marco Desina was without capacity to attack the will of Gladys Desina Maestri and without capacity to demand the reduction of the legacy made in favor of Walter S. Maestri, her husband. The reasons urged were that the said Marco Desina is not a forced heir of his deceased daughter. The judgment further directed Csesar Maestri, undertutor, to bring suit for the purpose of annulling the will of Gladys Desina Maestri and the removal of Walter S. Maestri tutor of the minor, Gladys Maestri; and the judgment further discharges John Sbisa tutor ad hoc and restrains the tutor from exercising the powers of tutor except to the extent necessary to the care and custody of the minor.

Marco Desina and John B. Sbisa, as before stated, are appellants from the. judgment of November 20, 1913, confirming Walter S. Maestri as tutor and appointing Csesar Maestri under tutor; and they are also appellants-from the judgment of December 15, 1913, which dismissed Marco Desina’s petition, filed April 21, 1913, and discharged John B. Sbisa as tutor ad hoc.

1. Exception of Walter S. Maestri, the father of Gladys Maestri. Want of capacity of Marco Desina to stand in judgment, not being an heir of the late Gladys Maestri, wife-of Walter S. Maestri.

2. That his petition discloses no cause of action; a default was entered on the petition of Marco Desina, the grandfather of Gladys. Maestri.

3. Taking up the grounds of defense, raised by Marco Desina to this exception:

[2] He urged in the first place that the exception was filed after the default.

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Bluebook (online)
65 So. 556, 135 La. 402, 1914 La. LEXIS 1788, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/succession-of-desina-la-1914.