Succession of Feingerts

162 So. 3d 1215, 2014 La.App. 4 Cir. 0140, 2015 La. App. LEXIS 548, 2015 WL 1299442
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMarch 18, 2015
DocketNo. 2014-CA-0140
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 162 So. 3d 1215 (Succession of Feingerts) 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 Feingerts, 162 So. 3d 1215, 2014 La.App. 4 Cir. 0140, 2015 La. App. LEXIS 548, 2015 WL 1299442 (La. Ct. App. 2015).

Opinion

EDWIN A. LOMBARD, Judge.

It The Appellant, Bruce Feingerts, seeks review of the district court’s October 31, 2013 judgment denying his Motion to Traverse the Second and Amended Usufructu-ary Accounting, Motion to Traverse the Amended Estimative and Descriptive List of Assets and Liabilities, and Motion to Annul Judgment of Partial Possession and Return of Particular Legacies. Finding that the judgment of the district court was not manifestly erroneous or clearly wrong, we affirm.

The late Maurice and Doris Feingerts (collectively referred to as “the Feingerts”) had three children born of their union: Susan Hackmeier (“Susan”), Bruce Fein-gerts (“Mr. Feingerts”) and Jane Rushing (“the Executrix”).1 During their marriage, the Feingerts owned a home (“the Property”) located on Bellaire Dr. in Orleans Parish. The Feingerts also owned a 50% interest in a food brokerage company, Specialty Food Sales Co., Inc. (“Specialty Foods”). The remaining half of the company was owned by Simon Pailet, who was the uncle of Maurice Feingerts. Maurice Feingerts died testate in 1967.

Pursuant to the will of Maurice Fein-gerts, he left Susan, the Executrix and Mr. Feingerts all of his separate and community property to be divided equally |2among them. Said legacies were placed in three separate trusts, subject to a lifetime usu-fruct granted to Doris Feingerts (“the Decedent”), who was also named as the trustee of all three trusts. Pursuant to the [1218]*1218Judgment of Possession in the succession of Maurice Feingerts, the assets of his estate, consisted of: 1) his one-half share of the community property, i.e., the Property; 2) an undivided one-half interest in four lots located in Jefferson Parish;2 and 3) “[a]ny and all property remaining in the name of Maurice P. Feingerts, including, but not limited to, bank accounts, stock, United States Savings Bond [sic], accounts receivable, automobiles, jewelry, and all other movable property of any nature or kind whatsoever.”

The Decedent later sold the Feingerts’ interest in Specialty Foods to Mr. Pailet. She subsequently made a series of personal loans to Mr. Feingerts and, on occasion, his law firm, following an accident wherein he sustained serious injuries.3 While the total amount of the loans made to Mr. Feingerts by the Decedent is in dispute, it is undisputed that Mr. Feingerts never paid off the entirety of his debt to his mother.

The Decedent, in July 2009, sold the Property, which was flooded in Hurricane Katrina, for $127,000. She sold the Property . individually and in her capacity as trustee. During the same month, the Decedent also executed a will leaving Susan and the Executrix a particular legacy of $250,000 each. The Decedent further expressly stated within her 2009 will that she intentionally left no part of her estate to Mr. Feingerts because of “numerous gifts”, “donations” and | ¡¡“loans” she made to him “over the years”. The Decedent also forgave all debts, owed to her by Mr. Feingerts, but conditioned her forgiveness upon Mr. Feingerts not making any claims against her Succession, such as challenging the validity of her testament or asserting naked ownership claims against her estate or her in her capacity as usufructuary.

On February 23, 2011, the Decedent executed a codicil to her 2009 testament wherein she left Susan and the Executrix a third of the residue of her estate each, with the remaining third being left to Mr. Feingerts’ children. She additionally increased the particular legacies to Susan and the Executrix from $250,000 to $300,000 each. The last significant change made by the Decedent in her 2011 codicil was an acknowledgement that although her estate would owe a usufructuary debt to Mr. Feingerts for his naked ownership interest in the sale proceeds from the Property, she was applying the amount due to him toward his indebtedness to her. She concludes by stating that Mr. Fein-gerts is not due anything from her because his indebtedness to her exceeded her usu-fructuary debt to him.

The Decedent contemporaneously executed an Authentic Act with the aforementioned codicil. Principal statements, relevant to the instant matter, within the Authentic Act include:

1. She sold the Property for $127,000 and that the one-sixth interest of her three children in the proceeds from the sale is $21,166 each;
2. She made numerous loans to Mr. Feingerts between September 1994 and April 2005, totaling $352,300, with the “express condition, understanding, and promise” that he would repay her over time; and
3. She further states that she considers that his indebtedness to her to be [1219]*1219reduced by $30,000 he prepaid and the $21,166 due to him as his naked ownership interest; thus, his indebtedness remained at just over $300,000-

The Decedent passed away in September 2011, and her succession was subsequently opened. In 2012, Mr. Feingerts filed a Proof of Claim principally asserting a claim against the succession of the Decedent in the amount of $103,313.01, which he calculated as the value of his naked ownership interest in the Succession of Maurice Feingerts.

Mr. Feingerts later filed three motions in the succession proceeding: (1) Motion to Traverse the Second and Amended Usu-fructuary Accounting; (2) Motion to Traverse the Amended Estimative Descriptive List of Assets and Liabilities; and (3) Motion to Annul Judgment of Partial Possession and Return of Particular Legacies. After holding a two-day hearing in the summer of 2013, the district court denied all three motions on October 18, 2013. The district court further granted the Executrix’s Petition to Homologate the Second Amended Usufructuary Accounting and Petition for Partial Possession. The instant suspensive appeal followed the denial of Mr. Feingerts’ motion for new trial.

Mr. Feingerts purports to raise 16 assignments of error; however, we find that there are three issues he raises:

1.) the judgment of the district court should be reversed and remanded because newly-discovered documents reveal that the Decedent was unduly influenced in drafting her last testament as well as that she made possible mistakes or committed fraud;
2.) the district court erred by granting the ex parte order approving the amended descriptive list of the Executrix, Jane; and
I r,3.) the district court erred in failing to find that Mr. Feingerts’s debts to the Decedent were not prescribed.4

Standard of Review

The court of appeal should not set aside the factual findings of a trial court absent manifest error or unless clearly wrong. See Brewer v. J.B. Hunt Transp., Inc., 09-1408, p. 9 (La.3/16/10), 35 So.3d 230, 237. However, if a court of appeal finds that the trial court committed a reversible error of law or manifest error of fact, the court of appeal must ascertain the facts de novo from the record and render a judgment on the merits. LeBlanc v. Stevenson, 00-0157, p. 3 (La.10/17/00), 770 So.2d 766, 770. Although appellate courts should accord deference to the factfinder, they nonetheless have a constitutional duty to review facts. Id. Because appellate courts must perform this constitutional function, they have every right to determine whether the trial court verdict was clearly wrong based on the evidence or clearly without evidentiary support.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
162 So. 3d 1215, 2014 La.App. 4 Cir. 0140, 2015 La. App. LEXIS 548, 2015 WL 1299442, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/succession-of-feingerts-lactapp-2015.