Succession of Hecker

180 So. 228, 1938 La. App. LEXIS 579
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedApril 4, 1938
DocketNo. 16925.
StatusPublished

This text of 180 So. 228 (Succession of Hecker) 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 Hecker, 180 So. 228, 1938 La. App. LEXIS 579 (La. Ct. App. 1938).

Opinion

JANVIER, Judge.

In these succession proceedings of Mrs. Alma Julia Hecker, wife of Evarice C. Mire, the said Mire qualified as tutor of his minor son, Evarice C. Mire, Jr., and of his minor daughter, Alma Julia Mire, and he recorded in their favor a special mortgage on two lots of ground. Desiring to sell one of the lots and proceeding under Act No. 223 of 1920, as amended hy Act No. 68 of 1924, he petitioned the probate court for authority to deposit a United States bond of the value of $1,000 (admittedly sufficient in amount) and prayed for a release of the recorded mortgage insofar as it bore on the said lot and insofar as it ran in favor of his minor daughter. The recorder of mortgages refused to erase the mortgage to the extent requested, taking the position that the said minor, having attained the age of eighteen years and having married, was automatically fully emancipated under the provisions of article 382 of the Civil Code and that, therefore, the court was without authority to authorize the substitution of a bond, but could only authorize the cancellation of the mortgage, so far as it concerned that minor, ten days after an accounting should have been rendered by the tutor. See article 381, C.C.

The tutor maintains that there has not resulted an emancipation even though the minor has attained the age of eighteen years and married, for the reason that the marriage was solemnized without the con-, sent of the said tutor, and that, if there has not resulted an emancipation, then the tutorship continues and the tutor, under the provisions of the said Act of 1920, may substitute the bond in lieu of the mortgage.- In contending that there has been a complete emancipation, the recorder of mortgages, as we have said, relies upon article 382 of the Civil Code, which, as amended by Act No. 224 of 1908, reads as follows:

“The minor, emancipated by marriage, does not need the assistance of a curator in any act or proceeding; provided that whenever a minor emancipated by marriage shall reach the age of eighteen years the said minor shall be relieved from all of the disabilities which attach to minors and with full power to do and perform all acts as fully as if the said minor had arrived at the age of twenty-one years.”

It is evident that the article contains no requirement that, in order that complete emancipation of a minor eighteen years-or more of age shall result from marriage, there must be a consent on the part of the tutor, and it would be difficult' indeed to understand just what is the basis of the contention that there has been no emancipation here were it not for certain decisions of our Supreme Court in which it has been clearly said that, where there is no such consent, there is no emancipation.

In Guillebert v. Grenier, 107 La. 614, 32 So. 238, the court said:

“The question is whether by marriage solemnized in another state, without the consent of the tutrix, plaintiff has all the rights to which an emancipated minor is entitled. While the marriage is entirely good and valid, a negative answer none the less suggests itself as relates to emancipation.
“By the clear and concise provisions of the text of the law the minor does not, by the marriage without consent of her tutrix, acquire the right of compelling her to account before majority for the property in her possession for the minor. * * *
“To sustain the defense of emancipation by marriage not preceded by consent would hold out encouragement to minors indifferent to parental influence and control to go counter to their proper authority. It would offer inducements to youths' to enter into improvident and ill-advised marriages which maturer years would cause them to regret or deplore. * * *
“We do not think that defendant has given her approval to the marriage to the extent that it must now be held that the minor is emancipated.”

We cannot interpret the above language otherwise than as a holding that in such situation there does not result an emancipation.

In Maillefer v. Saillot, 4 La.Ann. 375, is also found a case in which a minor more than eighteen years of age married without the consent of her tutor and then attempted to force the tutor to render an accounting and to turn over to her her property. Here, again, the court held that there had been no emancipation which would entitle the minor to demand an accounting.

Also, in Babin et al. v. Le Blanc, 12 La.Ann. 367, the Supreme Court reached a similar conclusion and said that such a marriage had not effected the emancipation of the minor.

*230 It is true that in all three of these cases the marriage relied upon as effecting the emancipation had been solemnized in another state and that in each of the two earlier cases the court referred to that fact and said that, by going into another state to have the marriage performed, the minor could not effect her emancipation, and thus a reading of those two opinions might lead to the conclusion that the decision in each case had been based on that fact. But in the Guillebert Case the court said that the fact that the marriage had been performed in the other state was of no moment, the important point being that there had been no consent:

“It is not the intention to discriminate against marriages solemnized in other states. If it had been solemnized in this state, the disability, as relates to emancipation, would have been the same. No greater effect can be given to the marriages certified to by authorities in another state. In nearly all the states of the Union the law requires the consent of the parents or other legal representative before the license is issued. 19 American and English Encyclopaedia of Law, (2d Ed.) p. 1191."

But counsel for the recorder of mortgages maintains that since those cases were decided the codal article has' been amended by Act No. 224 of 1908 and that that act provides for complete emancipation when the minor, having reached eighteen years, has married, and this regardless of the consent, vel non, of the tutor. However, we notice that the amendment of 1908 concerns only the effect to be given to such an emancipation where there is one and does not in any way declare .that there shall be an emancipation regardless of whether or not there is consent.

The cases cited did not pass upon the effect of emancipation, but held that there was no emancipation at all where there was no consent. The amendment of 1908 merely provides that where there is an emancipation it shall produce certain results. In view of what the court said in the 'earlier cases, the amendment of 1908 cannot be said to effect emancipation, but merely to affect the rights of the minor where there has been an emancipation. It merely provides that where there is such an emancipation its effect shall be even more complete than it would have been prior to 1908. In other words, since the decisions in those cases there has been no change in the statutory law which authorizes a different conclusion now.

It is contended that the Act of 1908 was passed for the purpose of overcoming the result reached by the Supreme Court in the Guillebert Case since that case was decided in 1901 or 1902 and the amendment was passed in 1908.

It may be that that was the purpose of the amendment, but if so, certainly that purpose was not clearly expressed.

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

Related

Guillebert v. Grenier
107 La. 614 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1901)
Maillefer v. Saillot
4 La. Ann. 375 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1849)
Babin v. Le Blanc
12 La. Ann. 367 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1857)
Johnson v. Alden
15 La. Ann. 505 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1860)
Succession of Mitchell
33 La. Ann. 353 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1881)
Barrow v. Wilson
39 La. Ann. 403 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1887)
Breaux v. Carmouche
9 Rob. 36 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1844)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
180 So. 228, 1938 La. App. LEXIS 579, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/succession-of-hecker-lactapp-1938.