Succession of Savant

132 So. 263, 15 La. App. 396, 1931 La. App. LEXIS 551
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJanuary 26, 1931
DocketNo. 715
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 132 So. 263 (Succession of Savant) 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 Savant, 132 So. 263, 15 La. App. 396, 1931 La. App. LEXIS 551 (La. Ct. App. 1931).

Opinion

ELLIOTT, J.

A. E. Darbonne opposes the final account of Henry Roy and Onezia Zerringue Roy, husband and wife, administrators of the succession of Cecile Savant, widow 'in community of Cesaire Mouille, alleging that he is a creditor of the succession in amounts the total of which is $2,995-

The total assets of the estate to be paid out on the account amounts to but $2,310.

The account proposes to pay out sums not opposed amounting to $962.31, which déducted from the total assets, leaves but $1,347.31, which it is proposed to distribute among the heirs of the decedent.

The opponent prays to be placed on the account as a creditor for the total amount claimed to be due him, and that the administrators be ordered to pay over to him the said $1,347.64 as a credit on his claim pro tanto.

The appeal has been brought to this court. Our appellate jurisdiction is not questioned. We take it that the sum of $1,347.31 constitutes the amount in dispute, and have therefore decided to act on the appeal.

The record contains a motion on the part of the administrators to dismiss the opposition on the ground that it was filed too late, and on the further ground that it discloses on its face no right of action.

The minutes of the lower court do not show that this motion was ever taken up, or acted on in any way. It is not urged in the brief of the administrators, so we look on it as having been abandoned and as not before us for review.

The administrators filed the prescription of one year under the Civil Code, art. 3534, [398]*398and that of three years, Civil Code, art. 3538, against opponent’s demand.

These pleas of prescription were without objection by either side, referred by the lower court to the merits.

After trial on the merits, the district judge sustained the prescriptions pleaded against opponent’s demand for $405 on account of checks and cash advanced to the deceased from September 1, 1923, to December 10, 1925. The judgment does not say whether the prescription of one or three years, or both, were sustained to this ¡part of opponent’s demand.

As for the claim on account of board and lodging, the pleas of prescription were not acted on, but the claim was rejected on the ground that there was no intention on the part of opponent to claim anything from the deceased on said account during her lifetime or after her death.

Opponent has appealed.

Cesaire Mouille and Cecile Savant, his wife, lived in the town of Opelousas. He owned a piece of ground on which was situated the family residence, and a store building in which he formerly conducted a mercantile business.

The property belonged to the legal community of acquets and gains which existed between him and his wife. Mr. and Mrs. Mouille had no children born to them, but they took into their home and raised from early childhood a number of orphan children, the same as if they had been their own children. One of these children was Dorestine Mouille; she was taken by them immediately after her birth and was reared as if she had been their own child. They looked on her as if she had been their child and she regarded them as her father and mother, but she was never formally adopted. When she reached the age of 18 years, she married the opponent, A. E. Darbonne, upon which she left her home with Mr\ and Mrs. Mouille in Opelousas and went to reside with her husband in. the town of Oberlin.

Some four or five years after they had taken Dorestine, they also took into their home another orphan child, Claire Mouille; she was about 22 months old at the time. She was never formally adopted, but they reared her as if she had been their own child, and she looked on them as her mother and father, and on Dorestine as her sister.

Mr. Darbonne and Dorestine frequently came, after their marriage, to visit Mr. and Mrs. Mouille. Mr. Darbonne testifies that Mr. Mouille asked him, in the presence of Mrs. Mouille, to take care of his widow and Claire, telling him to be sure and keep an account of anything he spent; that he would be paid back.

Cesaire Mouille departed this life intestate in August, 1922, leaving his widow, Mrs. Mouille, who inherited, at his death, his interest in the community property. She continued to occupy the same residence in which she and her husband had formerly lived, and for income rented the store building, receiving for it from ten to twelve dollars a month. It seems from the evidence that this rent was about all the income she had, but the evidence on that subject is not clear and it may be that she had some other small means.

According to Mr. Darbonne he and his wife made it their business after the death of Mr. Mouille to assist Mrs. Mouille; she continued with Claire to keep house and manage her own affairs, but opponent and his wife helped them. Mr. Darbonne testified that she had no' suf[399]*399ficient income; that he found it necessary to assist her and did so by giving her money and checks and clothes, mostly money. When he could net come over he sent her checks. He mentions one amount of $40, evidenced by a check, -which he says was used for the purpose of paying one-third of the funeral and burial expenses of Mr. Mouille. He produced 17 checks which he had sent her in the way stated. In December, 1925, Mrs. Mouille, acting on the invitation of Darbonne and wife, sold out her furniture and personal belongings in Opelousas and together with Claire came to reside with him at Oberlin. After moving from Opelousas she rented her residence and store building there, receiving for some months but $20, but most of the time $30 per month. Mr. Darbonne claims in his opposition that after the death of Mr. Mouille and while Mrs. Mouille continued to live with Claire in Opelousas, he advanced her about $15 a month, a total of $405. The checks which he produced, added up, amount to but $125, counting the one for $40 sent to assist in paying the funeral and burial expenses of Mr. Mouille. This check for $40 is allowed on the account. Only one check, that for $40 used for the purpose of paying one-third of the funeral and burial expenses of Mr. Mouille, was sent to Mrs. Mouille in 1922. In 1923 we find but two checks, for $5 each. In 1924 we find but eight, of which seven -are for $5 each and one for $10. In 1925, we find but six, of which five are for $5 each and one for $10, a total of $125.

There is no evidence showing any cash given or sent to Mrs. Mouille during tlrs time, except the parol evidence of Mr. Darbonne. Miss Claire corroborates him in a very general way; but her corroboration, while not altogether, yet it has reference almost entirely to what he did after Mrs. Mcuille and herself left Opelousas in December, 1925, and came to reside at his house in Oberlin. Mr. Mouille, he says, in asking him to take care of his widow and Claire, told him to be sure and keep an account of anything he spent; that he would be paid back. But opponent has produced no account, data, nor memoranda of any kind except checks. The general nature of his testimony on the subject of sums advanced while Mrs. Mouille and Claire lived at Opelousas appears from the following question and answer:

“Q. Can yon testify as to the approximate. amount of money or clothing or other things you contributed to Mrs. Mouille from 1922 to 1925?
“A. About $15 a month, at least that much.”

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Bluebook (online)
132 So. 263, 15 La. App. 396, 1931 La. App. LEXIS 551, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/succession-of-savant-lactapp-1931.