La Lawyah Question (1 Viewer)

johnnyd

Ikea boy.
Joined
Jul 1, 2002
Messages
7,457
Reaction score
46
Age
57
Location
8th and Chippewa
Offline
I was at a dinner party last night and this girl who was there was claiming that according to Louisiana law that if a husband dies the property goes to his brother. I said that didn't sound right, but she swore up and down about it. She was claiming it was some Napoleonic code thing.

Now, maybe she was confused? She did live with her husband before they were married and they had bought a house together before marriage as well. Another caveat was that her fiancee/husband is a foreign national.

Can you help me prover her wrong, I get annoyed when someone else thinks they are right and I am wrong. ;)
 
For Community Property

La. CC Art 889

Devolution of community property

If the deceased leaves no descendants, his surviving spouse succeeds to his share of the community property.

-->Thus if no kids, wife gets everything

Art. 890. Usufruct of surviving spouse


If the deceased spouse is survived by descendants, the surviving spouse shall have a usufruct over the decedent's share of the community property to the extent that the decedent has not disposed of it by testament. This usufruct terminates when the surviving spouse dies or remarries, whichever occurs first.


--> If kids, husband's share goes to kids but the spouse has the right to use the stuff until she dies or remarries. Kids own it but mom uses it.

For Seperate Property

Art. 891. Devolution of separate property; parents and brothers and sisters


If the deceased leaves no descendants but is survived by a father, mother, or both, and by a brother or sister, or both, or descendants from them, the brothers and sisters or their descendants succeed to the separate property of the deceased subject to a usufruct in favor of the surviving parent or parents. If both parents survive the deceased, the usufruct shall be joint and successive.

-->If no kids, brothers and sisters own the stuff, but the parents have the right to use it until death

So she's right if she's talking about seperate property and they have no kids and no will. The fact that he is a foreign national shouldn't matter, considering she's already determined that Louisiana law will control.
 
Hoya is right. It is also important to note that even if the siblings do get ownership of property if the husband has no children, the parents still have a Usufruct over it until they die. The siblings only have Naked Ownership of the property and can't do anything with it.

Also, she is wrong about LA being under the Napoleonic Code. First of all, we are no longer under French Law. The Civil Code is similar to the Code Civil, but it is not the same. Because we were also once a Spanish property, much of the Civil Code is taken from the Spanish Civil Code. It is a combination of the French and Spanish Codes. The truth is that the Napoleonic Code was never the law in LA, the Code Civil was, but that is not the same thing as the Napoleonic Code. The truth is that our law, Civil Law, is traced back to the Romans. In a very real sense, LA Law is Roman Law.

What it comes down too is too many people have seen or read "A Street Car Named Desire." Tennessee Williams and Stanley Kowalski were wrong.
 

Create an account or login to comment

You must be a member in order to leave a comment

Create account

Create an account on our community. It's easy!

Log in

Already have an account? Log in here.

Users who are viewing this thread

    Back
    Top Bottom