Opinion ID: 1113494
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Concept of Forced Heirship Prior to the 1974 Louisiana Constitution: Early History, Elevation to Constitutional Status, Public Principle and Individual Right, Judicial and Scholarly Interpretation

Text: Civil law systems typically protect children of all ages, and sometimes ascendants and other descendants, from disinheritance by securing to them a minimum share of their decedent's estate which cannot be defeated by mortis causa or inter vivos gratuitous donations. Glendon, Family Law Reform in the 1980's, 44 La.L.Rev. 1553, 1570 (1984). See also, 3 Yiannopoulos, Louisiana Civil Law TreatisePersonal Servitudes § 21 at 51 (1989). From its beginning in about 1700, Louisiana's forced heirship doctrine followed this basic civil law concept while modelling its particular provisions on French and Spanish sources. In 1921, forced heirship was elevated to the status of a constitutionally protected legal institution. Article IV, § 16 of the 1921 state constitution contained a prohibition declaring that [n]o law shall be passed abolishing forced heirship.... Subsequently, our courts and commentators interpreted this provision not only as a limitation upon the power of the legislature to abolish forced heirship and as a grant of constitutional protection to the legal institution to further important social purposes but also as a guarantee of the individual constitutional right of every child to a forced portion of his or her decedent's estate.
The doctrine of forced heirship has prevailed in Louisiana since its colonization by French settlers at the beginning of the eighteenth century. Continuously during Louisiana's history as a colony, territory, and state, its laws have imposed a general restriction upon every person's ability to gratuitously dispose of property, i.e., in cases when the disposing person had an heir who is his lineal relative, his gratuitous dispositions could affect only a portion of his estate; the balance was reserved to his descendant or ascendant heirs, who were called forced heirs. The French royal charters extended forced heirship to Louisiana as part of the Laws and Custom of Paris. For over half a century without interference the Louisiana settlers adhered to the traditions of the French law as faithfully as did their kin back in France. The French cession of Louisiana to Spain had no effect upon forced heirship because the institution was equally emphasized in the law of both countries. After France regained Louisiana and conveyed the territory to the United States, the conflict between the invading common law and the entrenched civil law was sharp, but the inhabitants' strong sympathy for the civil law prevailed. Dainow, The Early Sources of Forced Heirship: Its History in Texas and Louisiana, 4 La.L.Rev. 42 (1941). In the Louisiana Civil Code of 1808, properly styled the Digest of the Civil Laws now in Force in the Territory of Orleans, the redactors reiterated the old Spanish rules regarding the legitime. A parent's donations either inter vivos or mortis causa could not exceed one-fifth of his property to the prejudice of his children, and those of a child could not exceed one-third to the prejudice of the parents. Id. at 59. When the Code was revised in 1825, the disposable portion was increased and, in keeping with the French Civil Code, graduated in accordance with the number of children. Children of all ages were protected from disinheritance by being guaranteed a minimum share of the decedent's estate that could not be defeated by will or inter vivos gratuitous disposition. Such dispositions could not exceed two-thirds of the estate if the decedent left one child; one-half if he left two children; and one-third if he left a greater number. Id. at 59-60. This provision was carried over into the Revised Civil Code of 1870 as Article 1493. Forced heirship continued to be venerated throughout the nineteenth century. Early in the twentieth century it was identified by Professor Charles Payne Fenner as one of Louisiana's most distinguished legal institutions: [T]here are certain provisions of the Civil Code of Louisiana that are something more than mere laws; that may be said to rise to the dignity of institutions. Among these are the articles of the Code providing for what, among Louisiana lawyers, is known as the doctrine of forced heirship.... Fenner, An Example of Homeric Nodding in Relation to the Reduction of Donations Inter Vivos, 1 So.L.Q. 129 (1916).
In construing a constitutional provision, the courts may consider the object sought to be accomplished by its adoption, and the evils, if any, sought to be prevented or remedied, in light of the history of the times and the conditions and circumstances under which the provision was framed. Board of Comm'rs v. Department of Natural Resources, 496 So.2d 281 (La.1986); Stokes v. Harrison, 238 La. 343, 115 So.2d 373 (1959); In re Bankston, 306 So.2d 863 (La.App. 1st Cir.1974); Devlin, Privacy and Abortion Rights Under the Louisiana State Constitution: Could Roe v. Wade Be Alive and Well in the Bayou State, 51 La.L.Rev. 685, 689-690 (1991). The history of Article IV, § 16 indicates that the proponents of the 1921 constitutional provision recognized the importance of preserving the legal institution of forced heirship, especially its core principle of equality of heirship, in order to further significant social and economic interests. To ensure the constitutional preservation of this civil law institution and principles, the spokespersons for this viewpoint introduced a proposal relative to the limitation of legislative powers to add a prohibition to the constitution that [no] law shall be passed abolishing the principle of forced heirship or legalizing substitutions or fidei commissa or trusts affecting immovable property. Dainow, supra, 4 La.L.Rev. at 67. The proponents of this provision perceived the constitutional preservation of forced heirship and the principles it encompasses as a means of ensuring several important private and public policies: equitable distribution and equality of heirship among children; lessening of disputes, will contests and other wasteful litigation; harmony and solidarity of the family; and continued prevention of the cumulation of excessively large fortunes through primogeniture and entailment. See Spaht, Lorio, Picou, Samuel & Swaim, The New Forced Heirship Legislation: A regrettable Revolution, 50 La.L.Rev. 409, 416 (1990); Le Van, Alternatives to Forced Heirship, 52 Tul. L.Rev. 29, 33 (1977); Daggett, General Principles of Succession on Death in Civil Law, 11 Tul.L.Rev. 399, 400-02 (1937). Sidney L. Herold, the 1921 constitutional convention delegate who introduced the ordinance to limit the legislative powers, later explained the economic and social principles which its proponents sought to further by prohibiting the abolishment of forced heirship or the legalization of substitutions, fidei commissa or unlimited trusts: The most remarkable of the economic principles enunciated in the Civil Code, however, deals with the very current problem of the maldistribution of wealth and its unhealthy accumulation. Mindful of the evils in democracy, one of the great purposes of the Code is the prevention of this disease. The strict provisions of the Code governing the right of a testamentary disposition, in the institution of the doctrine of forced heirship and its elaborate provisions insuring equality of heirs, all flow from the same desire of obviating the possibility of the passing of great estates into single hands. The provision of the Code prohibiting fidei commissa and substitutions that is to say, the prohibition of trust estateswas likewise designed to keep in commerce the flow of wealth incident on death. So primogeniture, entailment, trust, and every other form through which fortunes might be held intact despite death are interdicted by the Civil Code of Louisiana. The agency of death thus performs its normal functionit releases the grasp of the possessor over worldly accumulation. It distributes, vests ownership and right of untrammeled disposition, breaks up the estate, and thus gives full play to the natural rule expressed in the homely proverb that it is but three generations from shirt-sleeves to shirt-sleeves. Thus the law does not stunt the natural instinct of acquisition nor interfere with the normal desire to accumulate for one's own posterity. It does not seek to confiscate nor to destroy. It simply says to the individual: `You have no natural right to retain the dead hand on your fortune. You must distribute and distribute in full ownership.' These threeforced heirship, equality of heirs, prevention of truststogether form a system of protection of democracy from too powerful wealth, which, if they had in effect in the nation from the period of the intensive industrial development since the Civil War, would have obviated the evils now sought to be remedied by more drastic means by national authority. Dainow, supra, 4 La.L.Rev. at 68, n. 134 (quoting Herold, Handbook of the Association of American Law Schools for 1935, 84, 88-89). This viewpoint clashed with that of those who had succeeded in having a limited trust device introduced into Louisiana law in 1920 and who believed that economic benefits would flow from expanding trusts and other estate planning devices. Dainow, supra, 4 La.L.Rev. at 67. See also, Nathan, An Assault on the Citadel: A Rejection of Forced Heirship, 52 Tul.L.Rev. 5 (1977); Lemann, In Defense of Forced Heirship, 52 Tul.L.Rev. 20 (1977). Ultimately, an express limitation on legislative power was adopted which became Article IV, § 16 of the 1921 Louisiana Constitution, and provided: No law shall be passed abolishing forced heirship or authorizing the creation of substitutions, fidei commissa or trust estates; except that the Legislature may authorize the creation of trust estates for a period not exceeding ten years after the death of the donor; provided that where a natural person is the direct beneficiary said period may be made to extend until ten years after his majority; and provided further, that this prohibition as to trust estates or fidei commissa shall not apply to donations strictly for educational, charitable or religious purposes. La. Const. art. 4, § 16 (1921). Thus more than a century after the first codification of Louisiana civil law, the appreciation of this legal system resulted in clothing one of its important institutions and the core principle of equality of heirship promoted by the institution with constitutional protection. The defenders of the civil law were forced to accept one compromise, however. Article IV, § 16 contained an explicit exception permitting the legislature to authorize the creation of trusts for educational, charitable, or religious purposes, and for private purposes for up to ten years after the death of the donor, extendable to ten years after the majority of the direct beneficiary. Nevertheless, subject to this limited exception for trusts, the constitutional provision clearly prohibited any law abolishing forced heirship or authorizing substitutions, fidei commissa, or trust estates.
In cases arising under Article IV, § 16 of the Louisiana Constitution of 1921, our courts recognized that this specific limitation on the plenary power of the legislature prohibited the abolishment of forced heirship as a legal institution and guaranteed every individual a constitutionally enforceable right to a forced portion of his or her decedent's estate. Succession of Hyde, 292 So.2d 693 (La.1974); Succession of Gambino, 225 La. 674, 73 So.2d 800 (1954); Succession of Thomson, 221 La. 791, 60 So.2d 411 (1952); Succession of Earhart, 220 La. 817, 57 So.2d 695 (1952); Succession of Guerre, 197 So.2d 738 (La.App. 4th Cir.), writ denied, 250 La. 928, 929, 933, 199 So.2d 925, 926 (1967); State ex rel. Muslow v. Louisiana Oil Refining Corp., 176 So. 686 (La.App. 2d Cir.1937); Akin v. Louisiana Nat'l Bank, 322 F.2d 749 (5th Cir.1963). See also cases recognizing that Article IV, § 16 constitutionally excluded or limited the legislature's power to create substitutions, fidei commissa, and trust estates. Pires v. Youree, 170 La. 986, 129 So. 552 (1930); Daugherty v. Canal Bank & Trust Co., 154 So. 681 (La.App. 1st Cir.), rev'd in part on other grounds, 180 La. 1003, 158 So. 366 (1934); Hart v. Mechanics & Traders Ins. Co., 46 F.Supp. 166 (W.D.La. 1942). In Succession of Guerre, 197 So.2d at 743-44, for example, the court of appeal held that a parent's attempt to circumvent his child's constitutional right as a forced heir by converting his estate into United States savings bonds would not defeat the child's action for reduction of excessive donations, and stated: There is no right more sacred in our laws than the right of a forced heir to inherit no less than a fixed minimum, which we call the legitime. This right is so deeply ingrained in our civil law that it has been declared in the Constitution of Louisiana in Article IV, Section 16, thus protecting it from the risk of legislative infringement. We must agree that a child has no vested right in his parent's property during the lifetime of the parent, but he has a constitutionally vested right of inheritance to not less than a fixed portion of his parent's property. By the same token, this court in Succession of Thomson, 221 La. 791, 60 So.2d 411 (1952) enforced an adopted child's forced heirship claim and held that an adoptive parent and child cannot by contract abrogate the relationship existing between them. The court concluded: Under the constitution of this state, no law can be passed abolishing forced heirship and children lawfully adopted have the same rights in the successions of persons adopting them as children who are forced heirs. Section 15 [sic], Article 4 of the Constitution of 1921. Id. at 800, 60 So.2d at 414. Bequests in wills constituting prohibited substitutions were held to be invalid because they violated constitutional and statutory provisions. Succession of Guillory 232 La. 213, 94 So.2d 38 (1957) (The bequest is clearly a prohibited substitution, and, as such, violative of the public policy of this state as expressed in our basic and statutory law, Section 16 of the Fourth Article of the Constitution of 1921.... Id. at 217, 94 So.2d at 39); Succession of Meadors, 135 So.2d 679 (La.App. 2d Cir.1961). On the other hand, Article IV, § 16 contained an exception that proved the rule by allowing the legislature to authorize the creation of trusts for educational, charitable, or religious purposes, and the creation for private purposes of trusts with limited terms. Accordingly, laws authorizing trusts meeting these criteria were held to be enforceable and not in violation of Article IV, § 16. Succession of Earhart, 220 La. 817, 57 So.2d 695 (1952) (will established a private trust estate for ten years); Succession of Maguire, 228 La. 1096, 85 So.2d 4 (1955) (educational and charitable trust); Voisin v. Luke, 341 So.2d 6 (La.App. 1st Cir.1976), writ denied, 342 So.2d 224 (1977) (private trust); Pires v. Youree, 170 La. 986, 129 So. 552 (1930) (charitable trust). Jurists and scholars alike recognized the strong, almost sacred, constitutional policy favoring forced heirship not only because it was a socially desirable instrument to avoid excessive concentration of wealth but also due to its being the most efficient means of protecting children from unjust disinheritance and of promoting equitable distribution and equality in the family. Akin v. Louisiana Nat'l Bank of Baton Rouge, 322 F.2d 749, 756, (5th Cir.1963) (Wisdom, J.) (citing Dainow, Forced Heirship in French Law, 2 La.L.Rev. 669 (1940); Dainow, supra, 4 La. L.Rev. 42; Daggett, supra, 11 Tul.L.Rev. at 399-401 (Forced heirship ... remains as a bulwark of equality for the family and is a known and accepted method for wealth distribution.). The legislature itself recognized and respected the rights of individuals to forced heirship and the limitation upon its power to legislate with respect to the legal institution. Between 1921 and 1962 the legislature proposed several amendments to Article IV, § 16 of the 1921 Louisiana Constitution. The legislature on two occasions sought and obtained the voters' approval of amendments to relax the limitation on its power to authorize trust estates. See 1962 La. Acts, No. 521, adopted November 6, 1962, granting the legislature the power to authorize the creation of substitutions in trust and to place a forced heir's legitime in trust. See 1952 La. Acts, No. 208, § 1, adopted November 4, 1952, expanding the terms and purposes for which the legislature could authorize trusts. In two other instances the legislature successfully proposed amendments to Article IV, § 16 expanding adopted persons' rights to forced heirship. See 1958 La. Acts, No. 548, adopted November 4, 1958; 1944 La. Acts, No. 318, adopted November 7, 1944. In proposing each of these amendments the legislature properly and correctly recognized the constitutional rights and limits created by Article IV, § 16 of the 1921 Constitution. It was the judgment of knowledgeable commentators, however, that Article IV, § 16 did not go so far as to petrify in detail each and every statutory forced heirship rule or procedure in effect in 1921. Rather, there was solidarity in belief that Article IV, § 16 allowed the legislature reasonable latitude to pass laws regulating and implementing the legal institution of forced heirship. Tucker, Substitutions, Fideicommissa and Trusts in Louisiana Law: A Semantical Reappraisal, 24 La.L.Rev. 439, 473 (1964); Le Van, supra, 52 Tul.L.Rev. at 48; Lemann, supra, 52 Tul. L.Rev. at 27; Comment, Forced Heirs, The Legitime and Loss of the Legitime in Louisiana, 37 Tul.L.Rev. 710, 722 (1963); O'Quin, Bench and BarOur Trust Estates and Their Limitations, 22 Tul.L.Rev. 585, 586 (1948); See Succession of Earhart, 220 La. 817, 57 So.2d 695 (1952) (Dictum: This provision does not prohibit the legislature from regulating or restricting the rights of forced heirs. Id. at 825, 57 So.2d at 697). Undoubtedly, the jurists assumed that the constitutional provision incorporated the tradition of the legislature regulating forced heirship by adjusting the disposable portion and the causes of disinherison as it had prior to the adoption of the 1921 Louisiana Constitution and its Article IV, § 16. See 1972 Compiled Edition of the Civil Codes of Louisiana (Dainow ed. 1973) La.Civ.Code of 1808, arts. 19 and 130, at 212, 236; La.Civ.Code of 1825, arts. 1480 and 1613; La.Civ.Code of 1870, arts. 1493 and 1621.
Considering the social, economic, and moral objectives sought by the adoption of Article IV, § 16 of the 1921 Louisiana Constitution, and its interpretation by the courts, commentators, and legislature, we conclude, that the constitutional provision guaranteed every child equality of heirship in a forced portion of his or her decedent's estate, both as an individual constitutional right and as a principle of public policy in furthering the state interests in warding off intra-family litigation, promoting family solidarity, and preventing excessive concentrations of wealth. Consequently, the legislature could regulate and implement the legal institution of forced heirship subject to and consistently with these rights, principles, and purposes, for example by passing laws to set the exact amount of a reasonable forced portion, establish just causes of disinherison, and formulate appropriate procedures for proof of heirship, disinherison, and reduction. Furthermore, Article IV, § 16's express limitation on legislative power was subject to a reservation of the legislature's power to authorize the creation of trust estates for purposes and within limits stated in the constitutional provision. The Appellants suggest to the contrary, that, in effect, Article IV, § 16 of the 1921 Constitution, did not create or define any substantive rights or limitations; that, therefore, the legislature could have made whatever changes it wished to forced heirship, even radical changes in its basic principle, rights, and purpose. If there was any restriction on legislative power to alter the system, the Appellants contend, it would have been satisfied by any remnant the legislature deemed appropriate that plausibly could have been called forced heirship. In other words, the Appellants postulate that, Article IV, § 16 of the 1921 Constitution meant nothing more than if it had said: Forced heirship shall be defined by and regulated by the legislature. For this proposition the Appellants rely almost entirely on language in Succession of Earhart, 220 La. 817, 57 So.2d 695 (La.1952). The argument is not persuasive. The statement relied upon is dictum. The interpretation the Appellants attribute to the constitutional provision leads to absurd consequences and clearly does not conform to its purpose, history, and interpretation by the courts, commentators, and the legislature. In Succession of Earhart, id., a surviving child and forced heir of a decedent attacked the validity of a portion of his will establishing a trust for a period of ten years on the residue of decedent's estate. The heir contended that the decedent was prohibited by Article IV, § 16 of the 1921 Constitution from depriving forced heirs of immediate possession of the legitime. This court held that the trust established by decedent's will fell within the exception to the Article IV, § 16 prohibition against abolishment of forced heirship which reserved to the legislature the power to authorize the creation of trust estates for a period not to exceed ten years after the death of the donor. After this holding, however, the court unnecessarily added an observation having no logical nexus with the case before it: The words, `no law shall be passed abolishing forced heirship,' mean exactly what they say, in other words, that forced heirship cannot be done away with wholly, wiped out or destroyed. Id. at 824, 57 So.2d at 697. Because the court had already decided that the trust in question was authorized by a law the constitution expressly reserved legislative power to enact, the opinion's sweeping hyperbole was clearly not necessary. The statement fits well within a classical definition of dictum as a statement in a judicial opinion that could have been deleted without impairing the analytical foundations of the holdingthat, being peripheral, may not have received the full and careful consideration of the court that uttered it. Sarnoff v. American Home Products, Corp., 798 F.2d 1075, 1084 (7th Cir.1986) (Posner, J.); quoted in Garner, A Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage 185 (1987). Moreover, the interpretation of Article IV, § 16 that Appellants contend was suggested by the dictum in Succession of Earhart is incorrect and leads to absurd consequences. It would reduce a clear, specific constitutional prohibition or limitation on the power of the legislature to nothing more than a request or recommendation that the legislature impose limits upon itself when dealing with forced heirship. Also, this interpretation is antagonistic to the purpose of Article IV, § 16, as reflected by its history, which was to prevent the legislature from destroying the basic principle of forced heirshipequality of heirship among children to a forced portion of their decedent's estatethat in turn furthers the state's interest in preventing and remedying the evils of intra-family dissension and litigation, and excessive concentrations of wealth. Finally, the interpretation urged by Appellants based on a single judicial dictum is anomalous and conflicts with the interpretation of Article IV, § 16 by the courts, commentators, and the legislature during the life of that provision from 1921 through 1974, as set forth earlier in this opinion.