Opinion ID: 1110079
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Law in Effect on December 31, 1995

Text: The formulaic nature of La. R.S. 9:2501 (1996) demands that the law in effect on December 31, 1995, governs the succession of a person who executed a will before January 1, 1996, and died after December 31, 1995, if the testament does not evidence the testator's intent to deprive a child of his right of reduction. Because this Court applied La. R.S. 9:2501 (1996) to the facts of this case and found Section (B)(2) applicable to Mr. Boyter's succession, we must now necessarily decide what law was in effect on December 31, 1995. In 1921, the institution of forced heirship received constitutional protection in Louisiana. La. Const. art. IV, Sect. 16 (1921). Article IV, Section 16 of the 1921 Constitution stated that [n]o law shall be passed abolishing the principle of forced heirship. In 1974, the people of Louisiana voted to replace the former article with Article XII, Section 5, which read [n]o law shall abolish forced heirship. The determination of forced heirs, the amount of the forced portion, and the grounds for disinherison shall be provided by law. Trusts may be authorized by law, and forced portion may be placed in trust. Then, without amending the constitution, the legislature attempted to severely restrict the definition of forced heirship in Louisiana by amending La. C.C. art. 1493 in 1989 and 1990. The amended version of La. C.C. art. 1493 defined forced heirs as descendants of the first degree who have not attained the age of twenty-three years, or of any age, who, because of mental incapacity or physical infirmity, are incapable of taking care of their persons or administering their estates. In Succession of Lauga, this Court addressed the constitutionality of the 1989 and 1990 amendments to La. C.C. art. 1493 and held that the article violated Article XII, Section 5 of the Louisiana Constitution by depriving the plaintiffs of their individual rights, purporting to abolish the constitutional principle of equality of heirship and render forced heirship wholly ineffective. Succession of Lauga, p. 1165-66. The majority concluded that the amended version of La. C.C. art. 1493 would abolish the core principle or equality of heirship, thereby frustrating each of the purposes of the constitutional provision. In response to this Court's decision in Succession of Lauga, the legislature passed Act 1321, which proposed a constitutional amendment, during the Regular Session in 1995. The Act provided that the proposed amendment would be submitted to the electors at the gubernatorial primary election held on October 21, 1995. The voters approved the amendments to La. Const. Article XII, Section 5 and the Governor proclaimed the adoption of the amendment on November 2, 1995. [7] By law, the constitutional amendment became effective on November 23, 1995. Article XII, as amended in 1995, provides that: (A) The legislature shall provide by law for uniform procedures of successions and for rights of heirs or legatees and for testate and intestate succession. Except as provided in Paragraph B of this Section, forced heirship is abolished in this state. (B) The legislature shall provide for the classification of descendants, of the first degree, twenty-three years of age or younger as forced heirs. The legislature may also classify as forced heirs descendants of any age who, because of mental incapacity or physical infirmity, are incapable of taking care of their persons or administering their estate. The amount of the forced portion reserved to heirs and the grounds for disinherison shall also be provided by law. Trusts may be authorized by law and the forced portion may be placed in trust. In anticipation of the passage of the constitutional amendment, the legislature passed, during the same legislative session, legislation that redefined forced heirs and dealt with related issues. Act 1180 of the 1995 Regular Legislative Session. Section 5 of Act 1180 of 1995 specifically provided that the Act's effectiveness was conditioned upon the enactment of the corresponding constitutional amendment. The objective of Act 1180 was to implement both the mandatory and permissive provisions contained in the constitutional amendment in the event the amendment passed. The transitional provision, La. R.S. 9:2501 (1995), which was part of this implementing legislation, stated that the law in effect on December 31, 1995, the day before the provisions of Act 1180 were to become effective, would apply to cases in which the testament did not meet the requirements of (B)(1). To determine the law in effect on December 31, 1995, we must determine whether the constitutional amendment is self-executing or whether it required the implementing legislation found in Act 1180 of 1995 to become effective before it could itself become effective. If the constitutional amendment is self-executing, then children over age 23 were not considered forced heirs as of November 23, 1995, the effective date of the constitutional amendment. If it is not self-executing, then the law recognizing all children as forced heirs, regardless of age, remained in effect until the provisions in Act 1180 became effective on January 1, 1996. Defendants urge that the law in effect on December 31, 1995, was that forced heirship was abolished, except in a few instances not relevant to this case. Their argument is based on the assumption that the provisions in the constitutional amendment to Article XII, Section 5, which became effective on November 23, 1995, [8] were self-executing and that no supplementary or implementing legislation was needed to give it effect. Therefore, the defendants argue that forced heirship was abolished for all children over age 23 on November 23, 1995, without the necessity of the implementing legislation found in Act 1180 of 1995. [9] Conversely, the plaintiffs argue that La. R.S. 9:2501 (1995 and 1996) would be meaningless unless the law in effect on December 31, 1995, is found to protect all children as forced heirs. In order to determine whether the law in effect on December 31, 1995, recognized children over the age of 23 as forced heirs, we must resolve whether Article XII, Section 5, as amended, is a self-executing provision. Substantively, paragraph (A) of Article XII, Section 5, provides that the legislature shall provide by law for uniform procedures of successions and for the rights of heirs or legatees and for testate and intestate successions. The second sentence of paragraph (A) also provides that except as provided in Paragraph B of this section, forced heirship is abolished in this state. Importantly, Paragraph B mandates that the legislature classify certain descendants of the first degree as forced heirs, specify the amount of the forced portion reserved to heirs, and provide the grounds for disinherison. The amendment also granted the legislature the power to decide whether to classify as forced heirs descendants of any age who are incapable of taking care of their persons or administering their estates and to authorize trusts, into which the forced portion may be placed. In Student Gov't Ass'n of Louisiana State Univ. and Agr. and Mechanical College, Main Campus, Baton Rouge v. Board of Sup'rs of Louisiana State Univ. and Agr. and Mechanical College, 262 La. 849, 264 So.2d 916 (1972), this Court stated: [T]he characterization of a constitutional provision as `self-executing' or not is generally only a conclusion as to whether the constitutional intent is to provide a presently effective rule, by means of which the right given may be enjoyed and protected and the duties imposed by the enforced without supplementary legislation. 1 Cooley's Constitutional Limitations, pp. 165-172 (8th Ed., 1927; Carrington, ed.); 16 C.J.S. `Constitutional Law' ss 48-60; 16 Am.Jur.2d, `Constitutional Law', Sections 93-100. We applied this principle in Chamberlain v. State Through Dept. of Transp. and Dev., 624 So.2d 874 (La.1993), by parsing each subsection of old Article XII, Section 10. [10] In that case, we determined that Section 10(A) was self-executing because it contained a mandatory provision against sovereign immunity in contract and tort, which established a rule that was effective without an act of the legislature. Id. In contrast, we found that the language and functions of Sections (B) and (C), which allocated power to the legislature employing permissive, legislative waiver language, demonstrated that the latter sections were not self-executing and thus required the legislature to provide supplemental legislation in order for the rule to be effective. Id. at 882. Thus, constitutional provisions that are not self-executing allocate power to the legislature and require the legislature to enact supplemental legislation to carry the rule into effect. Jacobs v. City of Bunkie, 98-2510 (La.5/18/99), 737 So.2d 14, reh'g denied. In Theriot v. Terrebonne Parish Police Jury, 436 So.2d 515 (La.1983), we held that La. Const. art. XII, § 6, which provided, [n]eiher the state nor any of its political subdivisions shall conduct a lottery. Gambling shall be defined by and suppressed by the legislature, was not self-executing. This conclusion was based on the conclusion that while the provisions expressly prohibit lotteries conducted by the state or its political subdivisions, it otherwise leaves the control of gambling to the Legislature. Id. at 517. In a more recent case dealing with the constitutionality of La. R.S. 9:2800, we held that a 1995 amendment to La. Const. art. XII, § 10(C) was not self-executing because it used the permissive language the legislature by law may limit ... the ... liability of the state. Jacobs, supra. There, we stated, [t]he use of this language and the function of the provision indicates that it does not establish a presently effective rule; rather, the provision empowers the legislature to enact a rule limiting the state's liability. Because the provision does not establish a presently effective limit on the state's liability but allocates the power to enact one `by law' to the legislature, we find the provision not self-executing. Id. at p. 6, 737 So.2d at 14. Like the provision found not to be self-executing in Theriot, the constitutional provision at issue in this case, Section (A) of Article XII, Section 5, begins with the mandate that the legislature provide uniform procedures for successions and for the rights of heirs or legatees in testate or intestate successions. This portion of the amendment clearly indicates that the legislature has the power to provide procedural laws relative to successions, laws specifying the rights of heirs or legatees, and laws for testate and intestate successions. Section (A) thus empowers the legislature to enact these laws and is not self-executing. The second sentence in Section (A), which provides that forced heirship is abolished in Louisiana, except as provided in Paragraph (B), necessarily must be read in context with Paragraph (B). Paragraph (B) contains several mandates to the legislature to take certain actions relative to classifying forced heirs and to define the forced portion reserved to heirs and the grounds for disinherison. It also contains a permissive grant of power to the legislature providing that it may classify descendants of any age as forced heirs if they are incapable of caring for their persons or administering their estates and authorize the placing of the forced portion into a trust. Article XII, Section 5 is similar to Section (C) of Article XII, Section 10 prior to its amendment which, in Chamberlain, was found to be a non self-executing provision. In Chamberlain, we found that the language and function of Section (C), which allocated power to the legislature, demonstrated that the section was not self-executing, and thus, required the legislature to provide supplemental legislation in order for the rule to be effective. Similarly, the language in both sections of Article XII, Section 5 require the legislature to provide supplemental legislation relative to forced heirship. The amendment specifically stated that forced heirship was abolished, but only after the legislature took the actions mandated in Section (B). Because these provisions allocate power to the legislature, thereby requiring it to enact supplemental legislation to carry the rule into effect, they are not self-executing. Jacobs, 98-2510 at p. 6, 737 So.2d 14. Further support for our conclusion that Article XII, Section 5 is not self-executing comes from the legislative and jurisprudential history of forced heirship and the apparent understanding of the voters who approved the constitutional amendment that the law in effect on December 31, 1995, would view all children as forced heirs. Additional support comes from the legislature's decision to specify that the law in effect on December 31, 1995, which is the day before all the provisions of Act 1180 became effective, would govern the successions of those testators who did not effectively assert their intent to be governed by the law in effect at the time of their death. The legislature obviously believed that the law in effect on December 31, 1995, was that all children were forced heirs. To construe the legislative intent in any other way would render meaningless the transitional statute in La. R.S. 9:2501 because if the law in effect on December 31, 1995, was almost identical to the one in effect when the testator died, adult children would not be considered forced heirs in either circumstance. As explained above, the 1995 amendment to Article XII, Section 5 must be interpreted to provide that forced heirship was abolished in this state, subject to the condition that the legislature provide for the classification of certain descendants of the first degree as forced heirs. Consequently, the effectiveness of the constitutional amendment, including the provision that states forced heirship is abolished in this state, was suspended until the legislature provided the supplemental legislation mandated by the constitution, including the classification of forced heirs. We therefore find that the laws defining forced heirs as all children remained intact until the supplemental legislation mandated by the constitutional amendment became effective, which was January 1, 1996. In this case, plaintiffs will be treated as forced heirs because Mr. Boyter's testament did not manifest an intent to deprive his children of their right of reduction.