Opinion ID: 1113494
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Early Law

Text: As a possession of the United States, the vast Territory of Louisiana was broken into smaller territories with approximately what came to be the State of Louisiana being declared the Territory of Orleans. The first legislature of the Territory of Orleans was appointed by Congress and, in turn, this legislature appointed commissioners to codify the existing laws then in force in the Territory. The commissioners' completed compilation, A Digest of the Civil Laws now in Force in the Territory of Orleans with Alterations and Amendments Adapted to its Present Form of Government, was adopted by the legislature in 1808. This original version of the Civil Code largely reflected the French laws on forced heirship with the notable exception that the Spanish laws on quantum of the légitime were codified. Specifically, La.Civ.Code art. 22 (1808) provided that a parent's donations 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. The Civil Code of 1808 also adopted the Spanish rules regarding disinherison, but omitted any reference to the Spanish concept of mejora. This original version of the Louisiana Civil Code was revised in 1825. The 1825 revisions increased the disposable portion and, now tracking the French Civil Code, graduated this portion based on the decedent's number of children. With respect to the increased disposable portion, the reasons for the amendment state: D'après le voeu généralement manifesté de laisser aux pères plus de liberté dans la disposition de leurs biens, nous avons augmenté considérablement la portion disponible, [28] or We have increased considerably the disposable portion in consequence of the general wish in favor of parents having more liberty in the disposition of their property. [29] Thus, as was the case with each of the legal systems from which Louisiana drew its forced heirship laws, this state demonstrated early on that the institution of forced heirship was not a static concept, but rather was subject to revision to foster varying social desires or concerns. Following these changes in the disposable portion, the laws relating to forced heirship generally remained unchanged until the Civil Code was again revised in 1870. With the 1870 revision, La.Civ.Code art. 916 (1870) was enacted, introducing the surviving spouse usufruct into Louisiana law. While Article 916 did not further enlarge the disposable portion, it did diminish the descendant-forced heir's legitime by allowing part of it to be encumbered with a usufruct, thereby depriving the forced heir of his right of immediate possession of the légitime. After the turn of the century, in another change to Louisiana's doctrine of forced heirship, the Louisiana legislature essentially reduced the forced portion by enacting 1914 La.Acts No. 189. Therein, the legislature exempted the proceeds and avails of life insurance policies from claims of heirs of the insured when the policy was made payable to a designated beneficiary. Under this provision, a testator could name a non-forced heir as the beneficiary of a life insurance policy and the testator's forced heirs would not be able to seek reduction of the life insurance proceeds. See, e.g., Succession of Dumestre, 174 La. 482, 141 So. 35 (1932). Six years later, the Louisiana Legislature allowed, as with the surviving spouse usufruct, for further deprivation of immediate possession of the legitime with 1920 La.Acts No. 107. In this Act, the Louisiana Legislature introduced a limited form of trust into Louisiana law. The trusts authorized by Act 107 allowed a testator to have a third party administer the legitime for the benefit of the forced heir with the forced heir only entitled to receive the income from the trust annually. Moreover, Section 8 of Act 107 expressly repealed any laws regarding the legitime insofar as those laws conflicted with the purpose of the Act. The legislature's approval of trusts in 1920 was regarded by many as an infiltration of common law doctrines into Louisiana to the detriment of civil law principles prohibiting substitutions and fidei commissa. [30] So strong were these sentiments for one Louisiana legislator that one year after the passage of Act 107, he proposed a constitutional amendment limiting the legislature's authority to approve of trusts in Louisiana. [31] As somewhat of an incidental matter, the proposed amendment also provided constitutional protection for the institution of forced heirship. [32] Although that portion of the proposal addressing trusts was substantively amended before passage, the prohibition of the abolition of forced heirship was included in the 1921 Constitution with only minor editorial changes. [33] Thus, forced heirship became a constitutionally protected institution under La. Const. Art. IV, Sec. 16 (1921). After the adoption of the 1921 Constitution, this court in Succession of Earhart, 57 So.2d 695 (La.1952), was called upon to interpret the meaning to be given to the first clause of Article IV, Section 16No law shall be passed abolishing forced heirship in light of that Section's latter grant of authoritythe legislature may authorize the creation of trust estates. Indeed, Earhart was the only case prior to the adoption of the 1974 Constitution which pointedly addressed how to resolve the conflict between the abolition clause and its adjoining constitutional grant of authority to the legislature to authorize trusts. In Earhart the plaintiff-forced heir complained of a provision in his decedent-father's will which placed the legitime in trust. The plaintiff argued the legislature's enactment of statutes which allowed for trusts and which could be used to deprive the forced heir of immediate possession of his legitime violated the constitutional prohibition against abolition of forced heirship. Relying on the 1921 Constitution's grant of authority to the legislature to create certain limited-term trust estates, this court concluded the Framers of that constitution regarded the creation of such trusts as not being an abolition of forced heirship. Accordingly, the forced heir's claim was rejected. Following our decision in Earhart, Article IV, Section 16 of the 1921 Constitution was amended several times, generally granting the legislature greater freedom in the creation of trusts. [34] Despite these amendments, the language of the prohibiting clause was never strengthened. More importantly, despite the Earhart court's recognition that forced heirship is not abolished when the legislature exercises the constitutional authority given to it under the same provision, the Constitution of 1974 further expanded the legislature's authority under that provision. [35]