Laffitte v. LaffitteLaffitte v. Laffitte
This appeal is from a judgment of the District Court rescinding and vacating an order issued on petition of plaintiff, Alice Faye Bumbard Laffitte, directing defendant, James Laffitte, to appear and be examined as a judgment debtor.
Plaintiff filed a petition to examine defendant as a judgment debtor, alleging that a money judgment was rendered in her favor against her former husband by the Second Circuit Court of Appeal in Suit No. 11,345 on the docket of the appellate court. See Laffitte v. Laffitte, 232 So.2d 92 (La.App.2d Cir. 1970). The judgment of the Court of Appeal recognized plaintiff as the owner of an undivided one-half interest in the account credited to defendant in the employees’ profit sharing plan of Hendrix Manufacturing Company, Inc., which account totaled $7,905.51 as of the date of dissolution of the community of acquets and gains formerly existing between plaintiff and defendant. Defendant answered denying the judgment rendered by the Court of Appeal was a money judgment and denying plaintiff‘s right to examine him as a judgment debtor.
The District Court held that plaintiff‘s interest in the profit sharing plan account (which is payable only in the event of defendant‘s retirement or death) is no greater than defendant‘s interest and is subject to all of the conditions under which the account was established. The Court further held that while the Court of Appeal judgment recognized plaintiff‘s interest in the account it was not a money judgment against defendant and plaintiff had no right to examine defendant as a judgment debtor.
We affirm the judgment of the District Court.
The judgment upon which plaintiff relies was rendered by this Court in a suit brought by plaintiff against defendant for partition of their community property. The parties agreed on the division and disposition of all assets except the profit sharing
“The judgment appealed from is reversed and set aside, and for the reasons assigned Alice Faye Bumbard Laffitte is granted judgment herein declaring her to be owner of a one-half undivided share of the account credited to James Laffitte in the employees profit sharing plan of the Hendrix Manufacturing Company, Inc. as of November 7, 1968 and which totaled as of that date $7,905.51.”
The language of the judgment itself is plain, unambiguous and presents no problem of interpretation. It is a declaration of ownership only. It is not a money judgment. It contains no language which could be construed as ordering defendant to pay any sum of money to plaintiff.
The judgment being a declaration of ownership and not for the payment of money, plaintiff has no right to examine defendant as a judgment debtor pursuant to the procedure established by Articles 2451 et seq. of the
Plaintiff contends that the statement in the Court‘s opinion that “defendant is accountable to the plaintiff for her one-half undivided share thereof” means that defendant is presently indebted to or should pay to plaintiff a sum equal to one-half of the account. The quoted phrase means only that to the extent defendant has control of the account as the designated participant therein, he is accountable to plaintiff for her share at such time as the proceeds are available.
Plaintiff urges that she should not have to wait until defendant‘s retirement or death to receive her share, that she should not be compelled to hold this asset in indivision with defendant, and that the only effective means of partition in this instance is a money judgment in her favor against defendant. Plaintiff cites Messersmith v. Messersmith, 229 La. 495, 86 So.2d 169 (1956) and Broyles v. Broyles, 215 So.2d 526 (La.App. 1st Cir. 1968) as authority for the granting of a money judgment as a means of effecting a partition of a community assert such as is involved here.
In Messersmith, the Court held that a provision in a corporate charter prohibiting the transfer of stock without the stockholder first offering the stock to his co-share-holders or officers of the corporation did not negative the wife‘s present interest as a co-owner with her husband in whose name the stock was registered, and that the wife was entitled, upon dissolution of the community, to a division of the stock in kind and to exclusive control of her vested interest therein. Messersmith is consistent with the decision in the instant case in that it recognized the wife‘s vested, present co-ownership of the asset in question. There the asset was partitioned in kind contrary to the husband‘s plea that he should retain the stock and pay his wife one-half of the value.
Broyles is not applicable here because in that case the asset involved (the husband‘s interest in a Teachers’ Retirement Fund) was held to be his separate property and the husband was held to be indebted to his former wife for reimbursement of one-half of the community money paid into the fund. In the instant case, the asset is community property and plaintiff‘s rights are in the asset itself—not a claim for reimbursement for expenditure of community funds.
This Court in its previous decision did not order a partition of the profit
For the reasons assigned, the judgment appealed from is affirmed.
Affirmed.