48 La. Ann. 572 | La. | 1896
The opinion of the court was delivered by
The suit is by the father to set aside conveyances to his daughter, the defendant. The petition alleges the acts, in form, sales, were in fact donations, dispossessed him of all he possessed; that his daughter has failed to provide for him and has-been ungrateful. The answer is that the property, the subject of the acts, did not belong in full ownership to plaintiff, was part of the community between plaintiff and his deceased wife, plaintiff’s mother, or belonged to her as dotal property; that plaintiff as tutor was indebted to defendant, made the conveyances in satisfaction of her
The alleged ingratitude, the ground to annul the conveyances to defendant, is, in our view, not sustained, nor sought to be maintained in argument. Instead of dispossessing himself of all his property we find the plaintiff at a later period made conveyances to his second wife, and died still owner of some property. The acts stand unaffected in these respects.
There is testimony to support an indebtedness of the plaintiff to his daughter, the defendant, for her share in her mother’s succession opened years ago and never closed. The record indicates the plaintiff’s mother had property for which her heir may have a claim against her father. On the other hand, it is shown that as might well be expected in the years since the death of the mother, there were remittances of money by the father to the daughter, a resident of Prance, and it is insisted that his liability to his daughter arising from his tutorship or otherwise has long since been discharged. Still in 1890, there is his letter expressing his desire to settle the amount due on his tutorship, referred to as six thousand dollars. Whatever the state of the accounts between plaintiff and daughter it is apparent, there was no adjustment on which his conveyances to her can be sustained as dations en paiement.
The reconventional demand for the annulling the conveyances by the father to his second wife can have no adjudication in this case, to which she is no party, waiving any opinion whether such a demand by a child during the life of the father can be maintained. The
In the record there is the proof and admission of the second marriage, and there has been in this court much discussion of the relations of the parties and the rights arising out of the marriage. We omit expressing any opinion of the points involved in that discussion. The issue is the effect of the conveyances to the defendant, and maintaining them as donations, preserves the rights of defendant and at the same time protects any rights that may arise from the second marriage. We decide no issue except to maintain the acts as donations.
It is therefore ordered, adjudged and decreed that the judgment of the lower court be amended so as to maintain the conveyances of plaintiff to defendant as donations inter vivos and in other respects be affirmed,' the costs of the lower court to be paid by plaintiff, those of this court by defendant.