Griffith v. Alcocke

Citations

• 113 La. 514
• 37 So. 47
• 1904 La. LEXIS 669

Syllabus

<p>DONATION INTEB VIVOS — MOKTQAGE BY DONEE —EOBECLOSUBE—BIGHTS OE DONOB’S CHILDBEN — DEED—VALIDITY.</p> <p>LA son executed in favor of his mother an act in the form of a donation inter vivos. He subsequently married, and died insolvent, leaving three children. The mother ■ executed notes in favor of two creditors of the son, and secured payment of the same by special mortgages on the property donated. The son signed the two acts of mortgage as a witness, and also signed, in solido, with the mother, the notes which she executed. After the death of the son, under the foreclosure by one of the mortgage creditors of his mortgage, the other mortgage creditor became the adjudieatee of the property. The entire price of the adjudication was applied to the payment of the two mortgage creditors of the father.</p> <p>The children brought suit against the adjudicatee, claiming an undivided two-thirds interest in the property as owners, as their legitime, together with two-thirds of the rents of the property from the date of the father’s death.</p> <p>Held, for reasons assigned, that their claim was not well founded.</p> <p>It is a matter of frequent occurrence for parties, from different motives, to place the legal title of their property in the name of another under acts whose recitals do not correctly state the facts, of the case. Such acts not only are not necessarily absolutely null, but they are not voidable if no law has thereby been transgressed and the cause of the same was legitimate. Civ. Code_, art. 1900.</p> <p>One of the objects most frequently had in view is the conferring upon another person the widest powers of an agency, clothing him with all the rights which result from the indicia of an absolute ownership.</p> <p>(Syllabus by the Court.)</p>