Heirs of Ledoux v. Lavedan

Citations

• 52 La. Ann. 311

Syllabus

<p>Syllabus.</p> <p>Tie purport and effect of confiscation proceedings and sale of property on tlie ultimate title of the confiscatee after his pardon and subsequent death, find their best expression in the jurisprudence of the Supreme Court of the united States, which is, necessarily, binding on this court, as they are the final arbiters of all questions founded on laws of Congress.</p> <p>As by that court it has been decided that the effect of such proceedings was to leave in the confiscatee no estate or interest of any description, which he could convey by deed, and no power which he could exercise in favor of another; and that it' was the intention of Congress in enacting such laws that their benefit should enure to his heirs exclusively, and to enable them to take the inheritance after his death, we must, necessarily, hold, that such was the effect of the confiscation after the death of Hyams, and that the title to the property in question vested in his heirs.</p> <p>As it has been decided, also, that after confiscations the fee simple title was withheld, exclusively for the benefit of the heirs, and that they alone could take it at the termination of the life estate which was conveyed to the purchaser at confiscation sale, it is the duty of this court to give a like effect to the title of the heirs at the death of I-Xyams.</p> <p>The motive and object of the constitutional ordinance declaring that confiscation should not work the corruption of blood in the confiscatee, was evidently to save the rights of his heirs, while df vesting absolutely and entirely all his beneficial interest in the property confiscated. It was the manifest purpose of Congress, as an incident of the war power of the government, to deprive him of ail control over his property, and that amnesty, while the property remained in the possession of the purchaser at confiscation sale, should only invest the confiscatee with the more perfect means of transmitting title to his heirs at his death.