Succession of Kunemann

Citations

• 115 La. 604
• 39 So. 702
• 1905 La. LEXIS 706

Syllabus

<p>Descent and Distribution — Surviving Wife — Marital Fourth.</p> <p>The deceased (Kunemann), having no occupation and no means, lived during his marriage at his wife’s house, and was entirely supported by her out of her earnings. Neither of the spouses had the advantages of riches at that time.</p> <p>About 10 years .after his death it was brought to light that he was the owner of a number of shares of stock in France, the usufruct of which belonged to a third person and which usufruct terminated after Kunemann’s death. The stocks were sold and realized between $11,000 and $12,000. In a contest over the final account of administration of his succession, between his mother, as Ms forced heir, and the widow, claiming the marital fourth, in the district court, the claim of the widow was rejected. She appealed.</p> <p>Held, the right to the marital fourth is a statute right, which can only be claimed under the conditions and for the purposes contemplated by it. It cannot be said in this case that the husband died rich, leaving his wife in necessitous circumstances. Of the two spouses the wife at the time of her husband’s death was the better off pecuniarily of the two. So far from any means left by the husband enabling her to continue for a period at least in comparative affluence, or his death changing her condition suddenly for the worse (which has several times been held to be the object and purpose of the statute), his death relieved her from pecuniary obligations existing up to that time. To recognize the claim of the widow arising from a state of facts developing 10 years after her husband’s death would not be to continue her in a prior condition of comparative affluence, but to place her in a new position, which she had never occupied before.</p> <p>(Syllabus by the Court.)</p>