Table of Contents

TITLE IX - OF PERSONS INSANE, IDIOTS, AND OTHER PERSONS INCAPABLE OF ADMINISTERING THEIR ESTATE

 

CHAPTER I - OF THE INTERDICTION AND CURATORSHIP OF PERSONS INCAPABLE OF ADMINISTERING THEIR ESTATE, WHETHER ON ACCOUNT OF INSANITY OR OF SOME OTHER INFIRMITY

Art. 1. Every person above the age of puberty, who is subject to an habitual state of madness or insanity, shall not be allowed to take charge of his own person, nor to administer his estate, although such person shall, at times, appear to be reasonable.

Art. 2. The minor under the age of puberty who is insane, ought not to be interdicted.  A guardian shall be appointed to him, as a minor only, until such time as he shall have arrived at the age of puberty.

Art. 3. Every relation has a right to petition for the interdiction of a relation, and so has every husband a right to petition for the interdiction of his wife, and every wife of her husband.

Art. 4. If the insane has no relations and is not married, or if his relations or consort do not act, the interdiction may be solicited by any stranger or pronounced ex officio by the judge.

Art. 5. Every interdiction shall be pronounced by the judge of the parish of the domicil or residence of the person to be interdicted.

Art. 6. The acts of madness, insanity or fury must be proved to the satisfaction of the judge, that he may be enabled to pronounce the interdiction; and this proof may be established as well by written as by parol evidence.
The judge may moreover interrogate or cause to be interrogated by any other person commissioned by him, for that purpose, the person whose interdiction is petitioned for, or cause such person to be examined by physicians or other skilful persons in order to obtain their report upon oath on the real situation of him who is stated to be of unsound mind.

Art. 7. Pending the issue of the petition for interdiction, the judge may if he deems it proper, appoint for the preservation of the moveable and for the administration of the immoveable estate of the defendant an administrator pro tempore.

Art. 8. Every judgment by which an interdiction is pronounced, shall be provisionally executed notwithstanding the appeal.

Art. 9. In case of appeal, the superior court may, if they deem it necessary, proceed to the hearing of new proofs, and question or cause to be questioned, as above provided, the person whose interdiction is petitioned for, in order to ascertain the state of his mind.

Art. 10. On every petition for interdiction, the cost of suit shall be paid out of the estate of the defendant, if he shall be interdicted, and by the petitioner if the interdiction prayed for shall not be pronounced.

Art. 11. Every sentence of interdiction shall be published three times in at least two of the news papers printed in New-Orleans, or made known by advertisements at the door of the court house of the parish of the domicil of the person interdicted, both in the french and english languages and this duty is imposed upon him who shall be appointed curator of the person interdicted, and shall be performed within a month after the date of said interdiction, under the penalty of being answerable for all damages to such persons as may, through ignorance, have contracted with the person interdicted.

Art. 12. No petition for interdiction, if the same shall have once been rejected, shall be acted upon again, unless new facts happening posterior to the sentence, shall be alledged.

Art. 13. The interdiction takes place from the day of presenting the petition for the same.

Art. 14. All acts done by the person interdicted from the date of the filing the petition for interdiction, until the day when the same is pronounced by a final judgment, are null.

Art. 15. No act anterior to the petition for the interdiction shall be annulled, except where it shall be proved that the cause of such interdiction notoriously existed at the time when the deeds, the validity of which being contested, were made, and that the party who contracted with the lunatic or insane person, could not have been deceived as to the situation of his mind.

Art. 16. After the death of a person interdicted, the validity of acts done by him or her cannot be contested, for cause of insanity, unless the interdiction was pronounced, or petitioned for previous to the death of such person.

Art. 17. Within a month, to reckon from the date of the judgment of interdiction, if there has been no appeal from the same, or if there has been an appeal, then within a month from the confirmative sentence, it shall be the duty of the judge of the parish of the domicil or residence of the person interdicted, to appoint a curator to his person and estate.

Art. 18. This appointment is made according to the same forms, as the appointment to the guardianship of minors.
After the appointment of the curator to the person interdicted, the duties of the administrator pro tempore, if he shall not have been appointed curator, are at an end; and he shall give an account of his administration to the curator.

Art. 19. The married woman who is interdicted, is of course under the curatorship of her husband.- Nevertheless it is the duty of the husband in such a case, to cause to be appointed by the judge a curator ad litem who may appear for the wife interdicted, in every case when she may have an interest in opposition to the interest of her husband, or one of a nature to be pursued or defended jointly with his.

Art. 20. The wife may be appointed curatrix to her husband, if she has, in other respects, the necessary qualifications.

Art. 21. No one, except the husband with respect to his wife, or wife with respect to her husband, the relations in the ascending line with respect to the relations in the descending line, and, vice versa, the relations in the descending line with respect to the relations in the ascending line, can be compelled to act as curator, to a person interdicted, more than ten years, after which time the curator may petition for his discharge.

Art. 22. The person interdicted, is, in every respect, like the minor who has not arrived at the age of puberty, both as it respects his person and estate and the rules respecting the guardianship of the minor, concerning the oath, the inventory and the security, the mode of administering, the sale of the estate, the commission on the revenues, the excuses, the exclusion or deprivation of the guardianship, the mode of rendering the accounts, and the other obligations apply with respect to the curatorship of the person interdicted.

Art. 23. When any of the children of the person interdicted, is to be married, the dowry or advance of money to be drawn from his estate, is to be regulated by the judge with the advice of the meeting of the family.

Art. 24. According to the symptoms of the disease under which the person interdicted labors, and according to the amount of his estate, the judge may order that the interdicted person be attended in his own house, or that he be placed in a bettering house, or indeed if he be so deranged as to be dangerous, he may order him to be confined in safe custody.

Art. 25. The revenues of the person interdicted, shall be employed essentially in mitigating his sufferings, and in accelerating his cure, under the penalty against the curator, in case he shall be guilty of neglect in that respect, of being sentenced to pay a fine which shall not exceed five hundred dollars, nor be less than fifty dollars, and even to be deprived of the curatorship, if the case shall require it.

Art. 26. He who petitions for the interdiction of any person and fails in obtaining such interdiction, may be prosecuted for and sentenced to pay damages, if he shall have acted from motives of interest or passion.

Art. 27. Interdiction ends with the causes which gave rise to it.  Nevertheless the person interdicted cannot resume the exercise of his rights until after the definitive judgment by which the repeal of the interdiction is pronounced.

Art. 28. Interdiction cannot be repealed, but according to the formalities which were observed in pronouncing it.

Art. 29. Not only lunatics and idiots are liable to be interdicted; but likewise all persons, who, owing to certain infirmities, are incapable of administering their persons and their estates, as is the case with those who are deaf and dumb.
Such persons shall be placed under the care of a curator, who shall be appointed and shall administer in conformity with the rules contained in the present chapter.

Art. 30. Interdicting is not allowed on account of profligacy or prodigality.

 

CHAPTER II -  OF THE OTHER PERSONS TO WHOM CURATORS ARE APPOINTED

Art. 31. If a person be absent from the territory, without having appointed any person to administer his estate, and if it should be necessary to appoint some one for that purpose, the judge shall name a curator to administer on such estate according to the rules prescribed in the title of absent persons.

Art. 32. If a widow happens to be pregnant at the time of the death of her husband, no guardian shall be appointed to the child till after his birth. But if it should be necessary, the judge may appoint a curator for the preservation of the rights of the child who may be born, and for the administration of the estate which may belong to said child.

Art. 33. If a succession happens to be without heirs or executors, as if the deceased left behind him no relations nor instituted any person his heir by will, or that he who had a right to succeed had renounced the succession, or were absent, or that during the time he was deliberating about accepting the succession and refused in the mean while to intermeddle, it shall be the duty of the judge to appoint a curator to the inheritance for the purpose of attending to the preservation of the estate belonging to the said inheritance and to the administration of said estate as it is prescribed in the chapter of vacant successions, title "of successions."

Art. 34. When a debtor surrenders his estate for the benefit of his creditors, they may cause to be appointed by the judge a curator whose duty it shall be to take care of such estate, or they may appoint some one or more amongst them under he name of syndics or assignees, to have the management of said estate.




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