LSU Law: Digest of 1808

BOOK III - OF THE DIFFERENT MANNERS OF ACQUIRING THE PROPERTY OF THINGS

PRELIMINARY TITLE - GENERAL DISPOSITIONS

Art. 1. The property of things or goods is acquired.
1^st, By paternal power, this matter has been treated of in the title of father and child.
2^d, By successions.
3^d, By obligations resulting from contracts or covenants.
4^th, By obligations which result from the mere deed of the person without any covenant, such as quasi contracts or quasi offences.
5^th, By accession or incorporation; of this mention has been made in the title of property.
6^th, By occupancy and prescription.
7^th, By judgmnet or by seizure.

TITLE I - OF SUCCESSIONS

CHAPTER I - OF THE DIFFERENT SORTS OF SUCCESSIONS AND HEIRS

Art. 1. Hereditary succession is the manner in which the estate, rights and charges of the deceased, pass to other persons who replace them.

Art. 2. Succession signifies also the estate, rights and charges which a person leaves after his death, whether the property exceeds the charges or the charges exceed the property.

Art. 3. Finally succession signifies also that right by which the heir can take possession of the estate of the deceased, such as it may be.

Art. 4. There are three sorts of successions: to wit.
Testamentary successions;
Legal successions;
And, irregular successions.

Art. 5. Testamentary succession is that which results from an institution of heir, contained in a testament executed in the form prescribed by law. It is treated of this sort of succession under the title of donations inter vivos and mortis causa.

Art. 6. Legal succession is that which the law has established in favor of the nearest relation of the deceased.

Art. 7. Irregular succession is that which is established by law in favor of certain persons, or of the territory, in defect of heirs either legal or instituted by testament.
These two last sorts of successions are the objects of the present title.

Art. 8. The heir whatever be his quality whether legal or testamentary or otherwise, is the person who has become the universal successor of the deceased, possessed of all his property and rights, and held of the charges which that estate is subjected to.

Art. 9. The law does not take into consideration the origin nor the nature of the property in order to regulate the successions.

CHAPTER II - OF LEGAL SUCCESSIONS

SECTION I - GENERAL RULES

Art. 10. If there is no testament or institution of heir, or if the institution is null or without effect, the succession is then open in favor of the heirs legitimate by the mere operation of the law.

Art. 11. There are three classes of legal heirs, to wit:
The children and other lawful descendants.
The fathers and mothers and other lawful ascendants.
And the collateral kindred.

Art. 12. The nearest relation in the descending, ascending or collateral line, conformable to the rules hereafter established, is called to the legal succession.

Art. 13. The propinquity of consanguinity is established by the number of generations, and each generation is called a degree.

Art. 14. The series of degrees form the line, the series of degrees between persons who descend from one another, is called direct or lineal consanguinity; and the series of degrees between persons who do not descend from one another, but spring from a common ancestor, is called collateral line or collateral consanguinity.
The direct line is divided into direct line descending and direct line ascending. The first is that which connects the ancestor with those who descend from him; the second is that which connects a person with those from whom he descends.

Art. 15. In the direct line there are as many degrees as there are generations. Thus the son is, with regard to the father, in the first degree, the grand son in the second, and vice versa with regard to the father and grand father, towards the sons and grand sons.

Art. 16. In the collateral line the degrees are counted by the generations from one of the relatives up to the common ancestor exclusively, and from the common ancestor to the other relation.
Thus two brothers are related in the second degree; uncle and nephew, in the third degree; the cousins german, in the forth, and so on.

Art. 17. In matter of legal successions, no difference of sex, and no right of primogeniture are known; but they are regulated by the most perfect equality.

Art. 18. Representation is a fiction of the law, the effect of which is to put the representative in the place, degree, and rights of the represented.

Art. 19. Representation takes place ad infinitum in the direct descending line.
It is admitted in all cases, whether the children of the deceased concur with the descendants of a before deceased child, or whether all the children having died before him, the descendants of the said children be between them in equal or unequal degrees.

Art. 20. The representation does not take place in favor of the ascendants; the nearest relation in the degree always excluding those of a degree superior when more remote.

Art. 21. In the collateral line, a representation is admitted only in favor of the nephews or nieces, coming to the succession of their uncles and aunts, in place of their fathers or mothers before deceased.

Art. 22. Such representation has three principal effects in favor of the nephews or nieces coming to the succession of their uncles and aunts, to wit:
First, to make them participate to the said succession with the brothers and sisters of the deceased.
Secondly, to give them a preference in such succession over brothers of the half blood, when they are children of a brother or sister of the whole blood.
Thirdly, to give them a preference over the uncles or aunts of the deceased.

Art. 23. When representation takes place in the direct descending line, the partition is made by roots. If the same root has produced several branches, the sub division is likewise made by roots in each branch, and the members of the same branch partake between them by heads. In the collateral line, on the contrary, the partition is not made by roots as aforesaid, except when the nephews or nieces by representation of their fathers or mothers before deceased, come to partake with the brothers or sisters of the deceased; but not so, when they have only to partake between them to the exclusion of other collaterals or otherwise.

Art. 24. Persons deceased only can be represented; persons alive cannot.

Art. 25. One can represent a person to the succession of whom he has renounced.
Thus it is not necessary that the children who succeed by representation, should have been heirs of their father or mother. Although they should have renounced to their succession, they are nevertheless fit to represent them in the succession of their grand father or other ascendants.

Art. 26. When a person has been disinherited by his father or mother, his children cannot represent him in the succession of their grand father or other ascendants, if he is alive at the time of opening the succession; but they can represent him, if deceased before.

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