Legal Question in Family Law in Louisiana

Re: Will in louisiana

Dear LawGuru Friend,

That is a complicated legal problem you have there. Of course, your father-in-law can leave your mother-in-law anything that he owns at the time of his death; and one thing he owned was the useufruct of the property, the house. So that mortis causa (by will) donation was valid. However, there is the question about what interest in the house his children from the first marriage had at the time of his death. Probably, the children each had only the naked ownership (subject to usufruct in favor of the father-in-law) of an undivided interest in the house, which was left to them when their mother died. If so, then upon your father-in-law's death (their father's death), that naked ownership (subject to father-in-law's usufruct over their undivided interests) became "full ownership" each of an undivided interest in the home (father-in-law's estate); which undivided ownership each is subject, according to the will, to the usufruct in favor of your mother-in-law over the father-in-law's ownership in the house (estate) at the time of his death. Result: the mother-in-law has the right to stay put, although the children of the father-in-law may have a claim against her for rental value of their undivided interests in the house. As I say, this is a complicated legal matter.

Finally, your mother-in-law should act promptly, if she has not aleady done so, to probate the will and addendum thereto, and have herself qualified as succession representative (executrix), which puts here "in charge" of the estate; and then these children have to deal with her, rather than her having to deal with them.

There is more to it all than this, but this is something to think about.

Good luck to you all!

With kindest regards, I am

Sincerely,

Hardy Parkerson, Atty.

Lake Charles, LA