Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Louisiana

Re: Louisiana Succession Laws????

I will try to reply to your questions based on the limited (slightly confusing) information you have supplied in your original message.

Louisiana law has very different terms and concepts than any other state in the U.S. (although some of our legal concepts are very similar in many respects). For an intestate succession (i.e., where the deceased has left NO will), Louisiana law contains a variety of rules regarding who will inherit from the deceased. We do not use the term "per stirpes" although decendants generally inherit from their direct parent/ascendant by heads and, more remotely, by roots (like "per stirpes"). In the first scenario/question, you indicate that your mother has died and your grandmother lives in LA. I must presume that your mother also died in LA. If so, and if her succession were opened and completed in LA, her children would be her direct descendants and would, absent any formal disinherison, be entitled to inherit her property in equal shares. If she was married at the time of her death, her surviving spouse--absent a pre-nuptial agreement or legal separation of property--would already own one half of all community property. The surviving spouse would also then be entitled to have a legal "usufruct" (usage and control) over the other half of that community property until his own death or until remarriage--whichever comes first. The children would, in the instance of a surviving spouse, have "naked ownership" of the deceased's property until the surviving spouse dies or remarries. At that point, the children would normally become full owners of the original deceased's property.

Regarding your grandmother's deceased sister and your cousin "taking care of the taxes", if the sister had children and/or a surviving spouse but left no will at her death, the children and/or surviving spouse would be entitled to her property according to the laws of intestacy. If the sister had no children or surviving spouse, her brothers and sisters would be next in line to inherit her property with a legal usufruct going to the deceased's parent(s) if still living. Based on the limited information you have provided at this point, it seems that your grandmother may have some inheritance rights regarding her sister's estate, assuming the sister had no children or surviving spouse. Your cousin may be entitled to be reimbursed for his/her payments of taxes thus far from the sister's estate, but--unless the cousin is a true legal heir under LA law--payment of taxes alone is not going to entitled "Cuz" to keep the property to the exclusion of rightful legal heirs.

I would need to know many more details before I could begin to give accurate advice or a true legal opinion regarding your situation.