Moore v. Succession of Moore
Moore v. Succession of Moore
Opinion of the Court
His Honor,
rendered the opinion and decree of the Court, as follows:
Plaintiffs, adjudicatees at a judicial sale ordered at the instance of the executrix in the Succession of John T. Moore, Jr., defendant herein, declined to take the property bid in by them and sued for the return of their deposits. They now appeal from a judgment rejecting their demands and ordering them to comply with the adjudication.
It is contended that the sale is null because the succession was finally closed and the probate Court shorn of jurisdiction by its decree homologating a final account and tableau of distribution of the executrix rendered several years prior to the order of sale in question.
It is true that the account was termed by the executrix and in the judgment homologating same as a final one, but that fact alone does not constitute it such.
An examination of the proceeding discloses that the account showed on its face not sufficient cash to pay the debts recognized thereon; that the proposed distribution of the assets was tentative, based entirely upon estimated inventory values that were in fact never realized; and that the executrix therein proposed that it would be necessary thereafter to secure an order of sale of the movables for the purpose of liquidating the debts. Such an order of sale with respect to the movables was in fact obtained long
Under, these circumstances it is impossible to hold that the succession has been finally closed or that the jurisdiction of the probate Court wherein it was being administered had terminated.
The case of Barton v. Burbank, 138 La., 997, is in point while the authorities upon which plaintiffs rely, namely, Succession of Aranstein, 51 A., 1052; Succession of Messiah, 52 A., 1158; and Graeff v. Graeff, 4 Ct. of App., 68, disclose either that there had been a fixed and actual distribution or that no further act of administration or accounting was required.
As to the remaining contentions of plaintiffs, it suffices to state that they need not concern themselves as to the qualifications of the executrix at whose instance the sale was provoked or as to the necessity of such sale. As to these matters they are fully protected if the Court ordering the sale is vested with jurisdiction as we hold it is. ■
The judgment is accordingly affirmed.
Affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.