Louisiana Notary

A Civil Law Tradition

Civil Law Basics

Matrimonial Regimes – Community Property

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Matrimonial Regimes – Community Property

Art. 2339. Fruits and revenues of separate property. The natural and civil fruits of the separate property of a spouse, minerals produced from or attributable to a separate asset, and bonuses, delay rentals, royalties, and shut-in payments arising from mineral leases are community property. Nevertheless, a spouse may reserve them as his separate property as provided in this Article. A spouse may reserve them as his separate property by a declaration made in an authentic act or in an act under private signature duly acknowledged. A copy of the declaration shall be provided to the other spouse prior to the filing of the declaration. As to the fruits and revenues of immovables, the declaration is effective when a copy is provided to the other spouse and the declaration is filed for registry in the conveyance records of the parish in which the immovable property is located. As to fruits of movables, the declaration is effective when a copy is provided to the other spouse and the declaration is filed for registry in the conveyance records of the parish in which the declarant is domiciled.

Matrimonial Regimes – Legal Regime : The Community of Acquets and Gains

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Matrimonial Regimes – Legal Regime : The Community of Acquets and Gains

Art. 2327. Legal regime. The legal regime is the community of acquets and gains established in Chapter 2 of this Title.

Art. 2334. Persons; scope of application of the legal regime. The legal regime of community of acquets and gains applies to spouses domiciled in this state, regardless of their domicile at the time of marriage or the place of celebration of the marriage.

Art. 2335. Classification of property. Property of married persons is either community or separate, except as provided in Article 2341.1.

Matrimonial Regimes – Definition of matrimonial regimes

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Matrimonial Regimes – Definition of matrimonial regimes

Art. 2325. Matrimonial regime. A matrimonial regime is a system of principles and rules governing the ownership and management of the property of married persons as between themselves and toward third persons.

Art. 2326. Kinds of matrimonial regimes. A matrimonial regime may be legal, contractual, or partly legal and partly contractual.

Servitudes – Building restrictions

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Servitudes – Building restrictions

Art. 775. Building restrictions. Building restrictions are charges imposed by the owner of an immovable in pursuance of a general plan governing building standards, specified uses, and improvements. The plan must be feasible and capable of being preserved.

Art. 776. Establishment. Building restrictions may be established only by juridical act executed by the owner of an immovable or by all the owners of the affected immovables. Once established, building restrictions may be amended or terminated as provided in this Title.

Art. 777. Nature and regulation. Building restrictions are incorporeal immovables and real rights likened to pre­dial servitudes. They are regulated by application of the rules governing predial servitudes to the extent that their application is compatible with the nature of building restrictions.

Art. 778. Affirmative duties. Building restrictions may impose on owners of immovables affirmative duties that are reasonable and necessary for the maintenance of the general plan. Building restrictions may not impose upon the owner of an immovable or his successors the obligation to pay a fee or other charge on the occasion of an alienation, lease or encumbrance of the immovable.

Art. 780. Amendment and termination of building restrictions. Building restrictions may be amended, whether such amendment lessens or increases a restriction, or may terminate or be terminated, as provided in the act that establishes them. In the absence of such provision, building restrictions may be amended or terminated for the whole or a part of the restricted area by agreement of owners representing more than one-half of the land area affected by the restrictions, excluding streets and street rights-of-way, if the restrictions have been in effect for at least fifteen years, or by agreement of both owners representing two-thirds of the land area affected and two-thirds of the owners of the land affected by the restrictions, excluding streets and street rights-of-way, if the restrictions have been in effect for more than ten years. 129, §1; Acts 1999, No. 309, §1.

Art. 781. Termination; liberative prescription. No action for injunction or for damages on account of the violation of a building restriction may be brought after two years from the commencement of a noticeable violation. After the lapse of this period, the immovable on which the violation occurred is freed of the restriction that has been violated.

Art. 782. Abandonment of plan or of restriction. Building restrictions terminate by abandonment of the whole plan or by a general abandonment of a particular restriction. When the entire plan is abandoned the affected area is freed of all restriction ; when a particular restriction is abandoned, the affected area is freed of that restriction only.

Servitudes – Renunciation

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Servitudes – Renunciation

Art. 771. Renunciation of servitude. A predial servitude is extinguished by an express and written renunciation by the owner of the dominant estate.

Art. 772. Renunciation by owner. A renunciation of a servitude by a co-owner of the dominant estate does not discharge the servient estate, but deprives him of the right to use the servitude.

Servitudes – Confusion

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Servitudes – Confusion

Art. 765. Confusion. A predial servitude is extinguished when the dominant and the servient estates are acquired in their entirety by the same person·.

Art. 766. Resolutory condition. When the union of the two estates is made under resolutory condition, or if it cease by legal eviction, the servitude is suspended and not extinguished.

Art. 768. Confusion; separate and community property. Confusion does not take place between separate property and community property of the spouses. Thus, if the servient estate belongs to one of the spouses and the dominant estate is acquired as a community asset, the servitude continues to exist.

Art. 769. Irrevocability of extinction by confusion. A servitude that has been extinguished by confusion may be reestablished only in the manner by which a servitude may be created.

Art. 770. Abandonment of servient estate. A predial servitude is extinguished by the abandonment of the servient estate, or of the part on which the servitude is exercised. It must be evidenced by a written act. The owner of the dominant estate is bound to accept it and confusion takes place.

Servitudes – Prescription of nonuse

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Servitudes – Prescription of nonuse

Art. 753. Prescription for nonuse. A predial servitude is extinguished by nonuse for ten years.

Art. 754. Commencement of nonuse. Prescription of nonuse begins to run for affirmative servitudes from the date of their last use, and for negative servitudes from the date of the occurrence of an event contrary to the servitude. An event contrary to the servitude is such as the destruction of works necessary for its exercise or the construction of works that prevent its exercise.

Art. 755. Obstacle to servitude. If the owner of the dominant estate is prevented from using the servitude by an obstacle that he can neither prevent nor remove, the prescription of nonuse is suspended on that account for a period of up to ten years.

Art. 756. Failure to rebuild dominant or servient estate. If the servitude cannot be exercised on account of the destruction of a building or other construction that belongs to the owner of the dominant estate, prescription is not suspended. If the building or other construction belongs to the owner of the servient estate, the preceding article applies.

Art. 757. Sufficiency of acts by third persons. A predial servitude is preserved by the use made of it by anyone, even a stranger, if it is used as appertaining to the dominant estate.

Art. 759. Partial use. A partial use of the servitude constitutes use of the whole.

Art. 762. Use by co-owner. If the dominant estate is owned in indivision, the use that a co-owner makes of· the servitude prevents the running of prescription as to all. If the dominant estate is partitioned, the use of the servitude by each owner preserves it for his estate only.