Laffitte v. Laffitte

• Court: Court of Appeal of Louisiana
• Writing for the Court: HALL
• Citation: Laffitte v. Laffitte, 253 So.2d 120 (La. App. 1971)
• Decision Date: 08 September 1971
• Docket Number: No. 11654,11654
• Parties: Alice Faye Bumbard LAFFITTE, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. James LAFFITTE, Defendant-Appellee.

Page 120

253 So.2d 120

Alice Faye Bumbard LAFFITTE, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. James LAFFITTE, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 11654.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Second Circuit.

Sept. 8, 1971.

Love, Rigby, Donovan, Dehan & Love, by R. J. Donovan, Jr., Shreveport, for plaintiff-appellant.

W. Charles Brown, Mansfield, for defendant-appellee.

Before AYRES, HEARD and HALL, JJ.

HALL, Judge.

This appeal is from a judgment of the District Court rescinding and vacating an order issued on petition of plaintiff, Alice Faye Bumbard Laffitte, directing defendant, James Laffitte, to appear and be examined as a judgment debtor.

Plaintiff filed a petition to examine defendant as a judgment debtor, alleging that a money judgment was rendered in her favor against her former husband by the Second Circuit Court of Appeal in Suit No. 11,345 on the docket of the appellate court. See Laffitte v. Laffitte, 232 So.2d 92 (La.App.2d Cir. 1970). The judgment of the Court of Appeal recognized plaintiff as the owner of an undivided one-half interest in the account credited to defendant in the employees' profit sharing plan of Hendrix Manufacturing Company, Inc., which account totaled $7,905.51 as of the date of dissolution of the community of acquets and gains formerly existing between plaintiff and defendant. Defendant answered denying the judgment rendered by the Court of Appeal was a money judgment and denying plaintiff's right to examine him as a judgment debtor.

The District Court held that plaintiff's interest in the profit sharing plan account (which is payable only in the event of defendant's retirement or death) is no greater than defendant's interest and is subject to all of the conditions under which the account was established. The Court further held that while the Court of Appeal judgment recognized plaintiff's interest in the account it was not a money judgment against defendant and plaintiff had no right to examine defendant as a judgment debtor.

We affirm the judgment of the District Court.

The judgment upon which plaintiff relies was rendered by this court in a suit brought by plaintiff against defendant for partition of their community property. The parties agreed on the division and disposition of all assets except the profit sharing account. Plaintiff claimed the account was community property and defendant claimed it was his separate property. The Court of Appeal, reversing a decision of the District Court, held that the account was 'property' acquired during the marriage and, therefore, 'constituted an asset of the community.' The Court further held that the rights earned by defendant in the profit sharing plan are as of the date of dissolution of the marriage 'owned in indivision' by plaintiff and defendant and 'defendant is accountable to the plaintiff for her one-half undivided share thereof.' Judgment was rendered as follows:

'The judgment appealed from is reversed and set aside, and for the reasons assigned Alice Faye Bumbard Laffitte is granted judgment herein declaring her to be owner of a one-half undivided share of the account credited to James Laffitte in the employees profit sharing plan of the Hendrix Manufacturing Company, Inc. as of November 7, 1968 and which totaled as of that date $7,905.51.'

The language of the judgment itself is plain, unambiguous and presents no problem of interpretation. It is a declaration of ownership only. It is not a money judgment. It contains no language which could be construed as ordering defendant to pay any sum of money to plaintiff.

The judgment being a declaration of ownership and not for the payment of money, plaintiff has no right to examine defendant as a judgment debtor pursuant to the procedure established by Articles 2451 et seq. of the LSA--Code of Civil Procedure as an aid in the execution of money judgments.

Plaintiff contends that the statement in the Court's opinion that 'defendant Is accountable to the plaintiff...