Sprowl v. Lockett

• Decision Date: 05 January 1903
• Docket Number: 14,333
• Citation: 33 So. 911,109 La. 894
• Court: Louisiana Supreme Court
• Parties: SPROWL et al. v. LOCKETT et al

33 So. 911

109 La. 894

SPROWL et al. v. LOCKETT et al

No. 14,333

Supreme Court of Louisiana

January 5, 1903

Rehearing denied March 16, 1903.

Appeal from judicial district court, parish of Red River; Charles V Porter, Judge.

Petition by L. P. Sprowl and others against N. M. Lockett and others for revendication of property under a lost will. Exception of no cause of action, maintaining plaintiffs' appeal. Affirmed.

John Daniel Roach, for appellants.

Wilkinson & Carter (Alexander & Wilkinson, of counsel), for appellees.

OPINION

MONROE, J.

The relevant allegations in the petition in this case are substantially, as follows:

That petitioners are the only surviving children of Wm. Sprowl who died insolvent in the parish of Red River; that his brother, Jonathan Sprowl, with his wife, Nancy Barker, in 1862, by authority of a special statute, and by notarial act, adopted Alice L. Hammett; that in January, 1864, Mrs Sprowl died without issue; that in July of that year Jonathan Sprowl married Mrs. Nancy M. Long, and thereafter, in community with her, acquired property in this state; that in January, 1869, Miss Hammett married A. J. Lawson; that the adoption of Miss Hammett was illegal originally, because not authorized by the general law, but, if legal at all, ceased of effect after the death of the adoptive mother, and the emancipation, by marriage, of the adopted daughter, who, by reason of those events, lost her right, if any she had, to inherit from the adoptive father to the prejudice of heirs of the blood or testamentary heirs, and could not inherit the property acquired by him during the second community; that, "prior to his death," Jonathan Sprowl made a will, leaving all of his property to the children of his brother William, which will has been "lost, destroyed, or burned"; that he died in 1877, and that petitioners were entitled to be put in possession of his estate, but that his widow and the husband of his adopted daughter were appointed administrators, and administered the estate; that in 1882 the widow and adopted daughter, by notarial act, partitioned the estate between them, and that all of said acts were illegal and in fraud of petitioners' rights, because, under the law of Louisiana, "no adopted heir can inherit to the prejudice of the forced, or testamentary, heirs, or heirs of blood relations"; that in 1867 A. J. Lawson sold to Jonathan Sprowl certain land (describing it) for a nominal sum, and that in 1874 Sprowl sold said land, with other land and movables, to Mrs. Lawson, and that both sales were simulated for the purpose of turning over to Mrs. Lawson the interest that Sprowl intended that she should have in his succession; that, after the death of Jonathan Sprowl, his widow married J. M. Lockett, and that she and Lawson leased to third persons a plantation that had belonged to the community existing between her and the decedent, and that, after the death of his wife, Lawson caused his children to be put in possession of the property of the estate of said decedent. They pray for citation and judgment against Mrs. Lockett, Lawson, individually and as tutor, and against...