ESTATE OF OPAL STELLA REEVES VIOLA v. CYNTHIA ANGONA LACASSIN GUILLORY (2023)

Writ application denied.

Based on the showing made in this particular matter, and considering the convoluted factual and procedural posture in which this matter arrives before us, I join the denial of writ. I write separately to express my concerns as to some issues presented.

Our Louisiana Revised Statutes contain multiple provisions dealing with payable-on-death accounts.¹ The provision brought before us by the applicant in this matter, La. R.S. 6:314, has not been significantly considered by this Court, or the various courts of appeal. That provision is generally intended to protect a bank from liability for paying funds from a payable-on-death account to a named party. The various payable-on-death provisions allow access to funds of a specified account. Whether such payable-on-death provisions extend further to create an additional method for transfer of ownership is a different question, a question of importance that must be considered in concert with Civil Code Article 870.² For instance, this issue arising from the Louisiana Uniform Transfer on Death Security Registration Act found at La. R.S. 9:1711, et seq. has been addressed by at least one court of appeal.³ The need to clarify the law in this and related areas will certainly be compounded by the apparent proliferation of payable-on-death accounts. I invite the legislature to address this issue.

Regarding this concurrence in the denial of writ in this specific matter, I reiterate that “[a] writ denial by this Court has no precedential value.” St. Tammany Manor, Inc. v. Spartan Bldg. Corp., 509 So. 2d 424, 428 (La. 1987); see also, Barham, The Importance of Writ Denials, 21 Loy. L. Rev. 835 (1975). Therefore, I would also expressly leave unresolved the question of whether the lower courts may have too broadly applied La. R.S. 6:314.

FOOTNOTES

1.   See e.g., La. R.S. 6:314, 653.1, 766.1, 1255.

2.   Statutorily providing the modes of acquiring ownership, La. C.C. art. 870 A provides that “[t]he ownership of things or property is acquired by succession either testate or intestate, by the effect of obligations, and by the operation of law.”

3.   The Louisiana Uniform Transfer on Death Security Registration Act was enacted in 2021, and took effect on January 1, 2022. See Acts 2021, No. 167, §, eff. Jan. 1, 2022. See also, Succession of Angus, 54,180, p. 13 (La. App. 2 Cir. 01/12/22), 333 So. 3d 555, 562 (In analyzing the newly enacted transfer-on-death provisions, the Second Circuit found that “Louisiana has carved out very limited explicit exceptions that allow for a nonprobate transfer of asserts and, at the time of this suit, a TOD beneficiary designation for a brokerage account, such as the John Hancock Account, was not one of them. The recently passed Louisiana Uniform TOD Act does not permit ownership of a security to be passed at death to the decedent; instead, the beneficiary is limited to the ability to reregister the security under his own name. The ownership of the security in Louisiana remains with the decedent's heirs or legatees. We find that this is evidence of the strong public policy favoring the transfer of ownership of assets after death through succession. The civilian law of successions and property is far superior to common law provisions in providing ease in passing assets from one generation to the next and from testator and legatee.”).

McCallum, J., concurs and assigns reasons. Griffin, J., concurs for reasons assigned by McCallum, J.