What May Happen When Community Property is threatened to Be Mismanaged in Louisiana

Let’s say that Nancy and Ronald are married for ten years.  Over the course of their marriage, Ronald’s grandmother dies.  In the grandmother’s will, she leaves to both Nancy and Ronald 5 million dollars, to be shared equally between them in the community of marriage.  Nancy and Ronald agree to put away the 5 million dollars in a savings account to gather interest.  The reason is that they both have pretty decent jobs, and they think it’s a good idea to save the money for an early retirement.

Now let’s say that Ronald goes up to Massachusetts to visit his brother in Boston.  As part of the visit, they drive out west to go hiking in the Adirondack Mountains.  After returning home a few weeks later, Ronald develops an odd, bull’s eye shaped rash on his lower leg.  After going to the doctor’s office, he is told that the rash is from a tick that carried Lyme’s disease.  Lyme’s disease is an incurable disease which can affect a person’s brain if not treated promptly and effectively.  The doctor gives Ronald a month’s worth of medication, and tells him to take the medication every day.

Ronald has done his own homework on Lyme disease, and he decides that the threat of injury is not that high.  As a result, Ronald does not take his prescription medication at all.

One year later, Ronald begins to suffer delusions and other mental problems which have been caused by the Lyme disease.  As part of his sickness, he starts to access the money which he and Nancy had saved away.  For whatever reason, Ronald decides in his debilitated state to start purchasing old soda bottles.  Attending flea markets and swap meets, and using online resources, Ronald begins buying up any and all old soda bottles which he can get his hands on.  He conceals his actions from his wife.

A few months later, Nancy checks in on their five million dollars, and sees that Ronald had been withdrawing money.  So far it appears that he has withdrawn one hundred thousand dollars.  She thought he had been acting odd recently, and also spending a lot of time at a storage facility which he had randomly started renting a few months earlier.  After visiting the storage facility, Nancy finds to her horror Ronald’s stockpile of soda bottles.  She confronts him, and he tells her that he’s convinced that investing in these bottles is the way of the future.

Under Louisiana Civil Code Article 2374, one spouse can compel the separation of community property for, among other things, “the incompetence of the other spouse.”  Here, because the five million dollars was given to Ronald and Nancy together, it is probably going to be considered community property.  If Nancy is concerned that her half of that community is threatened by Ronald’s Lyme disease, and also assuming she can meet the burden of proof, Nancy may move to have her community property with Ronald separated, so that her share of the money is not put at risk by his incompetence.

This article is written to be general information only; it should not be taken as legal advice.  Will Beaumont.  New Orleans.