Louisiana Acts of the Regular Legislative Session (2015)
SB 134, Act 260
AN ACT To amend and reenact Chapter 5 of Title VII of Book I of the Civil Code, consisting of Civil Code Articles 215 through 245, to consist of Articles 221 through 235, Titles VII and VII-A of Book VII of the Code of Civil Procedure, consisting of Articles 4501, 4502, 4521 and 4522, to consist of Articles 4501 and 4521, Code of Civil Procedure Articles 683, 732, and 2592, and R.S. 9:571, 572, and 951 through 954, and to enact Chapter 6 of Title VII of Book I of the Civil Code to be comprised of Civil Code Articles 236 through 239, Code of Civil Procedure Article 74.6, R.S. 9:573, and Chapter 3-A of Code Title VIII of Code Book I of Title 9 of the Louisiana Revised Statutes of 1950, to consist of R.S. 9:961 and 962, relative to parental authority of married persons, the obligations of children, parents, and other ascendants, and provisional custody by mandate; to provide for the authority of married fathers and mothers over their minor child; to provide for the rights and obligations of married parents of minor children; to provide for the obligations of minor children; to provide for the authority of a married parent to administer, alienate, encumber, or lease the property of his minor child, or to compromise a claim of his minor child, or to incur an obligation of his minor child; to provide for the delivery of the property of the child to the child at the termination of parental authority; to provide for an accounting of the administration of the parents to the child; to provide for the delegation of parental authority; to provide for the termination of parental authority; to provide for the obligations of a child regardless of age; to provide for the reciprocal obligations of descendants and ascendants; to provide for the suppression of Civil Code Articles relative to the duties of parents toward their illegitimate children and relative to the duties of illegitimate children toward their parents; to provide for venue for actions to seek court approval by parents during marriage; to provide for proper party plaintiff and proper party defendant for unemancipated minors; to provide for summary proceedings for certain actions; to provide for the administration of minor's property during marriage of parents; to provide for the administration of a court judgment in favor of a minor; to provide for limitations on actions between an unemancipated minor child, his parents, a person having parental authority of the unemancipated minor child, or the tutor of the unemancipated minor child; to provide for acts that may be performed without court approval by a person having parental authority; to provide for a redesignation of a Section relative to uncontested paternity proceedings; to provide for provisional custody by mandate; to direct the Louisiana State Law Institute to replace Comment (b) under Code of Civil Procedure Article 684; to provide for an effective date; and to provide for related matters.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of Louisiana:
BOOK I. OF PERSONS
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TITLE VII. PARENT AND CHILD
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CHAPTER 5. OF PARENTAL AUTHORITY OF MARRIED PERSONS SECTION 1 OF THE DUTIES OF PARENTS TOWARDS THEIR LEGITIMATE CHILDREN, AND OF THE DUTIES OF LEGITIMATE CHILDREN TOWARDS
THEIR PARENTS
Art. 215. Filial honor and respect.
A child, whatever be his age, owes honor and respect to his father and mother.
Art. 216. Parental authority.
A child remains under the authority of his father and mother until his majority or emancipation. In case of difference between the parents, the authority of the father prevails.
Art. 217. Filial obedience.
As long as the child remains under the authority of his father and mother, he is bound to obey them in every thing which is not contrary to good morals and the laws.
Art. 218. Parental custody and correction.
An unemancipated minor can not quit the parental house without the permission of his father and mother, who have the right to correct him, provided it be done in a reasonable manner.
Art. 219. Parental appointment of tutors.
The father and mother have a right to appoint tutors to their children, as is directed in the title: Of Minors, of their Tutorship and Emancipation. Art. 220. Delegation of parental authority.
Fathers and mothers may, during their life, delegate a part of their authority to teachers, schoolmasters and others to whom they intrust their children for their education, such as the power of restraint and correction, so far as may be necessary to answer the purposes for which they employ them.
They have also the right to bind their children as apprentices.
Art. 221. Parental administration of child's estate.
The father is, during the marriage, administrator of the estate of his minor children and the mother in case of his interdiction or absence during said interdiction or absence.
He or she shall be accountable both for the property and revenues of the estates the use of which he or she is not entitled to by law and for the property only of the estate the usufruct of which the law gives him or her.
This administration ceases at the time of the majority or emancipation of the children, and also ceases upon judicial separation from bed and board either of the father from the mother or of the mother from the father.
SECTION 1. GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF PARENTAL AUTHORITY
Art. 221. Authority of married parents
The father and mother who are married to each other have parental authority over their minor child during the marriage.
Revision Comments - 2015
(a) This Article introduces the subject of parental authority, which exists during the marriage of the parents. The Articles in this Chapter establish a regime, or system of rules, governing the relationship of parent and child. The Articles that follow not only prescribe rights and responsibilities of parents to their children and children to their parents but also provide instruction concerning the proper conduct of good children and good parents.
(b) Parental authority as used in this Article does not refer to the authority of a parent in its broad sense, that is the authority that lasts throughout the lives of both parent and child (see C.C. Art. 236 (Rev. 2015), but instead refers to such authority in its limited sense that lasts until the majority or emancipation of the child, or the termination of the marriage of the child's parents. See C.C. Art. 235 (Rev. 2015).
(c) Fathers and mothers enjoy parental authority over their child during their marriage, with a few exceptions. See C.C. Arts. 232 and 234 (Rev. 2015). Compare C.C. Art. 216 (1870). By contrast, if the father and mother of the minor child never married or if they divorced, the regime of tutorship exists rather than the regime of parental authority. C.C. Arts. 256 and 246 (1870).
Art. 222. Representation of minor
Parental authority includes representation of the child and the right to designate a tutor for the child.
Revision Comments - 2015
(a) This Article makes explicit that parental authority includes representation of the child. Despite the reference in the title to representation, C.C. Art. 235 (1870) provided simply that fathers and mothers may "appear for [their minor children] in court in every kind of civil suit...." The Code of Civil Procedure recognizes the father and the mother as the proper parties plaintiff and defendant for their minor child. C.C.P. Arts. 683, 732, and 4501. However, C.C. Art. 235 (1870) did not contain a general rule of parental representation of the minor in juridical acts but instead referred only to the parents' acceptance of any donation made to their child. C.C. Art. 1472 (Rev. 1991).
(b) Representation means that the parent may represent the minor child in "legal relations." C.C. Art. 2985 (Rev. 1997). See W. Holmes and S. Symeonides, "Representation, Mandate, and Agency: A Kommentar on Louisiana's New Law," 73 Tul. L. Rev. 1087 (1999). Of course, only the child may enter into some legal relations, such as marriage (C.C. Art. 92 (Rev. 1987) and Ch.C. Arts. 1543 et seq.), making a will (C.C. Art. 1476 (Rev. 1991)), and other legal relations subject to exceptions made by law (see e.g., R.S. 40:1299.35.5). See also Carey v. Population Services, International, 41 U.S. 678, 97 S.Ct. 2010, 52 L.Ed.2d. 675 (1977).
(c) Parental authority includes the right of a parent to designate a testamentary" tutor as permitted by C.C. Art. 257 (1870). The designation can be made by authentic act as well as by testament. See C.C. Art. 219 (1870).
Art. 223. Parental usufruct on minor child's property
Parents have during marriage the enjoyment of the property of their children until their majority or emancipation.
This usufruct is nonalienable and exempt from seizure.
Art. 223. Rights and obligations of parental authority
Parental authority includes rights and obligations of physical care, supervision, protection, discipline, and instruction of the child.
Revision Comments - 2015
(a) This Article introduces the rights and obligations of parents over the person of their child. Principal among these rights and obligations is the physical care of the minor, this right and obligation that was implicit under C.C. Art. 218 (1870). The right to physical care of the child reflects the parents' paramount right to custody of their child, recognized in the jurisprudence. See Reinhardt v. Reinhardt, 720 So. 2d 78, 79 (La.App. 1 Cir. 1998), writs denied 745 So. 2d 22 (1999); Troxel v. Granville, 530 U.S. 57, 120 S.Ct. 2054, 147 L.Ed.2d 49 (2000). Furthermore, this right makes possible in a practical way the rights and obligations of...
