proceedings at the court of the judge, who has ordered the meeting, and demand the homologation of them.

ART. 1165.-The judge, on homologating the proceedings, is bound to order to be sold for cash so much of the property of the succession as will be sufficient to pay the creditors by privilege or mortgage with interest and costs, if they require the sale to be thus made.

But with regard to the excess of the price of the sale of the property above the sum necessary to pay the privilege and mortgage creditors, the judge shall grant such terms of credit, and exact such security for the payment as the majority of the ordinary creditors shall have determined upon, as is before said.

ART. 1166.-In case of a vacant succession, or of a succession of which all or a part of the heirs are absent from and not represented in the State, when the succession is administered by a curator, the creditors are not permitted to appoint syndics under the pretext the succession is insolvent, the curator supplying the place of syndic in this respect.

ART. 1167.The curator of a vacant succession or of absent heirs cannot pay the debts of the succession, save some privileged debts excepted by law, until three months after the succession is opened, and only in the manner prescribed in the following articles.

ART. 1168.-When the time for the payment of the debts of the succession is arrived, if the curator has sufficient funds to pay all the creditors who have presented themselves or made themselves known, with interest and costs, he is bound to present his petition to the judge who has appointed him, to be authorized to pay the creditors according to a statement which he shall annex to his petition, mentioning the names and places of residence of the creditors, and the several sums due to each.

ART. 1169.-If, on the contrary, the curator has not ufficient funds to pay all the creditors of the succession,

he shall annex to his petition a tableau of the distribution which he makes of the funds in his hands, among the creditors, according to the order of their privileges and mortgages, or by contribution among the ordinary creditors, and shall conclude with a prayer to be authorized to pay them according to this tableau.

ART. 1170.-The curator shall include in the statement of payments or tableau of distribution the creditors whose debts are not yet liquidated, for the amount by them claimed, saving the right of retaining in his hands the sums for which they are placed on the statement or tableau, until it be determined by a final judgment them.

ART. 1171.-If it be proved to the judge by the oath of one or two credible witnesses that there are absent creditors who, from the distance of their place of residence, have not had time to make themselves known, the judge shall order the curator to include these creditors among those who are to be paid, for the sums declared to be due by such witnesses.

ART. 1172.-The judge to whom the curator shall apply to be authorized to pay the creditors according to the statement or tableau which he has presented, shall order that public notice be given of this request by advertisements at the usual places and publications in the newspapers in the cases prescribed by law, requiring all those whom it may concern, to make opposition, if they think fit, in ten days from the day in which such notice is given, to the application being granted.

ART. 1173.-If no opposition be made within the time before mentioned, the judge shall grant to the curator the authorization he has requested, and the curator shall proceed immediately to pay according to this authorization, all the creditors whose debts are liquidated or acknowledged.

With respect to those creditors, whose debts are not

liquidated, he shall retain in his hands the sums for which they have been placed upon the statement or tableau, until the amount due is settled a difinitive judgment.

ART. 1174.-If, on the contrary, opposition be made to the granting of the authorization applied for, the judge shall determine thereon in a summary manner.

ART. 1175.-If the decision of the judge thereon be appealed from, the curator is bound to retain a sufficient sum to satisfy the claims on which the opposition is made, with interest and costs, but cannot, under the pretext of this appeal, refuse to distribute among the creditors, whose debts or privileges are not contested, the surplus remaining after this sum being retained.

ART. 1176.-If, after the creditors of the succession have been paid by the curator, in conformity with the dispositions of the preceding articles, creditors present themselves, who have not made themselves known before, and if there does not remain in the hands of the curator a sum'sufficient to pay what is due them, in whole or in part, these creditors have an action against those who have been paid, to compel them to refund the proportion they are bound to contribute, in order to give the new creditors a part equal to that which they would have received, had they presented themselves at the time of the payment of the debts of the succession.

But this action on the part of the creditors who have not been paid, against the creditors who have been, is prescribed by the lapse of three years, counting from the date of the order or judgment, in virtue of which the judgment has been made.

In all these cases, the creditors, who have lately presented themselves, can in no manner disturb the curator on account of the payments he has made under the authorization of the judge, as before stated.

ART. 1177.-Notwithstanding the provisions of the pre

ceding articles, curators of vacant successions are bound, as soon as they have sufficient funds in hand, and without any delay, to pay the funeral expenses, costs of court, and the expenses of the last sickness of the deceased, or other debts, the payment of which cannot be retarded, provided, the accounts of these charges be approved by the judge who appointed them, and an order be given by him for their payment.

ART. 1178.-If a succession is so small or is so much in debt that no one will accept the curatorship of it, the judge of the place where the succession is opened, after having made an inventory of the effects composing it, shall sell it and apply the proceeds thereof to the payment of the debts of the deceased, in the same manner as a curator would have done, had one been appointed.

S VII.

Of the Account to be rendered by the Curators, and the Commission due to them.

ART. 1179.-The time for the administration of the curators of vacant successions or of absent heirs, when these heirs have not appeared or have not sent their powers of attorney to claim the succession, is fixed at one year from the day of their appointment.

But the administration may be continued beyond this term as is hereafter prescribed.

ART. 1180.-The duties of curators cease even before the term fixed for their administration, when the heirs, or other persons having a right to the succession administered by them, present themselves or send their powers of attorney to claim succession.

ART. 1181.-When the heirs, or other persons having a right to the succession, present themselves, or send their powers of attorney to claim it, they are bound to cause themselves to be recognized as such, and shall be

put into possession by the judge of the place where the succession is opened, after having cited the curator who has been appointed for the succession.

ART. 1182.-As soon as the heir or his attorney in fact has been thus put into possession of the succession or of the effects claimed by him, the curator is bound to render a faithful and exact account of his administration to him, and to pay the balance due, deducting a commission of two and a half per cent, on the amount of the effects of the succession, or of the portion by him administered, according to the inventory, not taking into the estimate the bad debts.

ART. 1183.-When the heirs do not present themselves nor send their powers of attorney to claim the succession, it is the duty of all the curators of vacant successions or of absent heirs, one year after their nomination, to render an account of their administration to the judge, at the instance of the counsel of the absent heirs.

ART. 1184.-When the balance of the account thus rendered by curators has been determined by a final judgment, they are bound, within thirty days from the date thereof, to pay the same into the hands of the treasurer of the State, who shall deliver to them duplicate receipts, making mention of the sum received, and the name of the succession or heirs on whose account it has been paid.

ART. 1185.-It is the duty of the judge, who has thus definitively fixed the balance due by curators of vacant successions and of absent heirs, within fifteen days at farthest, from the date of the jugdment thereon rendered, to address a copy thereof to the treasurer of the State, in order that this officer may know the amount to be paid in his hands.

The judge shall therefore allow, in the accounts of these curators, the costs to be incurred for the copy of the judgment to be addressed to the treasurer of the State, and