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any court, on proving his appointment by the certificate thereof under the seal of the court which has appointed him.

ART. 1208.-When a suit has been instituted by the counsel of the absent heirs of a succession, in conformity with the provisions of the preceding article, and judgment has not been rendered therein at the time the curator is appointed, the curator shall not be obliged to recommence the suit, but may continue it as it is, substituting his name to that of the counsel of the absent heirs, who has commenced it.

ART. 1209.-The counsel of the absent heirs cannot, if he be an attorney, be engaged in any suit against the heirs whom he represents, as long as the succession, to which these heirs have a right, is administered by a curator judicially appointed.

ART. 1210. The counsel of the absent heirs shall continue to act as such until the heirs present themselves or send their powers of attorney to claim the succession, or until the curator is finally discharged.

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ART. 1211.-Nevertheless, the counsel of the absent heirs may cause himself to be discharged by the judge who has appointed him, if he is prevented, by any good cause, from performing the duties thereof.

ART. 1212.-If the counsel of absent heirs dies, absents himself or is discharged, the judge is bound to appoint another counsel of absent heirs in his stead.

ART. 1213.-The counsel of absent heirs have a right to receive fees or emoluments proportioned to the pains taken in the performance of their duties, out of the funds of the succession of which they represent the heirs, but those fees or emoluments shall not be granted to them, except on proof being made of the services by them rendered, and of the value thereof, after having cited the heirs, if they present themselves, or the curator appointed to the succession in which these heirs have rights.

CHAPTER VIII.

Of Partition, and of the Collation of Goods.

SECTION I.

Of the Partition of Successions.

SI.

Of the Nature of Partition, and of its several kinds.

ART. 1214.-When a person, at his decease, leaves several heirs, each of them becomes an undivided proprietor of the effects of the succession, for the part or portion coming to him, which forms among the heirs a community of property, as long as it remains undivided.

ART. 1215.-No one can be compelled to hold property with another, unless the contrary has been agreed upon; any one has a right to demand the division of a thing held in common, by the action of petition.

ART. 1216.-The partition of a succession is the division of the effects, of which the succession is composed, among all the co-heirs, according to their respective rights.

ART. 1217.-Partition is voluntary or judicial:

It is voluntary, when it is made among all the co-heirs present and of age, and by their mutual consent;

It is judicial, when it is made by the authority of a court, and according to the formalites prescribed by law. ART. 1218.-Every partition is either definitive or provisional:

Definitive partition is that which is made in a permanent and irrevocable manner;

Provisional partition is that which is made provisionally, either of certain things before the rest can be divided, or even of every thing that is to be divided, when the parties are not in a situation to make an irrevocable partition.

ART. 1219.-By definitive partition is also understood the judicial partition, made according to law; and by provisional partition, that in which the formalities prescribed by law have not been observed, or that by which the parties are not definitively bound.

ART. 1220.-It cannot be stipulated that there never shall be a partition of a succession or of a thing held in common. Such a stipulation would be null and of no effect.

ART. 1221. Nevertheless, the co-heirs can agree that there shall not be a partition of the effects of the succession for a certain limited time, and such agreement will be valid; but it will be assimilated in this case to a contract of partnership between the heirs, and subject to the same rules.

ART. 1222.-A donor or testator cannot order that the effects given or bequeathed by him to two or more persons in common, shall never be divided, and such prohibition would be considered as if it were not made.

ART. 1223.-But a donor or testator can order that the effects given or bequeathed by him, be not divided for a certain time, or until the happening of a certain condition.

But if the time fixed exceed five years, or if the condition do not happen within that term, from the day of the donation or of the opening of the succession, the judge, at the expiration of this term of five years, may order the partition, if it is proved to him that the co-heirs cannot agree among themselves, or differ as to administration of the common effects.

ART. 1224.-If the father or other ascendant orders by his will that no partition shall be made among his minor children or minor grand-children inheriting from him, during the time of their minority, this prohibition must be observed, until one of the children or grandchildren comes of age, and demands the partition.

ART. 1225.-There is no occasion for partition, if the deceased has regulated it between his lawful heirs, or strangers; and in such case, the judge must follow the will of the testator.

The same thing takes place where the testator has assigned distinct parts of the estate for the paternal legal portion of his children.

ART. 1226.-There can be no partition, when the use of the thing held in common is indispensable to the coheirs, to enable them to enjoy, or to derive an advantage from the portion of the effects of the succession falling to them, such as an entry which serves as a passage to several houses, or a way common to several estates, and other things of the same kind.

ART. 1227.-The action of partition cannot be prescribed against, as long as the thing remains in common, and such community is acknowledged or proved.

Thus, though co-heirs have enjoyed their hereditary effects in common for an hundred years and more, without making a division, any of them can, at any time, sue for a partition.

ART. 1228.-When one of the heirs has enjoyed the whole or part of the succession separately, or all the coheirs have possessed separately each a portion of the hereditary effects, he or she who have thus separately possessed, can successfully oppose the suit for a partition of the effects of the succession, if their possession has continued thirty years without interruption.

ART. 1229.-If there be but one of the heirs, who has separately enjoyed a portion of the effects of the succession during thirty years, and all the other heirs have possessed the residue of the effects of the succession in common, the action of partition among the latter will always subsist.

S II.

Among what Persons Partition can be sued for.

ART. 1230.-A partition may be sued for by any heirs testamentary or ab intestato.

It can also be sued for by any universal legatee or legatees under an universal title, and even by a particular legatee, when a thing has been bequeathed to him in common with two or several persons.

ART. 1231.-The action of partition will not only lie between co-heirs and co-legatees, but between all persons who hold property in common, from whatever cause they may hold in common.

ART. 1232.—It is not indispensable to be holder in common in order to be able to support the action of partition; possession alone, when it is lawful and proceeds from a just title, will support it.

Thus, usufructuaries of the same inheritance can institute among themselves the action of partition.

ART. 1233.-But the possession, necessary to support this action, must be in the names of the persons enjoying it and for themselves; it cannot be instituted by those who possess in the name of another, as tenants and depositories.

ART. 1234.-Partitions cannot only be sued for by the majority of the heirs, but by each of them, so that one heir alone can force all the rest to a partition at his instance.

ART. 1235.-Tutors of minors, and curators of persons interdicted have the right to institute in their names suits for the partition of the effects of successions, whether moveable or immoveable, falling to minors or persons interdicted, provided they are specially authorized by the judge on the advice of the family meeting.

ART. 1236.-Minors above the age of puberty, and

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