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his presumptive heirs may, by producing proof of the fact, cause themselves to be put by the competent judge into provisional possession of the estate which belonged to the absentee at the time of his departure, or at the time he was heard of last, on condition of their giving security for their administration.

ART. 59.-If the absentee has left a power of attorney, his presumptive heirs cannot cause themselves to be put into provisional possession, until seven years shall have elapsed since the last intelligence of him has been received.

ART. 60.-It is the same if the power of attorney shall have expired, and in this case the property of the absentee shall be administered as is ordained in the first chapter of the present title.

ART. 61. The putting into provisional possession can be ordered previous to the expiration of the terms before mentioned, when it shall be shown that there are strong presumptions that the person absent has perished.

ART. 62.-The Judge in pronouncing upon this demand shall take into consideration the motives of the absence and the reasons which may have prevented the absentee from being heard of.

ART. 63.-When the presumptive heirs shall have been put into provisional possession of the estate of the absentee, the will made by him, if there be any such will, may be presented or opened at the request of the person interested, and the testamentary heirs, the legatees, donecs, as well as those who have any rights to or claims upon his property, which depend upon the death of the said absentee, may provisionally prosecute their claims and exercise their rights on the condition of their giving security.

ART. 64.-If the testament contain an institution of an universal heir, he shall be preferred to the presumptive heirs, unless they are forced heirs, and shall be put

into provisional possession of the estate of the absentee, but on giving security for his administration.

ART. 65. The husband or wife of the absentee, who is not separated in estate from him or her, and who wishes to continue to enjoy the benefit of the community or partnership of matrimonial gains, which existed between them, may prevent the provisional possession or exercise of all the rights which may depend upon the death of the absentee, and claim and preserve for himself or herself in preference to any other person, the administration of the estate of his or her absent husband or wife.

If on the contrary the husband or wife of the absentee chooses rather to have the community dissolved, he or she may exercise and claim all his or her rights, both legal and conventional, on his or her giving security for such things as may be liable to be restored.

The wife who elects to have the community continued, has, nothwitstanding, the right of renouncing it afterwards.

ART. 66.-Provisional possession is but a deposit, which invests those who have obtained it, with the administration of the estate of the absentee, and for which they remain accountable to him, in case he re-appears or is heard of again.

The security therefore to be given by those who are put into provisional possession, ought not to exceed the probable amount of the injury which their mal-administration can cause.

ART. 67.-It shall be the duty of such as shall have obtained provisional possession, or of the husband or wife who shall have been continued in the administration of the community, to cause an inventory of the moveables, slaves and credits of the absentee, to be made by the Judge or by any notary public duly authorised to that effect by the Judge.

The Judge shall order, if necessary, that the whole or part of the moveables be sold, and in case of sale, both the amount of the sale and the profits which may have accrued, shall be either laid out in the purchase of real property, or placed at interest in a safe manner.

ART. 68.-Those who shall have obtained either the provisional possession or legal administration, may petition for their own security for the appointment, by the judge, of two persons well acquainted with such affairs and sworn by the Judge, for the purpose of examining the immoveables of the absentee, and reporting their condition; and the report of such persons shall be afterwards approved by the Judge, and the expenses attending the same shall be paid out of the estate of the ab

sentee.

ART. 69.-If the absentee shall re-appear after the putting into provisional possession of his heirs, they shall be bound to return him the annual revenues of his property in the following proportions:

Of the first five years, two thirds;
Of the five years ensuing, one half;
Of the next five years, one third.

After thirty years' absence, the whole of the revenue shall belong to those who shall have been put into provisional possession.

ART. 70.-Those persons who enjoy only in virtue of the provisional possession, can neither alienate nor mortgage the immoveables and slaves of the absentee.

But if it should be found necessary to sell any of the slaves, the sale of them may be ordered by the Judge, who must require that the proceeds be placed at interest in a safe manner, or invested in moveables and slaves.

ART. 71.-If the absence has lasted thirty years since the provisional possession, or since the time when the husband or wife who held their estate in common shall have taken the administration of the estate of the absen

tee, or if one hundred years have elapsed since the birth of the absentee, then the sureties shall be discharged, and all such as may have rights, may petition for the partition of the estate of the absentee, and cause themselves to be put in absolute possession by the Judge.

ART. 72.-The succession of the absentee shall be opened from the day of his or her death duly ascertained, for the benefit of such heirs as were capable of inheriting his estate at the time; and those who shall have enjoyed the estate of the absentee, shall be bound to restore the same, with the exception of the profits assigned them by the provisions of the above sixty-ninth article.

ART. 73.-If the absentee should re-appear, or if his existence should be proved during the provisional possession, then the effect of the judgment which shall have ordered this provisional possession, shall cease, without however affecting the validity of any such conservatory measures prescribed in the first chapter of this title as may have been taken for the administration of the estate of the absentee.

ART. 74.-If the absentee should re-appear, or if his existence should be proved, even after the putting into absolute possession, he shall recover his estate, such as it may happen to be, the price of such part of it as has been sold, or such property as has been bought with the proceeds of his estate which may have been sold.

ART. 75.-The children, or direct descending heirs of the absentee, may likewise, within thirty years to be computed from the day of the absolute possession, petition for the restitution of his estate, according to the preceding article.

ART. 76. After judgment or during provisional possession or legal administration, no person who may have rights to exercise against the absentee, can prosecute such rights, except against those who have been put into

provisional possession of the estate, or who shall have been legally appointed administrators of the same.

CHAPTER III.

Of the effects of Absence upon the eventual rights which may belong to the Absentee.

ART. 77.-Whoever shall claim a right accruing to a person whose existence is not known, shall be bound to prove that such person existed at the time when the right in question accrued, and until this be proved, his demand shall not be admitted.

ART. 78.-In case a succession shall be opened in favor of a person whose existence is not known, such inheritance shall devolve exclusively on those who would have had a joint right with him to the estate, or on those on whom the inheritance should have devolved if such person had not existed.

ART. 79. The provisions of the two preceding articles shall not affect the right of claiming the inheritance and any other rights which the absentee or his representatives or assigns may have, which shall be extinguished only by the lapse of time which is established for prescription.

ART. 80.-As long as the absentee shall not appear, or a suit shall not be brought in his name, those who shall have been put in possession of the inheritance, shall have a right to the proceeds by them received bona fide.

CHAPTER IV.

Of the Effects of Absence respecting Marriage.

ART. 81.-Ten years of absence, without any news of the absentee, is a sufficient cause for the husband or wife of such absentee to contract another marriage, after having been authorized to do so by the judge, on due

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