ART. 966. [960.]-Persons unworthy of inheriting, and, as such, deprived of the successions to which they are called, are the following:

1. Those who are convicted of having killed, or attempted to kill, the deceased; and in this respect they will not be the less unworthy, though they may have been pardoned after their conviction.

2. Those who have brought against the deceased some accusation found calumnious, which tended to subject the deceased to an infamous or capital punishment.

3. Those who, being apprised of the murder of the deceased, have not taken measures to bring the murderer to justice.

ART. 967. [961.]-The unworthiness is never incurred by the act itself; it must be pronounced by the court in a suit instituted against the heir accused of unworthiness, after he has been duly cited.

ART. 968. [962.]-Not denouncing the murder of the deceased shall not be opposed as a cause of unworthiness in the heir, if such heir is the husband or wife of the murderer, or his relation in the ascending, descending or collateral line, down to the third degree inclusively.

C. N 728.

ART. 969. [963.]—If the heir be declared unworthy of inheriting by a definitive judgment, he shall be condemned to deliver to the relations succeeding on his default, or those who have succeeded jointly with him, not only the effects of the succession of which he has had the use since its opening, but all the fruits, revenues and interest he has derived from such effects, since the opening of the succession.

C. N. 729.

ART. 970. [964.]-The heir being legally seized of the succession, until a definitive judgment be pronounced declaring that he is unworthy and that he be divested of the succession, all sales, which he may have made of the property of the succession, are valid, provided they have been made without fraud on the part of the purchasers.

The sales are also valid, though they may have been made since the institution of the suit to determine the unworthiness of the heir, if the purchasers had not and could not have been informed of its being instituted.

But in all cases the heir, thus divested of the succession, shall be condemned to restore the price of these sales, with interest from the day of the demand; and the relations who succeed on his default, after his destitution is pronounced, shall alone have the right to exact and receive the sums remaining due on the price of these sales from the purchasers.

C. N. 729; C. P. 964; 6 M. 260; 6 N. S. 432; 1 L. 312; 2 L. 461.

ART. 971. [965.]—Mortgages stipulated without fraud by the

heir who is afterwards divested for cause of unworthiness, also remain in force in favor of the parties with whom they have been contracted, reserving to the person succeeding to the inheritance, his recourse against the unworthy heir.

ART. 972. [966.]-The destitution pronounced against the heir revives in his favor all the rights and actions which he had against the succession, and which had been for a time extinguished by

confusion.

So, in case he had paid any creditors of the succession, he shall be reimbursed, and those who have not been paid have no right of action against him. The rights and actions of the succession against the heir, who is divested for cause of unworthiness, are also revived.

ART. 973. [967.]-The children of the person declared unworthy to succeed, being admitted to the succession ab intestato in their own name and without the aid of representation, are not excluded by the fault of their father; but the father can not claim, in any case, upon the property of that succession, the usufruct which the law grants him in certain cases.

C. C. 901 (897); C. N. 730.

ART. 974. [966.]—The exclusion, either for cause of incapacity or unworthiness, shall not be sued for by others than the relations who are called to the succession in default of the unworthy heir, or in concurrence with him; and this kind of suit shall be determined in the same manner as other civil actions.

11 A. 59.

ART. 975. [969.]—Suits to establish the unworthiness of heirs can not be sustained, if there has been a reconciliation or pardon on the part of him to whom the injury was done.

If, therefore, a father has full knowledge of an injury done to him by one of his children, and dies without disinheriting him, though he has sufficient time to make his will since he has had this knowledge, he will be considered as having forgiven the injury, and the child can not be deprived of the succession of his father on account of unworthiness.

C. C. 966 (960); D. Sec. 427. Acts 1860, p. 123.

CHAPTER 6.

In what Manner Successions are Accepted, and How they are Renounced.

SECTION 1.

Of the Acceptance of Successions.

ART. 976. [971.]-All the rules relating to the acceptance, renunciation or partition of successions, the collation of goods

and payment of debts, contained in this title, are applicable to testamentary as well as to intestate successions.

18 L. 394; 15 A. 697.

ART. 977. [970.]-No one can be compelled to accept a succession, in whatever manner it may have fallen to him, whether by testament or the operation of law. He may, therefore, accept or renounce it.

It shall not be necessary for minor heirs to make any formal acceptance of a succession that may fall to them, but such acceptance shall be considered as made for them with benefit of inventory by operation of law, and shall in all respects have the force and effect of a formal aceptance.

(Am'd.) C. C. 1033 (1036), 1423 (1372); C. N. 775; C. P. 974; 9 L. 135; D. Sec. 3709; 24 A. 342.

ART. 978. [972]-To be able to accept a succession, it is necessary that the succession should be open by the death of the person who is to be succeeded.

If, therefore, on the false report of the death of a person, his relation, who is to inherit from him, assumes the quality of his heir, and is put into possession of his effects, these acts do not render his relation his heir, even after his death, unless since his death, his relation has continued to act as his heir.

ART. 979. [973.]—A person can not accept a succession before it has fallen to him.

Thus, a relation to the deceased in the second degree can neither accept nor renounce the succession, until he who is related in the first degree, has expressed his intention on the subject.

And in testamentary successions, the heir ab intestato can neither accept nor renounce, until the instituted heir has decided to accept or renounce the succession.

ART. 980. [974.]-It is not sufficient that the succession be fallen, it is also necessary, for the validity of the acceptance, that the heir know in a certain manner that it is opened or fallen to him.

Thus, he who is ignorant of the death of the deceased, though the succession be really opened, can neither accept nor renounce it. ART. 981. [975.]—If the heir ab intestato accepts the succession, under the impression that there is no will, his acceptance is null, if a will be discovered, of the existence of which he was ig

norant.

ART. 982. [976.]-He who accepts ought to know under what title the succession is left to him, so that if the instituted heir accepts the succession as coming to him ab intestato, the act is null. ART. 983. [977.]-It is sufficient to establish the validity of the acceptance, that the heir knows that the succession is opened, and that he is called to it. It is not necessary that he should know what portion of it is left to him.

It is of no moment if he be mistaken as to the degree, of relationship which he bears to the deceased, and which gives him the right to inherit from him; though it may affect the amount of the portion coming to him, his acceptance is not the less valid on that account, since he is an heir.

ART. 984. [978.]-The acceptance or rejection made by the heir, before the succession is opened or left, is absolutely null and can produce no effect; but this does not prevent the heir who has thus accepted, from accepting or rejecting validly the succession when his right is complete.

ART. 985. [979.]-The heir who is instituted under a condition, can not accept nor renounce the succession, before the condition has happened, or while he remains in ignorance of the condition having happened.

It is the same, if he be ignorant of the institution which is made in his favor.

C. P. 974.

ART. 986. [980.]-He who has the power of accepting the entire succession, can not divide and only accept a part.

ART. 987. [981.]-The effect of the acceptance goes back to the day of the opening of the succession.

C. P. 980; 12 R. 243; 5 A. 113; 12 A. 97.

ART. 988. [982.]-The simple acceptance may be either express or tacit.

It is express, when the heir assumes the quality of heir in an unqualified manner, in some authentic or private instrument, or in some judicial proceeding.

It is tacit, when some act is done by the heir, which necessarily supposes his intention to accept, and which he would have no right to do but in his quality of heir.

C. C. 1013 (1006), 1015 (1008); C. N. 778; C. P. 979; 1 N. S. 202; 2 N. S. 422; 6 L. 17; 19 L. 499; 5 R. 473; 1 A. 280; 2 A. 405; 5 A. 113; 6 A. 13; 12 A. 142, 558; 13 A. 387; 19 A. 59, 61.

ART. 989. [983.]-By the word instrument used in the preceding article, is understood any writing made with the intention of obliging himself or contracting as heir, and not a simple letter or note in which the person who is called to the succession may have styled himself the heir. Still less is a verbal declaration binding on him.

(Am'd.) 2 N. S. 566; 8 N. S. 566; 19 L. 499; 12 A. 142.

ART. 990. [984.]—It is necessary that the intention should be united to the fact, or rather manifested by the fact, in order that the acceptance be inferred.

6 L. 17; 19 L. 499; 12 A. 142.

ART. 991. [985.]-The person who is called to the succession, if he dispose of a thing which he does not know to belong to the

succession, does not thereby do an act that will make him liable as heir, because such an act does not include the will to accept.

19 L. 462, 499; 8 A. 431.

ART. 992. [986.]-On the other hand, there are some acts which, though in reality they are foreign to the succession, nevertheless evidently manifest the will to accept; as, for example, if the person, who is called to the succession, possess himself or dispose of effects found in the succession, thinking that they belong to it, he does an act which makes him liable as heir, because his belief that the effects appertained to the succession is sufficient to establish his will to accept.

19 L. 462; 2 R. 187; 3 A. 86; 15 A. 170; 19 A. 59, 61.

ART. 993. [987.]-There are some facts, which necessarily suppose the will of being heir, and others which may be differently interpreted, according to circumstances.

19 L. 462; 3 A. 36; 14 A. 567.

ART. 994. [988.]-All those acts of ownership, which the person called to the succession can only do in quality of heir, suppose necessarily his acceptance, for to act as owner is to make himself heir.

There is an exception to this rule in those cases in which the acts done are necessary for the preservation of the thing as is hereafter explained.

3 L. 154; 19 L. 462, 499; 2 R. 187; 5 A. 113; 14 A. 567; 15 A. 170.

ART. 995. [989.] The person called to the succession does not commit an act of heir by disposing of property belonging to the succession by another title than that of heir; as if he should be testamentary executor and heir at the same time, provided that in disposing of the property he does not assume the quality of heir. 2 L. 371; 3 L. 154.

ART. 996. [990.]-With regard to these acts, which may be differently interpreted, according to circumstances, it is necessary to distinguish acts of ownership from acts of administration or ownership or preservation, or preparatory acts, which tend only to ascertain the value of the succession.

The time when these acts are done must also be taken into consideration.

(Am'd.) 19 L. 499; 14 A. 567.

ART. 997. [991.]-Thus, acts which are merely conservatory, and the object of which is temporary, such as superintendence and administration, do not amount to an acceptance of the inher itance, unless the title and quality of heir should be therein assumed.

C. N. 779; 19 L. 499.

ART. 998. [992.]-The person called to the succession, who does certain acts either from necessity or for the benefit of the suc