Although the United States is largely a common law jurisdiction that recognizes life assets instead of usufruct, Louisiana is a civil jurisdiction that specifically follows the French and Spanish models. In Louisiana, rights of usufruct are generally created in the same way as other real rights, by gift (“donation”), will (“will”) or by law. Nevertheless, they are generally granted for life. Unless otherwise provided in a will, the share of the joint property reverts to the descendants as simple title holders (“naked owners”); However, if that person has a surviving spouse, the latter will have usufruct in that part of the estate until death or remarriage (La. Civil Code, art. 890). Under certain other conditions, a usufruct may arise which confers rights on the parents of that person. [8] Thomas Jefferson said, “The earth belongs to the living in usufruct.” He apparently understood that if you keep something in usufruct, you gain something of considerable value, but only temporarily. The benefits granted by usufruct are clearly visible in the Latin phrase from which the word usus et fructus developed, meaning “use and enjoyment”.
Latin speakers have condensed this phrase into ususfructus, the English term used as a model for our modern word. Usufruct has been used since the mid-1600s as a name for the legal right to use something. Any right conferred by usufruct ends at some point, usually with the death of the person holding it. Usufruct is usually granted for a limited period. It can be granted to the usufructuary or the person who owns the usufruct to protect the property until the death of an owner, and the estate can be settled if the owner is ill. Although the usufructuary has the right to use the property, he cannot damage, destroy or dispose of the property. A usufructuary does not have full ownership of the property because he does not enjoy the third right of ownership, abusus, which refers to the right to consume, destroy or transfer ownership of the property to someone else. For example, Bert obtained the usufruct of Helen`s property. Helen`s property is a bed and breakfast with a large garden that needs to be maintained. Helen is in poor health, can no longer take care of the property and manage the business. Bert, as usufructuary, has the right to use the property and manage the business on Helen`s behalf during the period when the usufruct is in effect. The usufruct may be in force until Helen`s death if the estate is settled and the property is transferred in accordance with the law or the instructions of the succession.
No matter how they rent the usufruct of their votes, they will never part with costs and inheritance. Usufruct is either granted separately or held jointly as long as the property is not damaged or destroyed. The third civil property interest is missusus (literally abuse), the right to alienate the thing possessed, either by consumption or destruction (e.g., for profit) or by transfer to someone else (e.g., sale, exchange, gift). Someone who enjoys all three rights has full ownership. According to Roman law, usufruct was a kind of personal servitude (servitutes personarum), a beneficial right over someone else`s property. The usufructuary never had possession of the property (on the grounds that if he owned it, he did so through the owner), but he had an interest in the property itself for a certain period of time, either a period of several years or a lifespan. Unlike the owner, the usufructuary did not have a right of sale (missusus), but he could sell or lease his usufructuary interest. Even if a usufructuary did not have a right of possession, he could bring an action for damages in the form of an amended prohibition of possession (prohibition order).
Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1789 that “the earth, in usufruct, belongs to the living.” Jefferson`s metaphor means that human beings, like usufructuaries, have the right to use the land for their own benefit and to profit from it. Jefferson`s use of the word “living” is crucial here: he meant that the usufructuaries of the world are those who live, not the previous generations who died. This idea would profoundly influence Jefferson throughout his life, leading him to recognize that the Constitution of the United States would be revised by future generations, and this is partly why the Constitution contains a provision for its own amendment. [7] Note: Under Louisiana civil law, a person who has a usufruct over land must return it to the owner without reduction at the end of the term, along with its basic substance; Whoever owns a usufruct of consumer goods acquires ownership of them, but at the end of the usufruct must restore its value or goods of the same quantity or quality.