From Property Rights to Human Rights: Combating Forced Partition in Louisiana with the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act

Louisiana Law Review Volume 85 Number 2 Winter 2025 Article 15 4-25-2025 From Property Rights to Human Rights: Combating Forced Partition in Louisiana with the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act Ashton Austin Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.law.lsu.edu/lalrev Repository Citation Ashton Austin, From Property Rights to Human Rights: Combating Forced Partition in Louisiana with the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act, 85 La. L. Rev. (2025) Available at: https://digitalcommons.law.lsu.edu/lalrev/vol85/iss2/15 This Comment is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Reviews and Journals at LSU Law Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Louisiana Law Review by an authorized editor of LSU Law Digital Commons. For more information, please contact . From Property Rights to Human Rights: Combating Forced Partition in Louisiana with the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act Ashton Austin* TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction .................................................................................. 736 I. The Current Status of Louisiana Property Law with Respect to Co-ownership and Partition ........................................ 744 A. Partition ................................................................................. 745 B. Partition In Kind—A Rarely Used Default Rule ................... 747 C. Setting a Minimum Ownership Interest ................................. 748 D. Strengthened Preference for Private Sale .............................. 749 E. Newspaper Notice.................................................................. 752 II. Heirs Property: A Major Problem in Louisiana ........................... 752 A. Problems with Heirs Property ................................................ 753 B. Louisiana’s Exacerbation of the Land Loss Problem ............ 755 1. Notice in Louisiana ......................................................... 755 2. Right to Private Sale........................................................ 756 3. Absentee Exception ......................................................... 757 4. In-Kind Problem.............................................................. 758 III. A Potential Solution: The Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act........................................................................ 758 A. Definition of Heirs Property .................................................. 759 Copyright 2025, by ASHTON AUSTIN. * J.D./ D.C.L. candidate 2025, Paul M. Hebert Law Center, Louisiana State University. I express fervent gratitude to all the individuals that helped make my dream of publication a reality. Most notably, I would like to thank my parents, Paul, Mandy, and Bree, for their unwavering support. They believed in me from the beginning, and it is their belief that kept me dedicated those long nights on the fourth floor of the law library. I would like to thank Professor Andi Carroll for being the catalyst that inspired my topic. I would also like to thank Professor Melissa Lonegrass for her invaluable contributions, as she provided essential structure and clarity to my work. Finally, I would like to thank the entire Louisiana Law Review for their assistance on this Comment from start to finish. I dedicate this Comment to all the uprooted Louisiana families that have lost their homes due to the problem this Comment considers. I hope to inspire change that will help disadvantaged families keep their land and build generational wealth. 736 LOUISIANA LAW REVIEW B. C. D. E. F. [Vol. 85 Buy-Out ................................................................................. 760 Strengthened Preference for Partition in Kind ....................... 762 Additional Notice Requirement ............................................. 765 UPHPA Benefits .................................................................... 765 UPHPA Shortcomings ........................................................... 766 IV. The Louisiana Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act .............. 769 A. Adopting the UPHPA’s Core Components ........................... 770 1. Louisiana Buy-Out .......................................................... 770 2. In-Kind Preference .......................................................... 771 B. Deviations from the UPHPA ................................................. 775 1. Modified Scope ............................................................... 775 2. Modified Notice .............................................................. 778 C. Modifications to Louisiana Law ............................................ 778 1. Raising the Requisite Interest .......................................... 779 2. Removing the Ancestral Safeguard ................................. 780 3. Restoring Louisiana Civil Code Article 811 ................... 780 4. Enhanced Notice in Louisiana......................................... 781 V. Proposed Modifications to the Louisiana Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act..................................................... 782 A. Modified Right of First Refusal ............................................. 782 B. Removing the Absentee Bypass ............................................ 786 C. In-Kind Right of First Refusal ............................................... 787 Conclusion.................................................................................... 788 INTRODUCTION “Because of a technicality you done uprooted a family.”1 The Lewis family is a Black, low-income family who owned 480 acres of land and a homestead in northern Louisiana.2 Throughout the years, the Lewis family 1. VICE News, How Property Law Is Used to Appropriate Black Land, YOUTUBE, at 7:20 (Aug. 11, 2020), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ls3P _FicO7I [https://perma.cc/962F-3RWK]. For another powerful quote on partition, see Vesper v. Farnsworth 40 Wis. 357, 362 (Wis. 1876), which states: “The power to convert real estate into money against the will of the owner, is an extraordinary and dangerous power, and ought never to be exercised unless the necessity therefor is clearly established.” 2. How Property Law Is Used to Appropriate Black Land, supra note 1. 2025] COMMENT 737 lived on the land and consistently paid their property taxes.3 However, this land was heirs property, a relatively new term in property law that is often used to describe property inherited from a landowner who dies intestate.4 When a landowner dies intestate, all of his or her heirs inherit a fractional share of the property and equal rights to possess and use the property.5 If these heirs subsequently die intestate, their own heirs will inherit their share of the property, and the shares of co-owners will divide further with each generation.6 After several generations, hundreds of co-owners may own the same property.7 Many of these heirs do not live on the land, and some are apathetic toward their co-ownership share.8 These apathetic (...truncated)