Art. 3182.Removal

Where Article 3181 undoes the court's own decision to appoint or confirm someone before that person ever takes office, Article 3182 addresses a representative who has already qualified and is administering the succession, but should no longer hold the office because of something that happened, or came to light, afterward.

The article lists six grounds for removal: the representative is or has become disqualified; has become incapable of discharging the office's duties; has mismanaged the estate; has failed to perform a duty the law or a court order imposes; has stopped being a Louisiana domiciliary without appointing an agent as Article 3097(4) requires; or has failed to give notice of the application for appointment when Article 3093 required it. Any one of these grounds can support removal, ranging from circumstances beyond the representative's control, such as a disqualification that only becomes apparent later, to conduct within it, such as mismanaging succession property.

Removal is not summary. The court can raise the question on its own motion, and must do so on the motion of any interested party, but either path leads to the same procedure: the representative sought to be removed is ordered to show cause why removal should not follow, giving that person notice and an opportunity to contest the grounds before losing the office.

Removal looks forward, not backward. Article 3182 makes clear that removing a succession representative does not invalidate any official act performed before the removal, so transactions and decisions made while the representative properly held the office remain in effect.