Art. 3372.Prior to Homologation of Final Tableau of Distribution

Article 3372 is the testate counterpart to Article 3362, allowing legatees to seek possession earlier than the ordinary after-homologation timing that Article 3371 sets out. At any time before the final tableau of distribution is homologated, legatees in a testate succession may be sent into possession of all or part of their respective legacies, using the petition procedure Articles 3031 through 3035 provide for informal testate successions. Unlike that informal procedure, the proceeding under this article must be contradictory with the executor rather than unopposed.

Once the petition is filed, the court orders the executor to show cause why the legatees should not be sent into possession of their legacies ahead of the final accounting. The executor's participation gives the succession representative a chance to flag any concern about the estate's ability to pay its remaining obligations before an early transfer goes forward.

If the legatees are sent into possession of only part of their legacies, the executor continues to administer whatever remains, the same split arrangement Article 3362 allows on the intestate side. The succession can then move forward on two tracks at once: partly distributed to legatees, and partly still subject to the executor's ongoing administration.