Art. 4131.Amount

Security is the financial backstop behind a tutorship: money or a pledge of assets the minor can reach if the tutor mismanages the property under his control. Article 4131 opens Chapter 4 by setting the amount every tutor, apart from a natural tutor, must furnish before taking charge of a minor's property.

The baseline figure comes straight from the inventory or descriptive list required under Chapter 3: the total value of the minor's movable property. On top of that baseline, the court adds whatever additional sum it considers sufficient to cover loss or damage that bad administration by the tutor might cause, so the security is meant to cover more than a simple accounting of what exists on day one.

The amount is not locked in permanently. If the required security turns out to be substantially more than the minor needs protected, the court can fix a lower amount on a proper showing. Conversely, the court can increase or decrease the security at any time as the minor's movable property grows or shrinks in value, or for other circumstances the court finds appropriate. And where the minor's only asset is a contested claim for damages, the court can postpone requiring security altogether until that claim is recovered, at which point the tutor must furnish security as the article otherwise requires.