Art. 4394.Service of Account

Filing an account is only half the process; someone has to receive formal notice of it before the court can approve it. Article 4394 requires a copy of the account to be served in the manner used for service of citation, along with notice that the account can be homologated -- the court's formal approval -- after ten days from service, and that any opposition has to be filed before that homologation happens.

Who receives that service depends on the kind of account and the state of the tutorship at the time. An annual account or other interim account, filed while the tutorship is ongoing, goes to the undertutor, whose Chapter 6 role includes watching over the tutor's administration on the minor's behalf. A final account filed after the tutorship has ended because the minor reached majority goes to the former minor directly, since that person now has the standing and the interest to review the complete accounting themselves. And a final account filed after the tutor was removed, resigned, died, or was interdicted goes to the successor tutor, the person stepping into the role and responsible for continuing to look after the minor's interests.

Matching the recipient to the circumstances keeps the review meaningful: whoever receives the account is the person with both the incentive and the standing to scrutinize it and, if warranted, oppose it before homologation.