Adeleye v. Driscal (In re Adeleye)

544 S.W.3d 467
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedFebruary 27, 2018
DocketNO. 14–14–00822–CV; NO. 14–16–00922–CV
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 544 S.W.3d 467 (Adeleye v. Driscal (In re Adeleye)) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Adeleye v. Driscal (In re Adeleye), 544 S.W.3d 467 (Tex. Ct. App. 2018).

Opinion

Martha Hill Jamison, Justice

Tokes Adeleye appeals from a final decree of divorce in which the trial court determined that a valid marriage occurred between Adeleye and Margaret Modupe Driscal on May 18, 1984 in Nigeria and then dissolved that marriage and divided the property and debts of the marriage. In eight appellate issues, Adeleye contends that (1) the evidence was insufficient to support the trial court's determination that *471a valid marriage occurred between Adeleye and Driscal; (2) the trial court erred in permitting an expert witness to testify on a topic not raised in the pleadings; (3) the trial court erred in not assuming Nigerian law was the same as Texas law in the absence of proper pleadings regarding Nigerian law; (4) the trial court erred in granting a judgment that did not conform to the pleadings in the absence of trial by consent; (5) the trial court erred in not applying the presumption that the most recent marriage of a party is valid as against a prior marriage; (6) Driscal did not have standing or capacity to bring the divorce proceeding; (7) the trial court erred in awarding certain property to Driscal that belonged to a third party; and (8) the trial court did not have personal jurisdiction over Adeleye as a nonresident of Texas.

It was suggested during the course of trial court proceedings as well as in this appeal that Adeleye had a pending bankruptcy case. We therefore abated the appeal and remanded to the trial court for further development of the record regarding the bankruptcy and any potential conflict with the automatic bankruptcy stay. See Adeleye v. Driscal , 488 S.W.3d 498, 499-500 (Tex. App.-Houston [14th Dist.] 2016, no pet.). It now appears that Adeleye filed for bankruptcy prior to the filing of the divorce petition and that the bankruptcy stay was not lifted prior to issuance of the divorce decree.

In the first part of this opinion we address the impact of the bankruptcy proceedings on this divorce case and conclude that the portions of the decree concerning division of the marital estate are void. In the second part of this opinion, we address Adeleye's jurisdictional issues. And, in the final part of the opinion, we address Adeleye's evidentiary sufficiency and other issues pertaining to the existence of a valid marriage.1 We affirm the decree to the extent it recognized and dissolved the couple's marriage, and we reverse and remand the remainder of the decree for division of the marital estate. We further deny as moot the petition for mandamus that Adeleye filed after we remanded the case to the trial court.2

I. Impact of Adeleye's Bankruptcy

A. Prior Proceedings Relating to the Bankruptcy

Driscal filed her petition for divorce on November 1, 2013, and the trial court held a bench trial in September 2014. On October 8, 2014, prior to rendition of judgment, Adeleye informed the judge in open court that he had filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy in 2013. The trial judge then asked Adeleye if he had previously informed the court about the bankruptcy and specifically asked if he had filed a "suggestion of bankruptcy" with the court. Adeleye responded that he had not, and the trial judge rendered judgment dissolving the marriage and dividing the marital estate.

Adeleye appealed, and we initially affirmed the trial court's judgment on March 8, 2016. On March 21, Adeleye informed this court for the first time that he had filed for bankruptcy on January 1, 2013, prior to any proceedings in this case. We therefore withdrew our judgment, abated *472the appeal, and remanded to the trial court "for a determination as to whether an automatic bankruptcy stay barred the proceedings in this case." Adeleye , 488 S.W.3d at 499. To aid the trial court, we set forth the law governing automatic bankruptcy stays, including that such stays apply automatically, do not require notice to other parties or courts, apply to divorce proceedings to the extent they seek to divide the marital estate, render void any action taken against the debtor or his property, and can be raised at any time, even sua sponte on appeal. Id. We further directed that "[t]he parties should have ... an opportunity to develop a record to support their positions" regarding whether and to what degree an automatic bankruptcy stay may have barred the proceedings in the trial court. Id. at 500 (quoting Evans v. Unit 82 Joint Venture , 377 S.W.3d 694, 695 (Tex. 2012) ).

On November 14, 2016, Adeleye filed a petition for writ of mandamus complaining, among other things, regarding the trial court's refusal to hold a hearing on the issue of the bankruptcy stay. Two days later, the trial court signed an order stating, in relevant part:

The Court finds that there was no notice of filing for Bankruptcy presented to the Court. The Court finds that if there was proper notice given of the filing of bankruptcy that an automatic stay would have been issued and the Court would have requested the attorneys to have the stay lifted prior to any further proceedings.

After receiving this order, we issued our own clarifying order, explaining that the trial court's findings did not accomplish the purpose for the original abatement and expressly directing the trial court to make written findings of fact regarding: (1) the date or dates a bankruptcy petition involving any of the parties to this proceeding was filed, if any; (2) the date or dates an automatic stay in any relevant bankruptcy case was lifted, if any; (3) whether and how the bankruptcy court's order lifting stay, if any, references the trial court's proceedings, if at all; and (4) if an automatic bankruptcy stay was in place during the pendency of the proceedings below, what impact that fact has on the trial court's judgment, if any. Adeleye v. Driscal , No. 14-14-00822-CV (Tex. App.-Houston [14th Dist.] Feb. 2, 2017, order).

The trial court thereafter held an evidentiary hearing during which a notice of bankruptcy and a bankruptcy discharge order were admitted as exhibits. The notice states that Adeleye filed for bankruptcy on January 1, 2013, and the discharge is dated July 10, 2015. The trial court issued an "Amended Order" including the following findings:

The Trial Court finds that a Petition for Bankruptcy was filed by Respondent, MR. TOKES TOSIN ADELEYE on JANUARY 1, 2013. The Trial Court finds that there was no notice of any stay, however, in the Notice of Bankruptcy, it states, "In most instances, the filing of the bankruptcy case automatically stays certain collection and other actions against the debtor [and] the debtor's property.

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Bluebook (online)
544 S.W.3d 467, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/adeleye-v-driscal-in-re-adeleye-texapp-2018.