Becknell v. D'ANGELO

506 S.W.2d 688, 1974 Tex. App. LEXIS 2136
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedFebruary 15, 1974
Docket17475
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 506 S.W.2d 688 (Becknell v. D'ANGELO) 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
Becknell v. D'ANGELO, 506 S.W.2d 688, 1974 Tex. App. LEXIS 2136 (Tex. Ct. App. 1974).

Opinion

OPINION

BREWSTER, Justice.

Gerald D’Angelo filed a bill of review against his former wife, Elaine Becknell, seeking to have vacated the provisions of a *690 divorce decree in so far as such decree divided the property of the parties. The trial court granted the bill of review and rendered judgment dividing the property in a way different from how it had previously been divided and Mrs. Becknell has brought this appeal from that decree.

The background of the case is as follows: the parties were formerly husband and wife, having married on August 13, 1954, and having finally separated on November 9, 1969; Mrs. Becknell did on November 14, 1969, file Case No. 86,862-B in the 78th District Court, Wichita County, Texas, against Gerald D’Angelo, seeking therein a divorce, custody of the two minor children of the parties, child support and a division of their property; this divorce case, was tried before Judge Temple Driver and he did on March 9, 1970, render and sign a judgment in the case which divorced the parties hereto, it gave child custody of the two girl children, then 12 and 13 years of age, to their mother and gave D’Angelo the right of reasonable visitation with his children, and it ordered D’Angelo to pay $125.00 a month in child support. In dividing the property that decree gave each party a one-half interest in the equity that the two owned in a house at 106 Clayton Street, San Angelo, Texas. It decreed that a four acre tract in Tom Green County that was deeded to Mrs. Becknell by her parents was her separate property. It impressed a lien against that piece of separate property in favor of D’Angelo to secure the payment to him by Mrs. Becknell of $1,800.00 because of the expenditure of community funds in repairing improvements on such property. The wife was awarded a 1965 Oldsmobile and the husband was awarded a 1960 Chrysler auto. The decree awarded to each of the parties a one-half interest in a $4,200.00 savings account they had in a credit union. It awarded each party a one-half interest in the household goods and furnishings they had accumulated. D’Angelo was awarded his guns and a Honda motorcycle. The wife was denied any claim to D’Angelo’s retirement benefits by reason of his service in the United States Air Force.

On March 16, 1970, one week after the rendition of the divorce decree, Mrs. Beck-nell filed in the same case pending in the 78th District Court a motion to amend, set aside or modify the March 9, 1970, judgment that was signed and rendered by Judge Temple Driver in the case. Mrs. Becknell alleged as grounds for this motion that D’Angelo had withdrawn all of their $4,200.00 savings account in the credit union and had put all of the furniture and household furnishings in a warehouse in his own name to where she could not withdraw her part without his signature and that he had left the jurisdiction of the court and that he had thereby made it impossible to have the decree the court rendered on March 9, 1970, carried into effect. She asked that the court set aside that decree and render one re-distributing the property of the parties in such a way as to be fair and alleged that this could only be done by giving her all of the household goods and the entire equity they owned in the San Angelo house.

Thereafter, on April 8, 1970, Judge Stanley Kirk did hear this motion and render a judgment amending and modifying the decree of March 9, 1970. Its provisions as to divorce, child custody and child support were the same as were in the decree of March 9, 1970. The entire equity owned by the parties in the house at 106 Clayton in San Angelo was awarded by this decree to Mrs. Becknell, instead of the one-half interest given her by the other decree. Her separate property (four acres) in Tom Green County was given to her outright free of D’Angelo’s claim of a lien for $1,800.00 thereon. She was again given the 1965 Olds and her husband got the 1960 Chrysler. The entire $4,200.00 savings account in the credit union was awarded to D’Angelo. Mrs. Becknell was given all of the household goods and furnishings instead of just one-half of them as was done by the prior decree. Mrs. Becknell was also awarded 47/120ths of *691 D’Angelo’s right to military retirement benefits by this decree. The decree of March 9, 1970, had denied her claim to a part of D’Angelo’s military retirement benefits.

Nothing further was done about this case until September 26, 1972, at which time D’Angelo filed a bill of review in the 78th District Court of Wichita County, Texas, against Mrs. Becknell. This case was No. 92968-B and was styled Gerald F. D’Angelo v. Elaine Becknell. D’Angelo’s petition alleged that he was a member of the United States Air Force; he alleged the facts about the rendition of the March 9, 1970, decree in the divorce case; he was then under orders from the United States Air Force to leave the United States for Thailand and did so leave the United States on March 11, 1970; before leaving he was told of the March 9, 1970, judgment but had not been given a copy of it; his attorneys had told him that the entry of that decree would conclude their services to him in the case; that he had no knowledge of the motion filed by Mrs. Becknell to amend the March 9, 1970, decree until after the April 8, 1970, decree had been rendered so amending it; that this new decree materially affected his property rights; that him being in military service prevented him from having knowledge of the motion to amend and from appearing in court at the hearing to present his defense thereto; he prayed that the April 8, 1970, decree be set aside and that the decree of March 9, 1970, be reinstated.

The undisputed evidence at the trial of the bill of review was that neither Mrs. Becknell nor D’Angelo were present at the April 8, 1970, hearing of Mrs. Becknell’s motion to modify the March 9, 1970, decree. It was also established that D’Angelo was told by telephone on March 10, 1970, thirty minutes before flying out of the United States, under Air Force orders, of the terms of the March 9, 1970, decree. He had checked the money out of the credit union and deposited it in another credit union the day he left and before learning of the decree. He was in the Phillipines in service on March 16, 1970, the date Mrs. Becknell filed the motion to modify and he was in Thailand in service for the next 25 months. He did not get a copy of the April 8, 1970, amended decree until he had been in Thailand for six months. He returned permanently to the United States in April, 1972, and he testified that the fact he was in military service had prevented him from being present at the hearing on April 8, 1970, of the motion to modify the judgment. D’Angelo’s former attorney had written to him on March 10, 1970, as follows: “. . . the entry of this Judgment (the March 9, 1970, decree) will conclude our services in this matter and we will not be acting further as your attorneys in this matter.” This attorney did, however, appear at the April 8, 1970, hearing before Judge Kirk. It is difficult to believe that strong representation or objection was offered in D’Angelo’s behalf at that hearing because Judge Kirk, without hearing any evidence in the case, did set aside the decree that Judge Driver had rendered on March 9, 1970, and rendered another decree that adversely affected D’Angelo’s property rights.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
506 S.W.2d 688, 1974 Tex. App. LEXIS 2136, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/becknell-v-dangelo-texapp-1974.