Cavazos v. Cavazos

941 S.W.2d 211, 1996 WL 658209
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJanuary 9, 1997
Docket13-96-148-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 941 S.W.2d 211 (Cavazos v. Cavazos) 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
Cavazos v. Cavazos, 941 S.W.2d 211, 1996 WL 658209 (Tex. Ct. App. 1997).

Opinion

OPINION

SEERDEN, Chief Justice.

Joel Cavazos, Jr. and Cassandra L. Cava-zos, through their mother, Lucille Cavazos, as plaintiff and next fiiend, brought suit claiming that an addendum (Schedule Five) to the agreement incident to divorce entered into by Joel Sr. and Lucille created a trust in their favor. In response, Joel Cavazos, Sr., appellee, filed a motion for summary judgment arguing that (1) Schedule Five is not part of the agreement or the decree of divorce, and, alternatively, (2) Schedule Five is insufficient to create a trust. The trial court granted appellee’s motion. Appellants contend, in two points of error, that the trial court erred in granting the motion for summary judgment. We affirm.

Lucille and appellee were married in 1977. At that time, appellee and his parents operated a bakery. In 1979, the business was incorporated as C & C Bakery, Inc. Although *213 appellee and his parents held all the shares of the company, both appellee and Lucille were active participants in the business which grew rapidly. By the time of then-divorce on June 25, 1984, appellee was the sole shareholder.

At the time of the divorce, appellee and Lucille entered into an agreement incident to divorce (the Agreement) which was approved by the court and incorporated into the divorce decree. The Agreement refers to and incorporates only four schedules which set forth the property assigned to each spouse and the liabilities assumed by each spouse. Schedule One assigned assets to Lucille Ca-vazos and, among other things, provided that Lucille receive $80,000 “in lieu of any division of community property.” Schedule Two assigned assets to appellee among which was “[t]he business known as C & C Bakery, Inc.” and all of its stock and assets. Schedule Three provided that Lucille assumed no liabilities and Schedule Four provided that appellee assumed all liabilities incurred by the parties. The divorce court found this division of the Cavazos’ estate “just and right” and “in the children’s best interest.” Accordingly, the court entered the decree, incorporating the Agreement. A fifth schedule, Schedule Five, was also filed with the court. Schedule Five, on a single, seperate page, provides:

1. Twenty-five (25%) percent of the Stock in C & C Bakery, Inc. shall be placed in trust for the minor children, Joel Cavazos, Jr. and Cassandra L. Cavazos. The stock to be transferred subsequent to January 1, 1985, and at such time as the stock has ceased to be security for the indebtedness owed to Baldomero Cavazos and wife, Elisa T. Cavazos.

This schedule was not referenced in or incorporated into either the decree or the Agreement.

On June 1, 1995, over ten years after the divorce, appellee sold all the stock of C & C Bakery, Inc. for approximately eleven million dollars. Appellee did not transfer any of the stock or the profits from the sale into a trust. Therefore, the Cavazos children, through Lucille Cavazos as next friend, filed a pleading captioned “Motions to Enforce or to Clarify the Agreement Incident to Divorce and for Contempt and Original Petition for Injunction and Damages.” In their pleading, they asked the court to declare that Schedule Five created a valid trust and to enforce it. Ap-pellee filed a counterclaim and a motion for summary judgment asking the court to declare that Schedule Five is not a part of the Agreement, that it does not constitute a trust, or, alternatively, that it is revocable.

Without specifying the grounds relied upon, the trial court granted appellee’s motion for summary judgment and ordered the proceeding dismissed with prejudice.

In two points of error, appellants claim that the trial court erred in granting the motion for summary judgment. Specifically, appellants contend that the summary judgment is a collateral attack on the divorce decree, that Schedule Five was an integral part of the agreement incident to divorce, and that there are other fact questions remaining for the jury.

The standards for reviewing a summary judgment are well established. Nixon v. Mr. Property Management Co., 690 S.W.2d 546, 548-49 (Tex.1985). The movant has the burden of showing that no genuine issue of material fact exists and that it is entitled to the summary judgment as a matter of law. Id. The reviewing court must accept all evidence favorable to the non-movant as true and every reasonable inference must be indulged in favor of the non-movant. Id. In that regard, evidence which favors the movant will be considered only if it is uneontroverted. Great American Reserve Ins. Co. v. San Antonio Plumbing Supply Co., 391 S.W.2d 41, 47 (Tex.1965).

Furthermore, where, as here, the order granting a summary judgment does not specify the particular grounds sustained, the summary judgment will be affirmed if any of the theories advanced by the movant are meritorious. Carr v. Brasher, 776 S.W.2d 567, 569 (Tex.1989); Hand v. Dean Witter Reynolds Inc., 889 S.W.2d 483, 489 (Tex.App.—Houston [14th Dist.] 1994, writ denied). Accordingly, if any of the grounds asserted by appellee in his motion for sum *214 mary judgment are meritorious, we must affirm.

Before reaching that question, however, we must address a threshold issue raised by appellants. Appellants contend that the March 5,1996 order granting appellee’s summary judgment is void as an impermissible collateral attack on the divorce decree. Appellants are correct in asserting that a trial court may not set aside or alter a judgment after the expiration of its plenary power, and that an order attempting to do so is void. See, e.g., Rogers v. Clinton, 794 S.W.2d 9, 11 (Tex.1990) (court could not set aside judgment in personal injury action when party had withdrawn the motion for new trial); Buttery v. Betts, 422 S.W.2d 149, 151 (Tex.1967). However, we hold that the trial court, in granting the summary judgment, was not altering or correcting the decree or the Agreement but, rather, was merely interpreting the Agreement.

It is clear that a trial court retains the inherent power to clarify, interpret or enforce an agreement incorporated in a divorce decree. Allen v. Allen, 717 S.W.2d 311, 312 (Tex.1986); McGehee v. Epley, 661 S.W.2d 924, 926 (Tex.1983). Appellee, in his motion for summary judgment, merely asked the trial court to determine the legal effect, if any, of Schedule Five. In granting summary judgment, the trial court merely interpreted the Agreement and found that Schedule Five was never a part of the decree or the Agreement.

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Bluebook (online)
941 S.W.2d 211, 1996 WL 658209, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cavazos-v-cavazos-texapp-1997.