Charles Mandeville v. Deborah Mandeville

Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided November 24, 2015·No. 01-15-00119-CV·Published

Opinion

Opinion issued November 24, 2015

In The

Court of Appeals For The

First District of Texas ———————————— NO. 01-15-00119-CV ——————————— CHARLES MANDEVILLE, Appellant V. DEBORAH MANDEVILLE, Appellee

On Appeal from the 387th District Court Fort Bend County, Texas Trial Court Case No. 14-DCV-211809

MEMORANDUM OPINION

Charles Mandeville appeals a final decree of divorce on the grounds that the

trial court erred by (1) excluding a marital property agreement from evidence

presented to the jury and (2) ordering that Charles’s possession of the children be

supervised. We affirm. Background

Charles and Deborah Mandeville married in New Mexico in June 2000.

During their marriage, the Mandevilles had five children together—three sons and

two daughters. On January 7, 2014, Deborah Mandeville filed an original petition

for divorce in Fort Bend County. Deborah later amended her petition to request

that Charles be supervised during periods of possession of all the children and that

Deborah be awarded possession at all other times.

Charles retained counsel and filed a counter-petition for divorce, including a

demand for a jury trial. The counter-petition referenced a marital property

agreement purportedly defining the parties’ respective rights to property, both

community and separate, and asked that the court divide the marital estate

according to the terms of the agreement.

At the time of the divorce proceedings, Deborah and the children were living

in Fort Bend County, Texas, and Charles lived and worked over one hundred miles

away in Guymon, Oklahoma. By the time of the pretrial hearing, Charles no

longer had counsel and instead represented himself pro se in the divorce

proceedings.

Motion in Limine

The Mandevilles each signed a “Community Property Declaration and

Agreement” on June 25, 2001, roughly one year into their marriage. Deborah filed

2 a pretrial motion in limine including a request that Charles not mention or refer to a

specific item, bank account, or retirement account as being his separate property

unless and until he obtained a ruling on its admissibility outside the presence of the

jury. In support, the motion referenced Charles’s failure to respond to an

interrogatory request seeking identification of purportedly separate property. To

the extent that reference to the agreement might be used to support a claim to

separate property, the motion in limine sought to require that Charles first bring the

matter to the trial court’s attention outside the presence of the jury. During a

pretrial hearing on October 17, 2014, the trial court considered and granted

Deborah’s motion in limine over Charles’s objections.

Jury Trial

Deborah testified on both the first and second day of trial. She characterized

her life and marriage with Charles as “very unstable” since the birth of their first

child. The Mandevilles moved frequently, starting their marriage in New Mexico,

then moving to Portland, and returning to New Mexico six days after the birth of

their first child. After several work-related moves in New Mexico, the

Mandevilles moved to Bloomington, Illinois. Each move was apparently driven by

Charles’s work preferences.

Deborah testified that, after Charles accepted a job in Oklahoma, he left their

family home in Illinois, taking all of his personal possessions with him. After

3 several weeks living separately, the Mandevilles sold their Illinois home and split

the proceeds. Deborah and the children then set out to move to Sugar Land, Texas.

Throughout their marriage, Deborah acted as the children’s primary care-

giver. In Sugar Land, Deborah continued to care for the Mandevilles’ five

children, while working part-time in an accounting business and substitute

teaching.

Upon arriving in Sugar Land, Deborah had some difficulty enrolling the

children in school as they did not yet have birth certificates or social security

numbers. Deborah testified that the children had neither because Charles was

against both. Though Charles never did consent, Deborah was able to get the

children both birth certificates and social security numbers so that the children

could be enrolled in public school and participate in extracurricular activities.

Deborah explained that all of the Mandevilles’ school-aged children are

doing well in school in Sugar Land. Since coming to Texas, all but the youngest

have been involved in extracurricular sporting activities, including basketball,

soccer, football, and swimming. The eldest also participates in a fitness and

positive outlook clinic. Though the four eldest are each involved in swimming in

Sugar Land, Deborah testified that Charles opposes swimming, believing pools are

filthy. Deborah continued to testify that Charles generally opposes organized

4 activities and that he would not continue to allow the children to participate in

organized sports if they primarily resided with him in Oklahoma.

Deborah further explained that their eldest son had been in counseling for

the past year and a half. Deborah decided that he should begin counseling after she

observed that he was having difficulty adjusting to living apart from his father.

Deborah testified that, though her eldest is generally outgoing, inventive, and

energetic, after spending a summer with his father in Oklahoma, he was apathetic

and withdrawn, with a “pretty depressed outlook on life” upon his return to Texas.

After counseling, however, he did return to being excited about school, looking

forward to participating in activities, and expressing a positive outlook on the

future.

Deborah testified that the other children were also negatively affected by

their summer with Charles in Oklahoma. She explained that they returned from

Oklahoma with a general nervousness and paranoia. By way of example, Deborah

explained that the children worried that she might be killed or raped while taking

the trash outside after dark. The two girls were so worried about “bad guys” that

they would no longer sleep in their own room. In Deborah’s opinion, “every time

the kids return [from visiting their father], it’s a longer period of trying to

reacclimate them to just normal views on life and not being fearful.” She

continued, “when they go [to visit their father] . . . it’s just super concentrated on

5 them; and . . . I’m just concerned because his paranoia is something that has a

tendency to filter down.”

Deborah testified that while they were cohabitating, Charles commonly

expressed paranoia. For example, he expressed concerns over going to the grocery

store or stopping at a gas station after dark. She continued to explain that his

paranoia extended to fears of “the house being robbed, making sure the garage

door was down, making sure bars were put up under the doorknobs for the front

and back door before we went to bed” and concern that she would be attacked if

any neighbors knew he was out of town. When the children would visit friends,

Deborah testified that Charles would always have a discussion with them warning

them not to be alone with someone’s father. According to Deborah, such fears

were a “constant discussion” in their home, notwithstanding the fact that she had

never been robbed or attacked. Though Charles had expressed such fears from the

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