Daisy Wanda Garcia v. Thomas Lee Baumgarten

Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided April 23, 2015·No. 03-14-00267-CV·Published

Opinion

ACCEPTED 03-14-00267-CV 5010309 THIRD COURT OF APPEALS AUSTIN, TEXAS 4/23/2015 3:25:43 PM JEFFREY D. KYLE CLERK NO. 03-14-00267-CV

In the Court of Appeals FILED IN 3rd COURT OF APPEALS for the Third Judicial District of Texas AUSTIN, TEXAS at Austin 4/23/2015 3:25:43 PM JEFFREY D. KYLE Clerk DAISY WANDA GARCIA, Appellant/Defendant,

v.

THOMAS LEE BAUMGARTEN, Appellee/Plaintiff.

Appeal from the 201st Judicial District Court Travis County, Texas Trial Court Cause No. D-1-GN-12-002429

APPELLEE’S RESPONSE TO APPELLANT’S EMERGENCY MOTION TO ABATE, AND REQUEST FOR SANCTIONS

Nicholas P. Laurent State Bar No. 24065591 Raymond E. White State Bar No. 21321950 MCGINNIS, LOCHRIDGE & KILGORE, L.L.P. 600 Congress Avenue, Suite 2100 Austin, Texas 78701 (512) 495-6000 (512) 495-6093 FAX nlaurent@mcginnislaw.com rwhite@mcginnislaw.com

ATTORNEYS FOR APPELLEE THOMAS LEE BAUMGARTEN TABLE OF CONTENTS SUMMARY OF RESPONSE ............................................................................................. 1

STATEMENT OF FACTS .................................................................................................. 2

ARGUMENT....................................................................................................................... 7

1. Garcia abandoned and alienated any homestead rights she may have had when she agreed in a written settlement agreement to vacate and sell the Exposition Property. ......................................................................... 7

2. Garcia’s new contention on appeal that she was married to Baumgarten has been waived because it was not raised at the trial court. ............................................................................................................ 10

3. The Family Code presumes Garcia and Baumgarten were not married because Garcia waited thirty-four years to make such a suggestion. ................................................................................................... 10

4. Garcia should be estopped from asserting her new contention on appeal because it is contrary to her prior, sworn testimony and is contrary to her current representations to this Court. .................................. 11

5. Garcia’s Emergency Motion to Abate is nothing more than another attempt to delay these proceedings without cause. ..................................... 13

REQUEST FOR SANCTIONS ......................................................................................... 14

CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................. 15

PRAYER ........................................................................................................................... 16

CERTIFICATE OF CONFERENCE ................................................................................ 17

WORD COUNT CERTIFICATION ................................................................................. 17

CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE .......................................................................................... 18

-i- TO THE HONORABLE THIRD COURT OF APPEALS:

SUMMARY OF RESPONSE Garcia agreed in a written settlement agreement to vacate and sell the

property at issue in this case, and in doing so, she waived and released all of the

issues on which she bases her Emergency Motion to Abate. Later regretting her

decision to agree to vacate and sell the property, Garcia filed numerous motions

with the trial court and two motions with this Court in an effort to stop the sale.

The trial court denied all of her motions and this Court denied all of her motions.

Garcia also filed a motion with the Supreme Court of Texas to stop the sale and the

Supreme Court of Texas denied her motion. Garcia still to this day has never

posted a supersedeas bond to suspend enforcement of the judgment rendered

against her.

Now, in yet another eleventh hour attempt to stop the sale of the property

she agreed to sell, Garcia suggests for the first time that she was married to

Mr. Baumgarten and that this new issue she manufactures out of whole cloth

should stop this appeal from proceeding. Garcia’s new argument was never raised

before the trial court, is presumed invalid under the Family Code, and is directly

contrary to her prior, explicit representation to this Court that she was never

married to Mr. Baumgarten. See Appellant’s Brief at p. 3 (“Baumgarten negotiated

the terms of the purchase and arranged that the property would be purchased in

-1- both their names, as husband and wife, but, of course, they were not married.”

(emphasis added)). In fact, this newly manufactured issue is directly contrary to

one of Garcia’s primary defenses to Mr. Baumgarten’s claims at the trial court –

that Mr. Baumgarten promised to marry her but did not fulfill his promise.

Garcia’s Emergency1 Motion to Abate is just another delay tactic that should

be denied.

STATEMENT OF FACTS Baumgarten and Garcia jointly purchased real property in 1979 on

Exposition Blvd. in Austin, Texas (the “Exposition Property”). CR 29-32. They

resided at the Exposition Property together for a few years and then parted ways,

with Baumgarten moving to Houston. CR 61 (p. 78, ln. 7-9). They both continued

to be co-owners of the Exposition Property. By Garcia’s own admission, she and

Baumgarten ceased living together in 1981. See Garcia’s Emergency Motion to

Abate at ¶ 8.

After Baumgarten moved to Houston, Garcia had lawyers ask him to

gratuitously sign deeds conveying his 1/2 interest in the Exposition Property to her

in 1992 and 2011. CR 185 (p.95, ln. 24-25, p. 96, ln. 1-3), 131-36. Garcia then

threatened to sue Baumgarten and Baumgarten filed the underlying lawsuit seeking

1 Garcia does not make clear in her motion why she believes the motion should be considered an emergency or determined on an expedited basis.

-2- to partition the Exposition Property he co-owned with Garcia in a partition sale.

CR 131-36, 4-8.

Garcia’s two defenses to Baumgarten’s partition claims were that she had

adversely possessed the property from her cotenant, Baumgarten, and that she had

allowed Baumgarten to be on the deed to the Exposition Property because he

supposedly promised to marry her, but that he did not follow through on his

promise and he should now be estopped from owning an interest in the Exposition

Property. See, e.g., CR 584-85.

During Garcia’s deposition, she unequivocally stated the following

regarding Baumgarten:

Q. Have you ever been married? A. No. Q. And you’re not married now? A. No. CR 461 (p. 14, ln. 3-6) (emphasis added). See also CR 199 (Baumgarten

deposition) (p. 150, ln. 23-25) (“Q. Well, were you [Mr. Baumgarten] married to

her [Ms. Garcia], that’s the question? A. No.”).

From the time Garcia and Baumgarten separated in 1981 until March 16,

2015 (when Garcia filed a pro se will contest), Garcia contended she was not

married to Baumgarten. Garcia never suggested or even hinted to the trial court

that she was married to Baumgarten. Indeed, her contention that she was not

married to Baumgarten was a critical part of her defense to Baumgarten’s partition

-3- claim. See, e.g., CR 584-85. For example, Garcia stated under oath in an affidavit

in responding to Baumgarten’s motion for summary judgment:

In 1977 I decided to buy the Timber Ridge townhome. I used the proceeds of the sale of a rent house in Corpus Christi my father had given me to make the down payment.

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