Foster v. Foster

583 S.W.2d 868, 1979 Tex. App. LEXIS 3717
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMay 31, 1979
DocketNo. 1256
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 583 S.W.2d 868 (Foster v. Foster) 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
Foster v. Foster, 583 S.W.2d 868, 1979 Tex. App. LEXIS 3717 (Tex. Ct. App. 1979).

Opinion

MOORE, Justice.

Appellant, Sara D. Foster, brought this divorce action against appellee, Jeffrey Foster. After a trial before the court, a divorce was granted and Mrs. Foster was appointed managing conservator of the parties’ three minor children. The judgment provided for a division of the community property, including assets and liabilities, and further awarded child support to Mrs. Foster in the amount of $250.00 per month, per child, until January 1982, and $350.00 per month per child thereafter until each child reached the age of eighteen. Mrs. Foster, not being satisfied with the division of the community property, perfected this appeal.

We affirm.

[869]*869The record is before us only by way of a transcript and statement of facts. There are no findings of fact or conclusions of law.

The evidence shows that the parties were married on August 10, 1971, and continued to live together until August 14, 1977. Three children were born to or adopted by the parties whose ages ranged from three to six years of age at the time of the divorce. Dr. Foster was an endodontist and during the time of the marriage built up a dental practice with an adjusted gross income of approximately $78,000.00 per year. Mrs. Foster’s education consisted of a bachelor’s degree in education with sixty hours of graduate work in counseling and experimental psychology. In the early part of the marriage she taught school earning approximately $9,200.00 per year. At the time of the trial she testified that she had applied for a job paying $10,000.00 per year but had not yet been employed.

The evidence shows that at the time of the divorce, the community estate consisted of property of the value of $138,901.00, with community liabilities totaling $149,493.00, leaving the community estate with a negative net worth of $10,592.00. Neither party possessed separate property of any consequence.

The only community asset having any substantial equity value was the community homestead. According to the evidence the homestead had an estimated value of $120,-000.00 to $145,000.00 which was burdened by a purchase-money lien in the amount of $84,602.00. In dividing the community estate, the trial court awarded the homestead to Dr. Foster as his separate property. The judgment recites that Dr. Foster was awarded:

“The residence at 7502 Valburn, Austin, Texas, subject to the orders hereinbelow for respondent to sell such residence and as specified herein to apply the proceeds to discharge those specific community debts which are in an amount found by the court to be approximately equal to the fair market value of the residence.”

Under the terms of the judgment, Dr. Foster was ordered to sell the homestead and out of the net proceeds was ordered to discharge the purchase-money lien existing against it. He was also ordered to pay the following unsecured community debts out of the net proceeds of the sale: (1) the balance due City National Bank in the amount of $10,133.00; (2) the sum of $1,000.00 to attorneys representing each party; (3) the balance due and owing Louis Shanks for furniture in the amount of $5,450.00; (4) the balance due and owing the Dallas Teachers Credit Union in the amount of $10,746.00; and (5) the balance due and owing the Navy Credit Union in the amount of $5,500.00.

Under her first point of error, Mrs. Foster complains of that portion of the judgment ordering Dr. Foster to sell the homestead and to apply the proceeds to discharge the unsecured community debts. She contends that the order requiring the unsecured debts paid out of the proceeds from the homestead denied her right to the statutory protection afforded such proceeds from the claims of unsecured creditors as provided for in the Texas Constitution, art. 16, sec. 50.1 Relying on the holding in Delaney v. Delaney,2 she argues that the court should have awarded her one-half of the proceeds of the sale after the purchase money debt had been extinguished and that the order of the court ordering that the unsecured debts be paid out of the proceeds had the effect of denying her her right to her homestead exemption as mandated by the Texas Constitution, supra. For reasons to be explained later, we have concluded that any complaint she may have had in this regard has now become moot and for that reason a determination of this point is unnecessary.

[870]*870The record reveals that after the appeal in this case had been perfected and was pending in this court, the parties caused to be filed an instrument styled “Supplemental Fact Statement.” The instrument which was signed by the attorneys for both parties recites: (1) that appellant did not file a supersedeas bond to stay the sale of the homestead property; (2) that the husband sold the homestead for the sum of $112,000.00 and discharged the purchase money lien against same; (3) that appellant vacated the homestead; (4) that out of the net proceeds of the sale in the amount of $27,812.74 the husband paid the unsecured debts as ordered by the court.

In view of what has occurred since the entry of the judgment and the order appealed from, it is now impossible for this court to grant effective relief. The object of the order has been attained. The order has been executed and its force spent. There is no redress which this court can give appellant even if we concluded that the order requiring the payment of the unsecured debts out of the proceeds of the homestead deprived her of her statutory homestead exemption. The purchaser is in possession of the mortgaged premises and the proceeds have been disbursed in accordance with the order of the court. There is no way that either this court or the trial court could at this late date retrieve the proceeds from the sale of the homestead even if we concluded she was entitled to the same. She could have preserved the point by filing a supersedeas bond but she did not choose to do so. Consequently, under the facts before us, any question of whether the trial court erred in ordering the unsecured debts paid out of the proceeds of the homestead has now become moot. Brown v. Fleming, 212 S.W. 483, 484 (Tex.Com.App.1919, judgment adopted); Shaw v. Allied Finance Company, 319 S.W.2d 820, 822 (Tex.Civ.App.—Fort Worth 1958, no writ history); 5 C.J.S. Appeal and Error § 1362, p. 447. The appellate court will not proceed to a determination when its judgment would be wholly ineffectual for want of a subject matter on which it could operate. South Padre, Inc. v. Texas Commerce Bank National Assoc., 538 S.W.2d 475, 479 (Tex.Civ.App.—Corpus Christi 1976, no writ history).

Appellant contends by her second point of error that the division of the property made by the trial court constitutes an abuse of discretion, because in making the division the court failed to consider the disparity of earning capacity of the parties. In our view the contention is without merit and therefore the point is overruled.

The Texas Family Code Ann. sec. 3.63 (Vernon’s 1975) requires the court to “order a division of the estate of the parties in a manner that the court deems just and right, having due regard for the rights of each party . . ..” The statute does not require the division to be equal. Rather it suggests that the court should consider all of the circumstances of the parties.

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Bluebook (online)
583 S.W.2d 868, 1979 Tex. App. LEXIS 3717, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/foster-v-foster-texapp-1979.