Hughes v. Hughes

259 S.W. 180
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJanuary 23, 1924
DocketNo. 2246. [fn*]
StatusPublished
Cited by30 cases

This text of 259 S.W. 180 (Hughes v. Hughes) 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
Hughes v. Hughes, 259 S.W. 180 (Tex. Ct. App. 1924).

Opinion

*181 RANDOLPH, J.

This was a suit for divorce, for the custody of the children of the marriage sought to be dissolved, and for the partition of the property between plaintiff and defendant. The trial court having granted Mrs. Hughes, who was the plaintiff in the suit, a divorce, the ctfstody of the children, and having awarded her certain of the property which will later ,'oe described, and made certain other awards, defendant appeals from that judgment. On his appearance here he dismisses his appeal as to the divorce and the custody of the children, but presses the appeal upon the question of the trial court’s partition of the property and •of certain other awards with reference to the income and debts.

The trial court found that section No.' '82, in Hansford county, Tex.', was the separate property of the husband, but included it in the judgment by impressing upon it the trust for the benefit of the children. There is no distinction between community and ■separate property in the disposition of the ■revenues from same and the use of same as between the parties to the suit or their chil■dren. Hedtke v. Hedtke, 112 Tex. 404, 248 S. W. 21.

The trial court found that the community between the plaintiff and defendant owned the following property, to wit, 2,400 acres of land situated in Hansford county, valued at $25,000; one lot in the town of Hereford, Deaf Smith county, valued at $2,800; personal property consisting of one-half interest in thresher, two Worses, two mules, etc., improvements on section 82, and household and kitchen furnitdre valued at $5,865; notes and bills, receivable. $2,075; cash on hand $190. All items of personal property and real estate aggregating in value $34,265. The court awarded plaintiff the following property: The house and lot in Hereford, 1 cow, household and kitchen furniture, valued at $3,400; 480 acres of land out of section 77, valued at $9,600, aggregating $13,000.

The following property was awarded to ■defendant: Section .79, 640 acres, valued at $9,600, but which was incumbered with a vendor’s lien amounting to $8,000, leaving the equity in said section.of the value of $1,600. Sections 95 and 96, containing 1,280, acres incumbered with debt due school fund of about $1,400, the equity in which was valued at .$5,000; all of the improvements or section 82, valued at $2,000; interest in threshing machine outfit, farming tools, implements, machinery, mules, horses, wagon and harness, one cow, feed and grain on hand of the value of $1,000, bills receivable, including notes and demands held by the defendant, valued at $2,075, and cash on hand $190.

The court further ordered that' the debt of $8,000 which is secured by lien on section 79 and a part of section 82 be charged solely io the defendant, and it was provided that he discharge the same without contribution from the plaintiff, as was also done with the debt of $1,400 owed the state of Texas on section 96. The court also further ordered that the delinquent taxes due and owing on any pfoperty of the estate should be discharged by defendant, and further provided that a trust estate be created and established on and against sections 82, 95, and 96, owned by and awarded to defendant (and against the rents and revenues to be derived therefrom) for the use and benefit, support and maintenance of the minor children, and that payment of same be made out of such rent and revenues; and further ordered the appointment of defendant as trustee to manage and control such property for the purposes of such trust, and to pay the plaintiff the sum of $400 per annum out of such rents and revenues so derived for the support, maintenance, and education of the minor children, reserving the right to appoint another trustee should the defendant not comply with the requirements of such judgment, and also reserved the right to modify or change any of the provisions of such decree; also rendering judgment against defendant for $500 attorney’s fees, and providing in the event the defendant appealed from said judgment that he pay $100 per month as alimony pending such appeal.

It will be seen from the above that the property awarded to plaintiff amounted" to $13,000 in value, and that awarded the defendant amounted to $21,265 in value, less debts aggregating $9,400, and unascertained delinquent taxes.

The trial court found that the allegations of the petition were true, and found for plaintiff. No statement of facts has been brought up with this record, and we are therefore precluded from finding upon any question where an issue of fact is presented.

The plaintiff, during her marriage to defendant, had borne him ten children, six of whom are minor. The trial court might well have concluded from the evidence, the allegations of the petition having been proved, that it was necessary to tie the hands of defendant and place him where he would be compelled to obey the mandate of the court before he would carry out that mandate.

It is provided in article 4634, Vernon’s Sayles’ Ann. Civ. St. 1914, that the district court, in decreeing a divorce between husband and wife, should order a division of the estate of the parties in such way as to the court shall seem just and right, having due regard to the rights of each party and their children, if any, but is without power to divest the parties .of the title to real estate.

The appellant (defendant) is here complaining of the trial court’s judgment, and raises, among other propositions of error, the following: (1) The trial court should divide *182 the community property equally between the husband and wife; (2) it was error for that court to require the husband to pay delinquent taxes and other debts on all the community estate; (3) it was error for the court to establish a trust upon land awarded to him for the use and benefit, support, and maintenance of the minor children awarded to his wife; especially was this error because no period of time, no conditions, or contingencies were provided for, and because the trial court was without power to provide a fixed sum for the support and maintenance of the minors as a charge against the defendant’s estate; (4) it was error for the court to give the wife judgment for $500 attorney’s fees; and (5) it was error for the court to allow $100 per month alimony pending appeal.

1. The statute does not require equality of division between husband and wife on the granting of a divorce, but such division shall be made in such a way as to the court may seem just and right; and this division is of all property of the parties, whether community or separate. Hedtke v. Hedtke, supra.

2. It was not error for the court, in exercising his discretion in dividing the property, to require the husband to pay the debts of the community. Hubbard v. Hubbard (Tex. Civ. App.) 38 S. W. 388.

3. The question presented in the charge that the trial court erred in establishing a trust, with the husband as trustee, upon the land awarded to him in the division of the property, for the benefit, use, support, and maintenance of the minor children, whose custody had been placed with the wife, and in fixing ⅝ specific sum to be paid by the husband out of the rents and revenues of such property, for the support and maintenance of the children, is a very serious and difficult one, and one upon which the decisions of several Courts of Civil Appeals are at variance with our conclusion.

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Bluebook (online)
259 S.W. 180, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hughes-v-hughes-texapp-1924.