In re Pearson

570 B.R. 237
CourtUnited States Bankruptcy Court, N.D. Texas
DecidedApril 27, 2017
DocketCASE NO. 16-50248-rlj12
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 570 B.R. 237 (In re Pearson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Bankruptcy Court, N.D. Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re Pearson, 570 B.R. 237 (Tex. 2017).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION

Robert L. Jones, United States Bankruptcy Judge

Creditor City Bank objects to the exemption claims of David and Jacqueline [240]*240Pearson, the debtors, concerning four vehicles and a 170.44-acre farm that is out of a larger, 315.58-acre tract. The exemption claims are based on Texas law. The four vehicles are claimed under sections 42.001(a)(l)-(2) and 42.002(a)(3) of the Texas Property Code; the farmland is claimed as part of the Pearsons’ rural homestead exemption under sections 41.001-.002 of the Texas Property Code and the Texas Constitution.

The Court sustains the Bank’s objection to the exemption claim to the vehicles but denies its objection to the homestead claim. For the homestead, the Pearsons will be directed to specifically identify the 170.44acres that they assert is their homestead.

The Court has jurisdiction over this proceeding under 28 U.S.C. §§ 157 and 1334. This matter is a core proceeding under 28 U.S.C. § 157(b)(2)(B).

I.

The Pearsons live in a house that is located on a 4.22-acre tract that was surveyed out' of a 320-acre tract (and thus creating the 315.58-acre tract). Neither the pleadings here nor the Pearsons’ bankruptcy schedules of real property and of exemptions specifically identify the 170.44 acres, however. Their schedule of all real property in which they have an interest, Schedule A/B, identifies the 4,22 acres, with their house, with the legal description of Terry County, S/E corner of Section 16, Block X, having a value of $429,000.00; it then identifies the farm as consisting of 315.58 acres in Hockley/Terry County, 1/2 section of Section 16, Block X, Texas having a value of $455,000.00. The latter has the notation that “170.44 acres [are] unencumbered and exempted.” Their homestead exemption, under Schedule C, identifies both such tracts with the same values and with the same notation that 170.44 acres are exempt. Debtors’ Ex. B. This inadequately identifies the homestead claim. It appears to be limited to 170.44 acres, on which City Bank premises its objection, but attributes the same value as is for the 315.58 acres.

The four vehicles at issue are a 2013 Ford F-350, a 2015 Ford F-350, a 2012 Chevrolet Silverado, and a 2014 Polaris Ranger.

City Bank, as to the Pearsons, is a large, unsecured creditor claiming to be owed over $1.8 million. It contends that the four vehicles cannot be exempted because they have always, since the time of purchase of each vehicle, been under lease to the Pear-sons’ affiliated entities, Double P Farms, a partnership, and B & D Pearson Farms, LLC. The bank’s objection to the Pear-sons’ homestead exemption is similar. City Bank contends that the Pearsons have abandoned any homestead claim to the 170.44acres because the entirety of the farm, the 315,58 acres from which the 170.44acres is derived, has been leased out to Double P Farms without interruption for several years and will continue to be under lease with Double P Farms for the foreseeable future.

The parties have no real factual dispute concerning the vehicles. The question here is whether, in light of the vehicles having always been leased out, they can still be exempt. The Court will return to this question; it first addresses the facts concerning the homestead claim.

David Pearson and his previous wife, Tonette Pearson, purchased the 320-acre farm in May 2003. David Pearson had previously farmed the 320 acres under a crop-share lease with the prior owners. At the time that David and Tonette purchased the farm, they were living in Levelland, Texas. David Pearson testified that he and Tonette moved to the farm in November [241]*2412003, and that he put-in a crop for the 2003 crop year. The Pearsons also installed an irrigation system shortly after acquiring the farm. Then, in 2004, Double P Farms started farming the land under an oral lease with the Pearsons. To this date, the Pearsons (David and either Tonette or Jacqueline) and Double P Farms have never entered into a written lease agreement. Double P Farms is a partnership that was formed in 2004 between David and his father, Bobby Pearson. David Pearson further testified that he and Jacqueline are, together, presently 50% owners of Double PFarms, with Bobby Pearson owning the other 50%.

David and Tonette divorced in 2006; he and Jacqueline married in 2007.

Double P Farms has continuously farmed the 320 acres since 2004. The Pear-sons intend to continue to lease-out the land to Double P Farms for the foreseeable future.

David Pearson has moved around a bit, but he and Jacqueline have resided at their house on the 4.22 acres since late 2010, early 2011.

In March 2010, David Pearson and Bobby Pearson, on behalf of Double P Farms and B &D Pearson Farms, LLC, signed a deed of trust in favor of Lone Star State Bank to secure loans made by Lone Star. The deed of trust purports to cover the entire 320-acre tract at issue here and a second tract described as Labors 8 and 9, League 16, of the Howard County School Lands, Hockley County, Texas. David Pearson testified that the latter tract was his father’s. The validity of this deed of trust is questionable.

In October 2006, David Pearson, as a single person, purchased a home on 10.3 acres in Hockley County, Texas. This property is not part of the 320-acre tract but, according to David Pearson, is rural. He and Jacqueline built a barn on the property in October 2008.

Tonette Pearson conveyed her interest in the 320-acre tract to David in June 2008.

The Pearsons, David and Jacqueline, lived on the 10.3 acres at least from the time of their marriage until they moved to a house on the farm (somewhere on the 320 acres). They built a new home on the 4.22 acres, beginning in October 2011. It was completed sometime in 2012. By a “Designation of Homestead and Affidavit of Nonhomestead” dated November 10, 2011, David and Jacqueline stated that their homestead property was located on Labors 8 and 9, League 16, of Howard County School Lands, Hockley County, Texas, and that their non-homestead property was the 4.22-acre tract of land out of the 320 acres of the South portion of Section 16, Block X, Public School Land, Terry County, Texas. City Bank’s Ex. 21. This instrument was issued for the lender American State Bank. It recites that the Pearsons, as “Affiant” under the instrument, have “never, do[ ] not now and do[ ] not intend ever to reside on, use in any manner, or claim [the] nonhomestead property as a business or residence homestead. [The Pearsons] disclaim[ ] all homestead right, interest, and exemption related to the nonhomestead property.” Id.

The portion of the 320-acre tract that is farmed, the approximate 315 acres (the 320 acres less the 4.22-acre tract where the Pearsons’ house sits), has been contin-ually used as farmland under a lease with Double P Farms since 2004, As stated above, there has never been a written lease agreement to memorialize this arrangement, however.

II.

A debtor in bankruptcy has the option to choose either the bankruptcy exemptions [242]*242of § 522(d) or that of the controlhng state and federal nonbankruptcy law. 11 U.S.C.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
570 B.R. 237, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-pearson-txnb-2017.