In Re Schott

449 B.R. 697, 2011 WL 1042579
CourtUnited States Bankruptcy Court, W.D. Texas
DecidedMarch 16, 2011
Docket15-52475
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 449 B.R. 697 (In Re Schott) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Bankruptcy Court, W.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 Schott, 449 B.R. 697, 2011 WL 1042579 (Tex. 2011).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM DECISION

LEIF M. CLARK, Bankruptcy Judge.

A creditor, International Bank of Commerce (“IBC”), has filed an objection to the debtor’s claim of homestead exemption. Another creditor, Lance P. Welch, has joined IBC’s objection. The debtor has claimed the following real property as exempt pursuant to the state homestead exemptions allowed in the state of Texas, pursuant to 11 U.S.C. § 522(b)(3)(A): 1) House and tracts located at Goose Island Lake Estates, Tracts 1-5, 1204 8th Street, Rockport, Texas 78723, having an asserted value of $950,000; 2) Lots 1-24 on Conlin Drive contiguous to the Goose Island Lake Estates, Tracts 1-5, Rockport, Texas 78732, and having an asserted value of $480,000. IBC has objected on the following grounds: 1) the designation includes one or more non-contiguous lots; 2) the designation includes one or more properties having aggregate acreage in excess of 10 acres (ie., the property is not a rural homestead, which would permit the debtor to claim 100 acres); 3) the properties were not previously designated or used as homestead property by Schott, as required by Tex. Prop.Code 41.005(b) 1 ; 4) the properties are not currently being used for homestead purposes; 5) the debtor does not actually occupy the property as his homestead; 6) the debtor does not have the requisite intent or design to use the property as his business homestead; 7) the debtor does not have the present intent to use the premises as his homestead in the future; 8) the debtor has not established concurrent usage and intent to claim the property as his homestead; and 9) the debtor has previously agreed that some or all of the properties listed as exempt are not his homestead.

At the hearing on this matter, the debt- or claimed that the property listed as exempt constituted a rural, rather than an urban, homestead. He also maintained that, while he is not currently living on the property, he has not abandoned it and has always intended that the property would remain his homestead until such time as he is able to return.

*701 Legal Analysis

The property at issue in this case consists of a golf course and club house. The golf course is bisected by a road which is owned by Aransas County. When the debtor purchased the property in 2006 he moved into the club house and resided there until moving to Austin in 2009 to begin construction on a spec house located in Austin. The debtor claims that the Aransas property is rural, while the objectors claim that it is urban. The Texas Property Code lays out the requirements for an urban homestead as follows:

(c) A homestead is considered to be urban if, at the time the designation is made, the property is:
(1) located within the limits of a municipality or its extraterritorial jurisdiction or a platted subdivision; and
(2) served by police protection, paid or volunteer fire protection, and at least three of the following services provided by a municipality or under contract to a municipality:
(A) electric;
(B) natural gas;
(C) sewer;
(D) storm sewer; and
(E) water.

Tex. Prop.Code § 41.002. The Aransas County property is rural property because, according to the evidence taken at the hearing, it does not receive police protection from a municipality. See In re Dietz, 2011 WL 671959, at *5, 2011 Bankr.LEXIS 522, at *15 (Bankr.E.D.Tex. Feb. 16, 2011) (noting that under section 41.002(c) a property must receive both fire and police protection from a municipality to be considered urban and concluding that because the property at issue only received law enforcement protection from the County Sheriffs Office, the property could not be considered urban, and further stating that due to the lack of police protection from the municipality, “no analysis of utility services is required”); Rodriguez v. Ramirez (In re Ramirez), 2011 WL 30973, at *6-7, 2011 Bankr.LEXIS 72, at *19-20, (Bankr.S.D.Tex. Jan. 5, 2011) (interpreting section 41.002(c) of the Texas Property Code to mean that a property must receive both police and fire protection from a municipality to qualify as urban and concluding that Sheriffs services do not constitute police services within the meaning of section 41.002(c)).

Having found that the Aransas property is rural, the next question concerns whether the property qualifies as the debtor’s homestead. The general Texas homestead rules with respect to the burden of proof are as follows:

Under Texas law, a claimant may establish homestead rights in his land by showing both (i) overt acts of homestead usage and (ii) the intention on the part of the owner to claim the land as a homestead. Once the claimant has made a prima facie case in favor of homestead status, the objecting party has the burden of demonstrating that the homestead rights have been terminated. Bankr.R. 4003(c) ...

Graham v. Kleb, 2008 WL 243669, *2, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6495, *5-6 (S.D.Tex. Jan. 29, 2008) (citations omitted). The debtor bears the burden of establishing that a particular property qualifies as his homestead. Wdien the debtor actually resides on the property, “a court generally need not investigate intent ... because that is ‘the most satisfactory and convincing evidence of intention.’ ” PaineWebber Inc. v. Murray, 260 B.R. 815, 822-823 (E.D.Tex.2001) (citing Texas case law). Once the debtor establishes that the property qualifies as his homestead, the burden shifts to the creditor to disprove the property’s homestead status. See Lifemark *702 Corp. v. Merritt, 655 S.W.2d 310, 314 (Tex. App.-Houston [14th Dist.] 1983) (“The initial burden of establishing that property is homestead property is on the claimant of the protection ... Once the claimant has established his homestead, the burden shifts to the creditor to disprove its continued existence ... The burden amounts to a presumption that the homestead continues to exist until its termination is proved.”); Duran v. Henderson, 71 S.W.3d 833, 842 (Tex.App.-Texarkana 2002) (“Once a homestead claimant has established the homestead character of the property, the burden shifts to the creditor to disprove the continued existence of the homestead.”). The determination of whether property constitutes a debtor’s homestead “presents a fact-intensive inquiry that considers the owner’s concurrent usage and intent to claim the property as a homestead.” Florey v. Estate of McConnell, 212 S.W.3d 439, 445 (Tex.App.-Austin 2006).

The debtor purchased the property at issue in 2006.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
449 B.R. 697, 2011 WL 1042579, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-schott-txwb-2011.