Insurance Co. of North America v. Barker

462 S.W.2d 75, 1970 Tex. App. LEXIS 2552
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedDecember 18, 1970
DocketNo. 17159
StatusPublished

This text of 462 S.W.2d 75 (Insurance Co. of North America v. Barker) 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
Insurance Co. of North America v. Barker, 462 S.W.2d 75, 1970 Tex. App. LEXIS 2552 (Tex. Ct. App. 1970).

Opinion

OPINION

MASSEY, Chief Justice.

Mrs. Jack E. Barker, intervenor in a garnishment before judgment proceeding, sought to have it declared that the deposit in her name in the garnishee bank was her sole and separate property. Suit to which the garnishment was ancillary was one against her husband for debt, filed by the Insurance Company of North America.

Mrs. Barker moved for summary judgment freeing her deposit, with her motion supported by affidavits of her father-in-law and husband as well as her own. The proof supplied thereby was to the effect that the original amount deposited, when the account was opened in the garnishee bank, constituted funds of the father-in-law (delivered in the form of a check made payable to the husband and by him endorsed over to Mrs. Barker) either given to her or given to the husband in trust to be delivered to her so that she would be able to support her family during the period involuntary bankruptcy proceedings were pending against her husband.

The Insurance Company of North America filed its own motion for summary judgment. A judgment was rendered which granted Mrs. Barker a summary judgment and denied the plea of the insurance company. From this judgment the Insurance Company of North America appealed.

Reversed; remanded for trial.

We are of the opinion that the credibility of the testimony of Mrs. Barker and her husband and father-in-law were all cast in issue in the case and for that reason could have done no more than raise an issue of fact upon Mrs. Barker’s theory. See McDonald, Texas Civil Practice, Sec. 17.26.5, “Summary Judgment-(IV) Determination of Motion on Matters Outside Pleadings”, where it is stated: “Where a motion finds support only in the affidavits of interested parties or witnesses (and expecially where such affidavits deal with facts peculiarly within the affiants’ knowledge), the credibility of such affiants normally will be for the jury.” See also McDonald, Texas Civil Practice, Ch. XI, “Jury Trial: General”, Sec. 11.28, “Motion for Instructed Verdict. — D. Situation in Which Verdict Directed”, and in particular cases annotated under Note 36 (on p. 1040 of original Vol. 3), stemming from the original authority of Cochran v. Wool Growers Central Storage Co., 140 Tex. 184, 166 S.W.2d 904 (1942).

Based upon the foregoing our judgment is necessarily one which denies Mrs. Barker’s right to summary judgment and reverses that of the trial court granting such. We proceed to a consideration of the asserted right to the summary judgment by the Insurance Company of North America.

Texas Constitution, Vernon’s Ann.St., Art. 16, Sec. 15, “Separate and community property of husband and wife”, reads, in part: “All property, both real and personal, of the wife, owned or claimed by her before marriage, and that acquired afterward by gift, devise or descent, shall be the separate property of the wife; * * * »

To be noted is the fact that the jurisdiction attached relative to pertinent matters in the trial court before January 1, 1970, effective date of the Texas Family Code, and the statutes theretofore in effect are those to which reference should be made.

Vernon’s Ann.Tex.Civ.St. Art. 4613, provided in part, as follows: “All property owned or claimed by either spouse before marriage and that acquired during marriage by gift, devise or descent and the increase of property thus acquired is a spouse’s separate property. * * * The [77]*77separate property of a spouse is not subject to liabilities of the other spouse unless both spouses are liable by other rules of law. All property acquired by either spouse during marriage, other than separate property, is community property.”

V.A.T.S., Art. 4619, provided that: “All property possessed by either spouse during or on dissolution of marriage is presumed to be community property.”

V.A.T.S., Art. 3996, provides: “Every gift, conveyance, assignment, or transfer of, or charge upon, any estate real or personal, * * * with intent to delay, hinder or defraud creditors, * * * of or from what they are, or may be, lawfully entitled to, shall, as to such creditors, * * * void.”

V.A.T.S., Art. 3997, provides: “Every gift, conveyance, assignment, transfer or charge made by a debtor, which is not upon consideration deemed valuable in law, shall be void as to prior creditors, unless it appears that such debtor was then possessed of property within this State subject to execution sufficient to pay his existing debts; * *

Under V.A.T.S., Art. 3997, it has been held that where fraud is established or is to be presumed, prima facie, the burden of proof is upon him who asserts that a gift, conveyance, assignment, transfer or charge made was supported by consideration or that at the time thereof he was possessed of property within the state subject to execution sufficient to pay his existing debts. Evans v. First Nat. Bank of Mt. Vernon, 65 S.W.2d 366, 368 (Texarkana Civ.App., 1933, writ dism.). See other cases annotated in 18A Texas Digest, “Fraudulent Conveyances”, ^277, “Consideration”.

With the foregoing as a premise the Insurance Company of North America has constructed a persuasive argument based upon the holdings and language to be found in Gleich v. Bongio, 128 Tex. 606, 99 S.W.2d 881 (1937); Beeler v. Beeler, 363 S.W.2d 305 (Beaumont Civ.App., 1962, writ dism.) ; and Solether v. Trinity Fire Ins. Co., 124 Tex. 363, 78 S.W.2d 180 (1935). The insurance company contends that the affidavits intended to support the motion of Mrs. Barker established that the “loan” of the money in question (disregarding the form used, a check made payable to the husband and endorsed by him over to the wife) from the father-in-law to her husband (who in turn attempted to make a “gift” thereof to the wife as her separate property) was made upon what would necessarily be the “credit” of both Mrs. Barker and her husband because there was an absence of any agreement by the father-in-law that he would “look only” to Mrs. Barker for its repayment. The insurance company’s contention is that the funds deposited into Mrs. Barker’s account in the garnishee bank were community funds of Mrs. Barker and her husband under applicable laws of the State of Texas.

Necessarily the insurance company asserts that there was a “two-step” situation; funds constituting a loan transferred from the father-in-law to the husband as the first step and the subsequent transfer thereof as a purported gift from the husband to Mrs. Barker as the second. In other words the insurance company believes that there were two separate trans- . actions, though the consideration for the first of them was the husband’s promise of the subsequent delivery to Mrs. Barker. But in our opinion that is only one of two (or more) conclusions possible to be drawn upon a trial before a jury.

It might be reasonable to treat such as a single transaction, though the evidence should be more fully developed. In view of the fact that the transaction was handled by use of a check which required the endorsement of the husband a proper factual conclusion might be that the father-in-law made delivery of the same in trust for Mrs.

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Related

Beeler v. Beeler
363 S.W.2d 305 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1962)
Evans v. First Nat. Bank of Mt. Vernon
65 S.W.2d 366 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1933)
Solether v. Trinity Fire Insurance
78 S.W.2d 180 (Texas Supreme Court, 1935)
Gleich v. Bongio
99 S.W.2d 881 (Texas Supreme Court, 1937)
Cochran v. Wool Growers Central Storage Co.
166 S.W.2d 904 (Texas Supreme Court, 1942)
Solether v. Trinity Fire Ins. Co.
78 S.W.2d 180 (Texas Commission of Appeals, 1935)

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Bluebook (online)
462 S.W.2d 75, 1970 Tex. App. LEXIS 2552, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/insurance-co-of-north-america-v-barker-texapp-1970.