Johnston v. Mabrey

677 S.W.2d 236, 1984 Tex. App. LEXIS 6148
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedAugust 31, 1984
Docket13-83-410-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 677 S.W.2d 236 (Johnston v. Mabrey) 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
Johnston v. Mabrey, 677 S.W.2d 236, 1984 Tex. App. LEXIS 6148 (Tex. Ct. App. 1984).

Opinion

OPINION

GONZALEZ, Justice.

This is a limited appeal in a suit for divorce tried before the court without a jury. The only issue before us is the propriety of the trial court’s order imposing a constructive trust on one piece of property. Appellant complains that she was wrongfully divested of her separate property. We affirm.

We have before us a voluminous record. The pertinent facts can be summarized as follows: This is the second marriage of Johnston (appellant) and Mabrey (appellee) to each other. No children were born or adopted in either of their marriages. Their relationship began in the early 1970’s, but was interrupted by their first divorce, in August 1975. The parties continued being intimate with one another after the divorce and in October 1975, Mabrey purchased a home on Ocean Drive in Corpus Christi. He moved into the house and started extensive renovations. Johnston occasionally spent the night with him, and in May 1976, she eventually moved into the house to live with him.

Mabrey purchased the house for $6,500 cash plus a promissory note for $30,000. 1 On March 15, 1976, while the parties were still unmarried, Mabrey executed a deed to this property to Johnston. Mabrey continued to live with Johnston on the property after this purported sale.

Johnston gave Mabrey a check for $6,500. This check was deposited in a joint checking and savings account with both Johnston and Mabrey authorized to make *238 withdrawals. These funds were used by both of them to renovate the house.

On December 22, 1977, the parties went through their second wedding ceremony. Besides their marital and extra-marital relationship, Johnston and Mabrey were also business partners in a number of joint ventures, most of which were unsuccessful.

On June 9, 1981, Johnston filed suit for divorce, alleging that the Ocean Drive property was her separate property. Ma-brey counterclaimed, alleging the property was conveyed to Johnston as trustee for both of the parties. Mabrey pled in the alternative that he was entitled to reimbursement for the improvements.

During lengthy proceedings, Johnston gave several versions of the transaction. The trial court did not believe Johnston and impressed a constructive trust on the property and ordered that it be sold with the proceeds to be divided equally between the parties. The trial court allowed Johnston to live in the house pending the sale.

Among various findings of fact filed by the trial court, the following give some indication of the nature of the dispute between the parties, the resolution of the controversy by the trial court, and the issues of the appeal.

FINDINGS OF FACT
1. [T]he parties divorced, partly for the purpose of protecting some of the marriage assets from creditors on debts created during the first marriage of the parties herein.
4. On the advice of both parties’ lawyer (who was not counsel herein) and in an effort to protect his assets, Mabrey entered into an agreement with Johnston whereby Mabrey would convey the property to her in trust with her giving illusory consideration of $6,500.00 in payment of the home along with the alleged assumption of the note underlying the debt in the amount of $29,544.00. The parties agreed that one-half of the property would be owned by each of them.
11. Johnston denied the existence of any collateral agreement for the deed as well as denying that the initial consideration paid has been returned to the home in the form of improvements. Johnston’s testimony is inconsistent and incredible and remained inconsistent throughout the discovery process and the trial....
12. It is apparent that Johnston induced Mabrey to deed her the residence at 1605 Ocean Drive with a promise that she would act as trustee for him. Johnston had been twice divorced at that time, and was knowledgeable in matters of community and separate property. Mabrey never removed himself from the home, (with Johnston’s approval) he continued to act as owner of the home, paying the mortgage payments, maintaining the home, and improving the home.
13. Johnston’s denial of the agreement is rebutted by the testimony and by the evidence before this Court. Mabrey’s conveyance of the real estate to Johnston for an amount of money in the sum of $10,000 less than what he considered its fair market value to be, his return of the total consideration paid to the home in the form of payments for improvements, his continuing obligation and payments on the mortgage indebtedness, (or his payments to Johnston on behalf of the mortgage indebtedness) all lead the Court to one inescapable conclusion: the parties had a trust agreement on the residence and according to such trust, one-half of the home belongs to Mabrey. Appellant’s thirteen points of error may

be distilled into two complaints. First, in point of error number one, she alleges the trial court erred in admitting parol evidence that tended to diminish the estate conveyed by a warranty deed, absolute on its face, from Mabrey to herself. This parol evidence was testimony from Mabrey that Johnston received the property in trust for their mutual benefit.

Second, by point of error number seven, appellant alleges the trial court compounded its original error by relying on the al *239 legedly inadmissible testimony to impose a constructive trust on the Ocean Drive property.

Appellant’s remaining points of error consist of various attacks on the legal or factual sufficiency of the evidence to support the above rulings. By these points, appellant petitions this Court to restore all interests in the property to her separate estate.

The dispositive issue on appeal is whether the doctrine of constructive trust is applicable, and, if so, whether it is available to Mabrey to defend the judgment.

FRAUDULENT CONVEYANCE

Though not included in either her motion for new trial or in the points to be relied upon for appeal, Johnston now raises the argument in her brief, though not by specific point of error, that this Court must deny the imposition of any constructive trust because the conveyance from Mabrey to Johnston was made to defraud creditors. See Leal v. Cortez, 603 S.W.2d 262, 264 (Tex.Civ.App.—Corpus Christi 1980, writ ref d n.r.e.).

In addressing this issue, we first note that Johnston failed to plead the alleged fraudulent conveyance, and the transcript is devoid of any trial amendment. Therefore, if tried at all, the issue was tried by consent. In any event, Johnston would have had to establish by a preponderance of the evidence that the conveyance was actuated by fraud, and this she failed to do. See Ellis v. Ureste, 159 S.W.2d 226, 227 (Tex.Civ.App.—San Antonio 1942, writ ref’d w.o.m.).

We have examined the evidence and cannot say that appellant established a fraudulent conveyance as a matter of law.

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Bluebook (online)
677 S.W.2d 236, 1984 Tex. App. LEXIS 6148, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/johnston-v-mabrey-texapp-1984.