Rider v. Rider

887 S.W.2d 255, 1994 Tex. App. LEXIS 2838, 1994 WL 645640
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedNovember 17, 1994
Docket09-93-072 CV
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 887 S.W.2d 255 (Rider v. Rider) 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
Rider v. Rider, 887 S.W.2d 255, 1994 Tex. App. LEXIS 2838, 1994 WL 645640 (Tex. Ct. App. 1994).

Opinions

OPINION

BROOKSHIRE, Justice.

An appeal is brought in a divorce action which was tried to the 279th District Court with the consent of the parties. A jury was not employed. There were no children.

A decree of divorce, characterized as being a final decree, was signed by the trial judge and entered on December 9, 1992. The evidence was taken before the bench on two occasions before the decree was signed.

The parties were married on or about February 14, 1991. The parties ceased to live together as husband and wife on or about September 18,1991, being the same calendar year. A temporary restraining order was signed on September 19th restraining the respondent, Sharon E. Ross Rider, from, inter alia, selling, transferring, assigning, mortgaging, encumbering, or in any other manner alienating any of the property of the petitioner or the respondent, whether the property be personal or realty, and whether the property be classified as separate or community. A temporary injunction was signed and promulgated containing specifically the same restraints and injunctions. Basically, only normal, usual, and reasonable living expenses could be incurred. No other indebtednesses were permitted under the temporary injunction.

The first significant hearing in the nature of a trial dealing with the merits was conducted on July 8, 1992. However, the evidence was reopened later and additional evidence was heard by the trial bench on November 17, 1992. At this November hearing the trial judge made certain findings and pronouncements from the bench, inter alia, the trial court found that the twenty-five acres in Mississippi, standing in the name of Sharon Rider, was acquired and that Mr. [257]*257Rider had paid certain separate funds in the amount of $2,000 or so on the twenty-five acres purchased. This twenty-five-acre tract was accumulated during the marriage and was located in the state of Mississippi. The court made certain findings concerning a prenuptial agreement.

The court further found that there was a balance of indebtedness against the dwelling and the approximately nine acres in Mississippi and that the parties themselves assumed one-half payment of the balance of the mortgage settlement between the parties concerning the said twenty-five acres in Mississippi. The court found that Mrs. Rider had taken that twenty-five acres as trustee for the parties and that she holds it as trustee.

After the November 17, 1992, trial, the court made certain awards and judgments. Firstly, the judgment was made in favor of appellee in the amount of $16,000 in cash payable to appellee for the following:

(a) $5,000 for attorney’s fees awarded to the appellee and to be paid by the appellant;
(b) $11,000 was to reimburse the appellee for his separate property funds ($9,000 of which the appellant had wrongfully taken and spent, and finally to reimburse the appellee for his separate property monies being separate property purchase monies in the amount of $2,000 that he had paid on the note against the nine-acre tract. This nine-acre tract was owned by Mrs. Rider before the marriage.)

Secondly, the judgment was awarded to ap-pellee for an additional $16,500 — this additional $16,500 was to be paid to the appellee by the appellant as reimbursement for his payments and his personal liability on one-half of the $33,000 mortgage balance on the appellant’s separate nine-acre tract of land— a property note which the appellee had eo-signed. The trial bench also granted the appellee a purchase money lien for $16,500 on both of the tracts of land to secure the performance of Mrs. Rider’s obligation. And the decree also refers to this particular lien as being an equitable lien. It is from this background as well as from a later hearing that this appeal is taken.

This finding was made pursuant to the fact that each of the parties had agreed to assume one-half payment of the balance of the mortgage. Mrs. Rider was specifically ordered to sign the necessary instruments, deeds of trust, and documents to comply with Mississippi land law. The amount was ascertained as the correct amount owed on the nine acres with the house, because apparently, the twenty-five acres had been taken in the name of Mrs. Rider alone and the twenty-five acres was later free and clear of indebtedness.

The court, after reciting the history of the transactions involving the Mississippi land, also ordered Mrs. Rider to assume a debt against the twenty-five acres of $26,500. The trial court at the July 1992 hearing also found that there was a sum of $2,000 applied to the purchase of the twenty-five acres of land. This $2,000 was definitely the separate property of Mr. Rider. There was an additional, approximate $8,000 that the court found was also the separate property and separate funds of Mr. Rider and the court granted to Mr. Rider reimbursement in the sum of approximately $10,000.

Over and above that $10,000 the court specifically announced that the sum recovered for Mr. Rider would be plus an additional $16,500 because Mr. Rider had financed certain land purchases and was obligated, indebted, and liable on certain promissory notes.

Mr. Rider had made substantial payments on a trailer where the parties had lived together. The trailer was looked upon by the trial court, we perceive, as a home or homestead and the court further announced that Mrs. Rider had taken to Louisiana about $4,000 worth of community property and Mr. Rider had received about $1,000 of community property.

Disregarding, however, the court’s temporary orders and also the trial court’s verbal orders, the appellant signed and attempted to make effective certain quitclaim deeds which attempted to purport to convey the two tracts or parcels of land in Mississippi, being the nine-acre tract and the twenty-five-acre joint venture tract to the appellant’s [258]*258father. It is notable that Mr. Rider was going to be expected to pay half of an outstanding $33,000 debt and had personal liability in connection with said debt.

At a date set for trial, counsel for Mrs. Rider explained to the court that quite a number of pieces of correspondence had been sent to Mrs. Rider and the same were returned. Mrs. Rider’s attorney announced to the court in the November trial that he had made numerous attempts to contact Mrs. Rider in regard to the November trial and to give her full notice of the November proceeding. He tendered copies of Respondent’s 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, and 16 which are copies of letters to Mrs. Rider and copies of certified mail envelopes showing that these matters were unclaimed by Mrs. Rider. Again, these pieces of correspondence were sent from Mrs. Rider’s attorney to her and this announcement and tender was made by Mrs. Rider’s attorney.

Mr. Rider testified that he had contacted an attorney in Liberty, Mississippi, a Mr. Toomey, to prepare the necessary papers that the Texas divorce court had ordered. Mrs. Rider was ordered to procure such documents; apparently she had failed. This was an attempt, obviously, to see that the papers were correctly drawn in accordance with the laws of Mississippi in regard to real estate. In fact, Mr. Rider had paid to Mr. Toomey, the Mississippi lawyer, a fee of $150. About the time these documents were prepared by the Mississippi lawyer, the record reveals that Mrs. Rider instead transferred the properties into her father’s name. Therefore, Mrs. Rider notified Mr. Rider that she no longer owned anything so that Mr.

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Rider v. Rider
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Bluebook (online)
887 S.W.2d 255, 1994 Tex. App. LEXIS 2838, 1994 WL 645640, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rider-v-rider-texapp-1994.