Sprague v. Sprague

363 S.W.3d 788, 2012 WL 456936
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMarch 21, 2012
Docket14-08-00700-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by35 cases

This text of 363 S.W.3d 788 (Sprague v. Sprague) 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
Sprague v. Sprague, 363 S.W.3d 788, 2012 WL 456936 (Tex. Ct. App. 2012).

Opinions

OPINION

TRACY CHRISTOPHER, Justice.

In this divorce appeal, appellant Robert (“Bob”) Sprague challenges the jury’s findings and the trial court’s property division and post-judgment sanctions, while appel-lee Deborah Sprague moves that we dis[791]*791miss the appeal, arguing that Bob accepted the benefits of the divorce judgment and is estopped from appealing it.

Finding no estoppel, we deny Deborah’s motion.

In his appeal of the property-division portion of the divorce decree, Bob contends that the trial court misapplied the law, submitted an erroneous jury charge, improperly disregarded jury findings, and abused its discretion in excluding evidence. He argues that as a result of these alleged errors, the trial court divested him of his separate property. We conclude that the characterization of a lump-sum distribution received during the marriage under two defined-benefit plans is governed by former section 3.007(a) of the Texas Family Code; we accordingly hold that the trial court did not err in instructing the jury in accordance with the statute or in failing to characterize a larger portion of the lump-sum distribution as Bob’s separate property-

On the other hand, we agree that the trial court abused its discretion in excluding all evidence that any portion of the amounts payable to Bob under his employer’s “Cash Deferral Program” was Bob’s separate property.

Bob also appeals a post-judgment sanctions order and temporary orders pending appeal. We agree that the trial court abused its discretion in sanctioning Bob for a claimed delay in transferring certain funds to Deborah and in awarding Deborah attorneys’ fees.

We accordingly reverse the property-division portion of the divorce decree, as well as the post-judgment sanctions order and the associated temporary order pending the appeal of the sanctions order, and we remand the case for (a) a determination of the community- and separate-property interests in the amounts that have been or will be paid to Bob as a result of his participation in his former employer’s Cash Deferral Program, and (b) a just and right division of all of the community property.

1. Factual and Procedural Background

Bob began working for Shell Oil in July 1967. On January 1, 1984, he was promoted to a position on the “Senior Staff’ of the company, and in 1985, Shell merged with Royal Dutch Shell Group. After working for Shell for eighteen years, Bob married Deborah on July 6,1985; eighteen years later, he retired on June 30, 2003.1 He receives retirement benefits from Shell through three different plans: the basic pension plan, the Benefit Restoration Plan, and the Senior Staff Plan. Under the basic pension plan, Bob receives monthly payments of $8,755.2 Bob’s benefits under the Benefit Restoration Plan and the Senior Staff Plan were paid in one lump sum of $7,230,035 in the form of a credit to Bob’s account in the Senior Staff Savings Fund.

Upon reaching the age of 65 in 2010, Bob also received the first of ten equal annual payments through Shell’s Cash Deferral Program. The payments are equal to certain bonuses Bob was awarded in 1985, 1986, and 1987, together with compound interest of 17% on the deferred bonus payments.

A. Course of Proceedings through Trial

Bob filed for divorce on July 29, 2005, and on September 13, 2007, the trial court issued an agreed docket-control order scheduling the case for trial on January 22, 2008 and setting a number of discovery [792]*792deadlines. In accordance with the docket-control order, Bob amended his petition to allege that he owned separate property. He produced the initial and first supplemental report of his forensic-accounting expert, Patrice Ferguson, in accordance with the order, but produced her second supplemental report after the deadlines governing expert reports had passed. He served supplemental discovery responses on December 21, 2007, which was the deadline specified in the docket-control order.

At the January trial setting, the trial court granted Deborah’s motion to exclude the second supplemental expert report and continued the trial until March 2008. On the second day of the jury trial in March 2008, Deborah successfully moved to exclude all evidence that any portion of the amounts payable to Bob under Shell’s Cash Deferral Program is his separate property.

The jury found that the value of Bob’s separate-property interest in the lump-sum distribution of benefits due under Shell’s Benefit Restoration Plan and Senior Staff Plan was $1,807,509, an amount that is equal to 25% of the lump-sum distribution. Other findings of the jury are not challenged on appeal. Because the trial court excluded all evidence that any portion of the payments he would receive through the Cash Deferral Program is his separate property, the jury was not asked to determine the value of any such separate-property interest.

B. Rendition and Sanctions

After receiving the jury’s verdict, the trial court issued a letter of rendition on March 31, 2008. Among other things, the trial court ordered that the Shell Senior Staff Savings fund “shall be sufficiently liquidated” to net Deborah $4,561,575 as “expeditiously as possible.” On May 2, 2008, Bob’s attorney told the court that they had not yet started the liquidation process because they were afraid that the liquidation could be a violation of the temporary injunction in effect. The trial court signed an order authorizing Bob to liquidate an unspecified portion of the funds in the account sufficient to net the amount due to Deborah. The same day that the trial court signed the order, Bob instructed Shell to liquidate $8.2 million from the account. This produced net proceeds of $5,379,200, but due to mail delays, Bob did not receive a check for the funds for nearly a month. The day he received the check, however, he ordered the funds deposited and Deborah’s share wire-transferred to her. As a sanction for Bob’s alleged delay in complying with the trial court’s letter of rendition, Deborah asked the trial court to award her an amount equal to the interest she might otherwise have earned on the funds if they had been transferred to her on the date of rendition. The trial court accordingly ordered Bob to pay Deborah interest of $34,323.70 and to pay her attorney $15,100.00 for the attorneys’ fees she incurred in the trial court in obtaining the order. In an associated temporary order pending appeal, the trial court ordered Bob to pay an additional $15,000.00 for attorneys’ fees in the event that he unsuccessfully appealed the sanctions order.

C. Post-Judgment Events

The trial court signed the final decree of divorce on June 16, 2008 and evenly divided the community property, which it found included all of the marital estate with the exception of the property that the parties had stipulated was separate property, and the $1,807,509 portion of the lump-sum retirement benefits that the jury found was Bob’s separate property.

Both parties moved for temporary orders pending appeal. Although Bob did not appeal the portion of the property [793]*793division as it pertained to certain stock and stock options, the trial court ordered Bob to post a $2,675,236 bond or cash equivalent as security for the stock options and stock appreciation rights awarded to Deborah.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Steve Nunez v. Alma Idalia Nunez
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2024
in the Interest of J.Y.O., a Child
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2022
Sharon H. Windham v. William M. Windham Jr.
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2022
J.M. v. C.M.
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2021
Eric B. Darnell v. Carmen Broberg and Michael J. Zimprich
565 S.W.3d 450 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2018)
Winnie Stacey Alwazzan v. Isa Ali Alwazzan
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2018
Trevino v. City of Pearland
531 S.W.3d 290 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2017)
in Re First Transit Inc. and Latosha R. Emanuel
499 S.W.3d 584 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2016)
Charles Mandeville v. Deborah Mandeville
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2015
Stearns v. Martens
476 S.W.3d 541 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2015)
Leticia Loya v. Miguel Angel Loya
473 S.W.3d 362 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2015)
in Re George Green and Garlan Green
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2015
Lisa Kastleman v. Bryan Kastleman
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2014

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
363 S.W.3d 788, 2012 WL 456936, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sprague-v-sprague-texapp-2012.