Treuil v. Treuil

311 S.W.3d 114, 2010 Tex. App. LEXIS 2485, 2009 WL 6327398
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedApril 8, 2010
Docket09-09-00201-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 311 S.W.3d 114 (Treuil v. Treuil) 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
Treuil v. Treuil, 311 S.W.3d 114, 2010 Tex. App. LEXIS 2485, 2009 WL 6327398 (Tex. Ct. App. 2010).

Opinions

OPINION

HOLLIS HORTON, Justice.

This case arises from Lawrence Treuil’s failure to pay Monica Treuil her portion of retirement benefits upon his receipt of them, as required by the parties’ divorce decree. The central issue in this appeal is whether Monica’s claim is barred by the statute of limitations.

I. Background

When Monica and Lawrence divorced in 1982, the trial court awarded Monica a portion of Lawrence’s retirement benefits. On January 1, 2002, approximately twenty years after their divorce, Lawrence took a lump sum distribution upon his retirement. On September 26, 2007, Monica filed a petition to enforce the decree. She asked the court to enforce the decree and to award her a judgment based upon the percentage of the retirement fund the trial court had awarded to her under the parties’ divorce decree. Lawrence answered Monica’s petition for enforcement, and in his answer, he asserted that the statute of limitations barred Monica’s claim. To avoid Lawrence’s limitation defense, Monica amended her petition. In her amended pleading, she asserted that the discovery rule and the doctrine of fraudulent concealment allowed her to avoid Lawrence’s statute of limitations defense. In a nonju-ry proceeding, the trial court found in Monica’s favor and awarded her $89,924.25, together with prejudgment and post-judgment interest.

Assuming the discovery accrual rule applies, we hold that Monica’s discovery of her injury, not the discovery of all of the other elements of her claim, started the clock on the date limitations began to run on her claim. We further hold that there is no evidence in the record before us to support the trial court’s implied findings that less than four years passed between the date Monica discovered her injury and the date she filed suit. Accordingly, we conclude that neither the “discovery rule” nor the doctrine of “fraudulent concealment” allow Monica to avoid Lawrence’s statute of limitations defense.

II. Issues

On appeal, Lawrence raises three issues.

[118]*118• Issue one contends that Monica’s breach of fiduciary duty and breach of contract claims are barred by the relevant statutes of limitation.
• Issue two asserts that the discovery rule and the doctrine of fraudulent concealment do not rescue Monica’s claims from Lawrence’s limitations defense.
• Issue three argues that the trial court used the wrong date in calculating its award for prejudgment interest.

III. Limitations and Tolling

A. Two or Four Year Limitations Period?

Generally under the Family Code, the filing deadline for suits to enforce a division made by the trial court regarding property not in existence at the time of the original decree is two years from the date the right to the property matures or accrues. Tex. Fam.Code Ann. § 9.003(b) (Vernon 2006). Both in the trial court and on appeal, Lawrence asserts that the two-year period provided in section 9.003(b) of the Family Code bars Monica’s claims.

Monica argues that the Family Code’s two-year limitations period does not apply to her claims. Instead, she asserts that we should look at the substance of her petition and ignore its title: “Petition for Enforcement of Property Division.” According to Monica, examining the substance of the claims in her petition reveals that they involve “independent breach of contract and breach of fiduciary duty tort claims,” each of which is governed by a four-year limitations period. See Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem.Code Ann. § 16.004(a)(5) (Vernon 2002), § 16.051 (Vernon 2008).

To resolve the parties’ dispute in this case, it is not necessary that we resolve whether the two-year limitations period provided by the Family Code or the four-year limitations period provided by the Civil Practice and Remedies Code apply to Monica’s theories of recovery. We assume without deciding that the four-year limitation period applies.

Absent a basis to defer the running of the clock for purposes of statutes of limitation, limitations generally begin to run when the wrongful act causes an injury. Childs v. Haussecker, 974 S.W.2d 31, 36 (Tex.1998). Monica was injured in this case when Lawrence did not comply with the terms of the divorce decree. The parties’ 1982 divorce decree required Lawrence to remit to Monica “her proportionate share of said funds at her residence immediately upon receipt of said funds, if, as, and when received.” Thus, we conclude that Monica’s injury occurred in January 2002, when Lawrence withdrew all of the funds from the retirement account and upon doing so then failed to immediately remit Monica’s portion to her. See In the Marriage of Reinauer, 946 S.W.2d 853, 860 (Tex.App.-Amarillo 1997, pet. denied).

When an accrual rule defers the date that the limitations period begins running, the issue becomes when did Monica learn that Lawrence had not remitted retirement funds owed to her. See Childs, 974 S.W.2d at 37. Under the facts of this case, resolving when Monica had actual or constructive knowledge of Lawrence’s failure to remit the funds to her also resolves the issue that is necessary to determine the outcome of this appeal.

B. Does Monica’s Knowledge Matter?

“The discovery rule is the legal principle which, when applicable, provides that limitations run from the date the plaintiff discovers or should have discovered, in the exercise of reasonable care and diligence, the nature of the injury.” Willis v. Maverick, 760 S.W.2d 642, 644 (Tex.1988). In Willis, after noting the difficulty [119]*119that a layman would have in perceiving an injury caused by one’s own attorney, and given the fiduciary relationship between an attorney and his client, the Texas Supreme Court held that the discovery rule applied to legal malpractice cases. Id. at 645-46.

The Texas Supreme Court has also applied the discovery rule in other types of cases as well, including certain medical malpractice cases, cases involving a defendant’s making a false credit report, and cases involving fraud.1 On the other hand, the Texas Supreme Court has specifically stated:

[W]e have restricted the discovery rule to exceptional cases to avoid defeating the purposes behind the limitations statutes. See S.V. [v. R.V., 933 S.W.2d 1, 25 (Tex.1996) ] (noting that applications of the discovery rule “should be few and narrowly drawn”); Computer Assocs. [Inti, Inc. v. Altai, Inc., 918 S.W.2d 453, 456, 457 (Tex.1996) ] (noting that discovery rule is “a very limited exception to statutes of limitations” that applies “in certain limited circumstances”).

Via Net v. TIG Ins. Co., 211 S.W.3d 310, 313 (Tex.2006) (concluding that discovery rule did not apply to a breach of contract claim that involved a failure to procure the agreed upon insurance coverages); see also Wagner & Brown, Ltd. v. Horwood, 58 S.W.3d 732

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Treuil v. Treuil
311 S.W.3d 114 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2010)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
311 S.W.3d 114, 2010 Tex. App. LEXIS 2485, 2009 WL 6327398, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/treuil-v-treuil-texapp-2010.