A trial court cannot order one spouse to pay the student loans of the other spouse which were incurred before the marriage. The Houston First Court of Appeals has ruled: The obligation to pay the loans arose before marriage and should be treated as Sophia's separate debt-separate debt that could not be assigned to the non-incurring spouse. Accordingly, we conclude the trial court erred in assigning Sophia's premarital student loan debt to Albert because that student loan debt constituted Sophia's separate debt. Love v. Love, 217 S.W.3d 33, 35 (Tex. App. - Houston [1st Dist.] 2006, no pet.). ... Read More >
Archives for May 2013
Gifts to Family Members Are Not Always Constructive Fraud or Waste
Marshall v. Marshall, 735 S.W.2d 587 (Tex. App. - Dallas 1987, writ ref'd n.r.e.), involved a two and a half year marriage and a husband who, during the marriage, earned $542,315.72 and gave $63,375.58 (11.7%) to his daughter and grandson. The trial court's ruling that these gifts were not constructive fraud and was upheld by the court of appeals, which said: The courts consider three primary factors in determining whether the wife's claim of constructive fraud exists: the size of the gift in relation to the total size of the community estate, the adequacy of the estate remaining to support the wife in spite of the gift, and the relationship of the donor to the donee. We conclude that the evidence supports the trial court's finding of no constructive fraud. The community received $542,315.72 during the marriage as Woody's special community property. The contested gifts of $63,375.58 are only 11.7 percent of this amount. The remaining $478,940.14 in community funds from the ... Read More >