Texas Divorce Attorney Blog

Texas Appeals Court Upholds Post-Marital Agreement Giving Ex-Husband Millions More than Ex-Wife

Published on: September 15, 2025 | by Kelly McClure

A Texas postnuptial agreement is not enforceable if the party proves that it was not signed voluntarily or that it was unconscionable and they were not given a fair and reasonable disclosure of the other party’s property or financial obligations, did not voluntarily and expressly waive disclosure in writing, and did not have or reasonably could not have had adequate knowledge of the other party’s property or obligations. Tex. Fam. Code § 4.105. A former husband recently challenged a finding the parties’ postnuptial agreement in a high net worth divorce was unenforceable.

The parties married in 1991 and the wife petitioned for divorce in 2019. She voluntarily non-suited that case and the parties signed a postnuptial agreement. The wife filed for divorce again in 2022. She argued the agreement was unconscionable and she had entered into it involuntarily.

According to the appeals court, the evidence showed the husband was not represented by an attorney at the time. The wife emailed him links to websites about postnuptial agreements. The husband testified they drafted an agreement that day. The wife denied being involved with drafting the agreement. The husband testified she told him her attorney would review it and he agreed to reimburse her for the fees. She contacted her attorney at some point and signed the non-suit order. The court granted the non-suit the same day the wife’s attorney filed it. The following day, the parties signed the agreement in front of a notary, but the wife’s attorney was not present.

Texas Wife Awarded Spousal Maintenance After Assisting Husband’s Real Estate Business

Published on: September 9, 2025 | by Francesca Blackard

The purpose of Texas spousal maintenance is to give temporary support to a spouse whose ability to provide for their own needs has been diminished and who does not have sufficient assets to support themselves. Spousal maintenance may be ordered if the spouse meets certain statutory criteria. For a marriage that has lasted at least 10 years, the court may award maintenance if the spouse has insufficient property and lacks the ability to earn sufficient income to provide for their minimum reasonable needs. Tex. Fam. Code § 8.051(2)(B). Texas has a rebuttable presumption against maintenance unless the spouse has been diligent in earning sufficient income or developing skills to do so while separated and while the divorce is pending. Tex. Fam. Code . § 8.053(a). If the spouse rebuts the presumption, the trial court considers certain statutory factors in determining any maintenance award. Tex. Fam. Code § 8.052. A spousal maintenance award generally cannot exceed the lesser of $5,000 or 20% of the spouse’s average gross monthly income. Tex. Fam. Code § 8.055. A former husband recently challenged a spousal maintenance award to his former wife of over 30 years.

The parties married in 1988. The husband was a real-estate broker and ordained minister. He admitted his pornography addiction and past adultery to the wife in February 2023. The wife subsequently moved in with their daughter.

The wife petitioned for divorce in September 2023 on the grounds of cruelty and adultery. She requested a disproportionate share of the marital estate and spousal maintenance.

Ex-Wife Required to Pay Ex-Husband Proceeds from Sale of His Business Interest

Published on: September 9, 2025 | by Kelly McClure

Mediated settlement agreements and Texas agreed divorce decrees are construed according to standard contract interpretation principals. A former wife recently challenged an enforcement order based on her interpretation of the agreed divorce decree.

The parties got married in 2002. The husband had acquired a business interest in the company for which he worked before the marriage. He sold that business interest in 2020, receiving one payment of a million dollars and four additional deposits totaling more than $1.8 million. Those funds were deposited into multiple accounts. Some of the funds had been spent.

The wife petitioned for divorce in May 2021. She withdrew funds from the parties’ accounts to support her children. Although she repaid some of the withdrawn funds, she did not repay all of it.

Court Grants Ex-Husband’s Request to Divide Ex-Wife’s Colorado Vacation Home 14 Years Post Divorce

Published on: August 27, 2025 | by Francesca Blackard

Property divisions in Texas divorces are intended to be final. Although a party may appeal or seek to enforce a property division, they generally cannot relitigate it in a separate lawsuit. Sometimes, however, the divorce decree does not adjudicate all of the parties’ property. A former spouse may file suit to divide property that was not divided in the decree. Tex. Fam. Code § 9.201.

In a recent case, a former husband filed suit to divide property that he alleged had not been divided in the parties’ 2009 divorce.

According to the ex-husband’s pleading, the parties got married in 1981. He alleged the ex-wife bought property in Colorado while they were married, but that property was not addressed in the 2009 decree because they “agreed to divide the property among themselves later.” He also alleged the ex-wife notified him she would not comply with the agreement in 2023 and transferred the property to someone else. The ex-husband requested clarification that the property in Colorado was community property and asked for a one-half interest in it, along with fees and costs.

Real Estate Lost Separate Property Character When Transferred to LLC

Published on: August 22, 2025 | by Kelly McClure

Real estate investments can lead to complex issues for property division in a Texas divorce, especially if there are co-owners or business entities involved. A former husband recently challenged the property division in his divorce, which characterized certain property as his wife’s separate property and awarded his father-in-law a 50% interest in a piece of real estate.

The parties moved to Texas from the U.K., intending to purchase real estate in Austin. In 2018, the wife’s parents gave her about £250,000, documented as a gift in a letter. The wife put £214,000, which totaled a little over $248,000, into a joint account. The funds were used for 97.19% of the purchase price of a property identified by the court as “the Webberville property.” The purchase and deed were in only the husband’s name based on advice from an immigration attorney.

The parties purchased “the Gunter property” with the wife’s father in late 2019. They did not have a written contract regarding the co-ownership, but the wife’s father testified they agreed he would put 50% down and own 50% of the property. He had signed a letter in November of that year, however, stating the funds he put toward the purchase were a gift with no expectation of repayment. The husband told him having only the couple on the title would facilitate the purchase, but he would amend it to add the wife’s father. The father was not added, but the husband did give him property and loss statements for the property and pay him $14,000 as his share of the rental income.

Court Finds Texas Prenup Did Not Waive Reimbursement Claims Costing Wife over $200,000 in Divorce

Published on: August 14, 2025 | by Francesca Blackard

Texas spouses may agree in writing to partition or exchange some or all of their community property between themselves such that the property becomes the separate property of one spouse. A former wife recently challenged her divorce decree, arguing the trial court erred in awarding a reimbursement claim against her, reducing the spousal maintenance below the amount stated in the parties’ agreement, and including contingencies on the spousal maintenance that were not in the agreement.

According to the appeals court’s opinion, the parties married in 2006. They signed a Marital Property Partition and Exchange Agreement in 2020 that made two pieces of property the wife’s sole and separate property. She agreed to be responsible for the debt associated with them. The husband, however, made some of those payments from his community property income until the date of divorce.

The couple stopped living together in 2022 and the husband petitioned for divorce. The court enforced the agreement, but divided the other property according to the husband’s proposed division.

Former Husband Failed to Trace Separate Property from Alleged Gift in High Asset Texas Divorce

Published on: August 13, 2025 | by Kelly McClure

Large inheritances, trusts, and gifts can complicate the property division in a Texas divorce. A spouse’s separate property includes the property they received during the marriage through gift, descent, or devise. Tex. Fam. Code § 3.001. In a recent case, a former husband challenged his divorce decree that characterized mineral rights he obtained from his mother’s trust as community property.

According to the opinion, when the husband’s mother died, she left a trust for the benefit of the husband’s father during his lifetime. The trust included mineral rights to certain property, which the husband’s father transferred to the husband and his siblings on November 1, 2009. The deed stated the grantor transferred the mineral rights to the husband and his five siblings “[f]or an adequate consideration paid and received.”

The husband testified his father gifted each sibling $12,000 from their mother’s estate to purchase the mineral rights. He presented a carbon copy check for $12,000 dated November 19, 2009, but it did not have an account number, payor name, or signature. A bank statement for the parties’ joint account reflected a $12,171 deposit on November 23 and a check for $11,130.50 on December 3. Those records did not indicate the source of the funds or who deposited them. They also did not show who wrote the check or who received it.

Court of Appeals Finds Trial Court’s Division of $3 Million in Business Assets Improper

Published on: July 31, 2025 | by Francesca Blackard

Property division in a Texas divorce can be complicated when there is a business involved. In a recent case, a former husband challenged a property division that divided assets belonging to his business entities.

According to the appeals court, the husband formed two businesses before the marriage. He said he purchased property, including rental houses in Florida and vacant lots in Texas, to be used by the businesses with money he brought when he moved from Puerto Rico. The wife worked at one or more of the husband’s businesses during the marriage.

The husband and both businesses bought and sold multiple commercial vehicles and trailers while the parties were married.

Wife Awarded Oncologist Husband’s Patent Rights and Stock Distributions Post-Divorce

Published on: July 29, 2025 | by Kelly McClure

Certain assets, especially stocks or assets related to a business, may be held in the name of just one spouse, even if they are community property. In a Texas divorce, a court may impose a constructive trust requiring the spouse to transfer property to the other spouse. Tex. Fam Code 9.011 provides that receipt by one spouse of certain installment or lump-sum payments that were awarded to the other spouse in a divorce decree gives rise to a fiduciary obligation and imposes a constructive trust on the property.

In a recent case, a former husband challenged the divorce decree that imposed a constructive trust on future payments to him as stockholder in a corporation, arguing that part of the payments should be considered his separate property.

The husband was an oncologist who was involved in the development of a drug to treat breast cancer. A corporation owned the patent rights for the drug and the husband acquired stocks equaling 30.33% ownership of the corporation with community funds.

Court Finds Fraud Based on Husband’s Transfers of Funds to Adult Children in Texas High Net Worth Divorce

Published on: July 22, 2025 | by Francesca Blackard

In a Texas divorce, “special community property” is community property that is under the sole management, control, and disposition of one spouse. Tex. Fam. Code § 3.102(a). Although special community property is under the sole management, control, and disposition of one spouse, disposition of that property must be fair to the other spouse.

When a spouse shows the other spouse disposed of community property without their consent or knowledge, there is a presumption of constructive fraud. The other spouse then has the burden of showing the disposition was fair. The court considers the relative size of the property to the total community estate, the adequacy of the rest of the estate, and the relationship of the parties involved in the disposition. In a recent case, a husband challenged the divorce decree that stated he had committed fraud on the community estate.

The parties had two children together. The husband’s two children from a previous relationship were adults by the time of the divorce. Each party alleged constructive and actual fraud on the community estate by the other.