Spouses have a fiduciary duty toward each other with regard to the community estate and commit fraud on the community if they breach a legal or equitable duty in violation of the fiduciary relationship. Fraud on the community often occurs when assets are transferred to a third party, but can also occur when it is unaccounted for.
If a court determines a spouse committed fraud, it must determine the amount the community estate was depleted and the total value it would have had absent the fraud. The trial court then divides the reconstituted estate in a just and right manner, which may include awarding the other spouse a disproportionate share of the community estate, a money judgment, or both. Tex. Fam. Code § 7.009. A husband recently appealed the trial court’s finding of fraud, judgments, and property division in his Texas divorce.
The Marriage
According to the appeals court’s opinion, the husband owned a home when the parties married in 2002.