Court Opinion

ID: 9776799
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 19:44:55.176206+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:32:42.658024
License: Public Domain

BARROW, Justice,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. I agree with the dissenting opinion of Justice Sondock, but write to point out my specific disagreement with the majority opinion.
All members of this Court agree that property acquired during marriage by the toil, talent, industry or other productive faculty of either spouse belongs to the community estate. We also agree that this rule applies with equal force to the increase of separate property which arises as a result of community effort.
The issue upon which this Court is divided is whether the trial court abused its discretion in its division of the Vallones’ community estate. A trial court is required to consider all community property owned by the spouses at the time of divorce when it divides the community estate pursuant to § 3.63 of the Family Code. See Cameron v. Cameron, 641 S.W.2d 210 (Tex.1982). The division does not have to be equal and the court has broad discretion in its division of the community property. Bell v. Bell, 513 S.W.2d 20 (Tex.1974). Here, however, the trial court erroneously found 47% of the current value of the couple’s principal asset, i.e., Tony’s Restaurant, was separate property and thus not subject to division or the exercise of its discretion. Considering the overall property division between the parties, I cannot agree that this erroneous characterization of such a significant part of the community estate was harmless error.
Furthermore, I do not agree that this error was not properly raised by the wife. A fair reading of this record clearly demon*469strates that the basic area of dispute in the trial court, court of civil appeals and before us was the determination and valuation of the community interest in Tony’s Restaurant. All courts were apprised of her complaint that the substantial increase in the valuation of Tony’s Restaurant during the marriage was directly related to community effort.
I would reverse and remand the cause to the trial court for a division of the community estate after consideration of all community assets.