Court Opinion

ID: 9642926
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 18:12:42.408885+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:10:54.547283
License: Public Domain

ROBERTSON, Justice,
concurring.
I concur in the result reached by the majority. This Court in Vallone v. Vallone, 644 S.W.2d 455 (Tex.1968), did not remand that cause to the trial court on the basis of Mrs. Vallone’s failure to plead the affirmative relief of reimbursement. 644 S.W.2d at 458. Although Mrs. Jensen, like Mrs. Vallone, did not plead reimbursement this Court has remanded the cause of action in the interest of justice. The majority’s opinion offers no explanation for the different disposition.
Until Vallone, Texas courts had traditionally followed a general rule of construing divorce pleadings liberally. Cohen v. Cohen, 194 S.W.2d 273, 275 (Tex.Civ.App.—Austin 1946, no writ). The majority opinion in Vallone appeared to mark the beginning of a shift to a policy requiring specific pleadings in family law matters. 644 S.W.2d at 466. However, the rise of the requirement of specific pleadings was short lived. The majority opinion, handed down thirteen months later, announces a return to a broad construction of divorce pleadings. Although a member of the majority in Vallone, I am of the opinion that this *111Court’s return to a more liberal policy for construing divorce pleadings will provide trial judges with the freedom needed to reach just decisions in complex and sensitive family law actions.