Court Opinion

ID: 9761116
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 01:31:57.571379+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:20.190378
License: Public Domain

TIJERINA, Justice,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent.
This action originated by way of a motion for contempt to enforce payment of the unpaid portion of military retirement benefits. The trial court, without jury, rendered judgment providing for the payment of military retirement benefits to appellant based on appellee’s rank of major at the time of the entry of the divorce decree and not that of a Lieutenant Colonel, the rank held on the date of retirement.
The parties were divorced in 1971 and at issue, as a community property asset, was thirteen (13) years of military service during the marital status. Appellee had the rank of major with twenty-one (21) years of military service on the date of the divorce. He retired eight-and-a-half (8½) years later with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel having completed approximately thirty (30) years of military service. The property settlement agreement, approved by the court and incorporated by reference in the divorce decree, provided that appellant was to receive as her sole and separate property one-half (V2) of the accumulated benefits to appellee’s military retirement in accordance with the following formula:
... the parties do hereby agree that at the time of Husband’s retirement, that the amount of the retirement should be *711prorated between the parties in accordance with the formula described in this paragraph. It is agreed that Wife shall receive 6.5 as a numerator of a fraction and with the denominator of said fraction being the actual number of years that husband spent in the United States Army at the time of retirement, ...
The parties, at the contempt hearing, announced to the court that they had reached an agreement to settle the claim for the unpaid portion of appellant’s pro rata share of military retirement benefits for the sum of six thousand five hundred dollars ($6,500.00). Upon the payment of said amount, appellee was to be released and absolved of liability for all such payments in arrears. Subsequently, upon the request, agreement and stipulation of the parties, the court proceeded to determine the remaining controversy concerning the value of military retirement benefits due appellant under the property settlement agreement, incorporated by reference into the 1971 divorce decree. It was further stipulated that the computation of appellant’s interest in the military retirement benefits was to be based on the formula of 6.5 as a numerator of a fraction over the denominator of 30, being the actual number of years that appellee spent in the military service at the time of retirement.
Recently, the Supreme Court in Berry v. Berry, 647 S.W.2d 945 (Tex.1983), held that post-divorce increases in retirement benefits cannot be awarded to a divorced spouse, for to do so would invade the other spouse’s separate property and that the value of retirement benefits are to be apportioned to the spouses upon the value of the community’s interest at the time of the divorce. In Berry v. Berry, supra, the decree of divorce was silent as to the distribution of retirement benefits; consequently, the Berry ruling is not applicable to the instant case, where the retirement benefits were clearly distributed and disposed of by the property settlement agreement.
If the settlement agreement is set forth in the decree or is incorporated by reference and approved by the trial court, it is accorded the same degree of finality and binding force as a final judgment, and binds the parties. McCray v. McCray, 584 S.W.2d 279, 281 (Tex.1979) (per curiam); McKnight, Family Law: Husband and Wife, 37 S.W.L.J. 65, 90-1 (1979). It is well established that a court is without authority to modify a trial court’s judgment relating to property adjudication, except as provided by law. McGehee v. Epley, 655 S.W.2d 305, 308 (Tex.App. — San Antonio), rev’d in part on other grounds, 661 S.W.2d 924 (Tex.1983); TEX.R.CIV.P. 329b.
The trial court was without authority to rule or render relief on this issue. The only matter before the trial court on written pleading was the contempt action. There is no statutory right to appeal from an order holding a party in contempt, Anderson v. Burleson, 583 S.W.2d 467 (Tex.Civ.App. — Houston [1st Dist.] 1979, no writ), or from an order refusing to hold a party in contempt. Hamborsky v. Hamborsky, 497 S.W.2d 405, 406 (Tex.Civ.App. —San Antonio 1973, no writ). The trial court cannot grant relief without pleadings to support it, and a judgment which is not supported by pleadings is void. See Oil Field Haulers Association v. Railroad Commission, 381 S.W.2d 183, 191 (Tex.1964); Carreon v. Texas State Department of Public Welfare, 537 S.W.2d 345, 347 (Tex.Civ.App. — San Antonio 1976, no writ). See also TEX.R.CIY.P. 301. In the instant case, the parties were before the trial court on a motion for contempt, the issues of which were compromised and settled. At that time there was no further controversy between the parties on which the court could render judgment in conformance with the pleadings. The jurisdiction of the trial court was not invoked to enter an order construing the divorce decree when there were no pleadings to support the order. See Carreon v. Texas State Department of Public Welfare, 537 S.W.2d 345, 348 (Tex.Civ.App. — San Antonio 1976, no writ); Rodriguez v. Vela, 488 S.W.2d 872, 875 (Tex.Civ.App. — San Antonio 1972, no writ); Goodman v. Goodman, 236 S.W.2d 641, 646 (Tex.Civ.App. — San Antonio 1951, no writ). Very recently, the *712Supreme Court in Cunningham v. Parkdale Bank, 660 S.W.2d 810 (Tex.1983), held that a party may not be granted relief in the absence of pleadings to support that relief. In setting aside the judgment, the Supreme Court held that the jurisdiction of the trial court was not invoked in the absence of pleadings. Id. at 811. Therefore, the part of the court’s order with reference to the issue of retirement benefits is void.
Appellant argued that the issue on military retirement benefits was tried by express consent under TEX.R.CIV.P. 67. It is correct that when issues not raised by the pleadings are tried by express or implied consent of the parties, they shall be treated in all respects as if they had been raised in the pleadings. TEX.R.CIV.P. 67. However, Rule 67 is not intended to establish a general rule of practice. Instead, it is intended to cover the exceptional case where it clearly appears from the record as a whole that the parties tried out an un-pleaded issue, perhaps having overlooked the omission in the pleadings, or else having failed to plead carefully or clearly the issues upon which the case was tried. Foxworth-Galbraith Lumber Co. v. Southwestern Contracting Corp., 165 S.W.2d 221, 224 (Tex.Civ.App. — Fort Worth 1942, writ ref’d w.o.m.). Accord Realtex Corp. v. Tyler, 627 S.W.2d 441, 443-44 (Tex.App. —Houston [1st Dist.] 1981, no writ); Jay Fikes & Associates v. Walton, 578 S.W.2d 885, 889 (Tex.Civ.App. — Amarillo 1979, writ ref’d n.r.e.). Rule 67 is intended to apply to cases which are tried in accordance with the pleadings, but in which there are issues not supported by the pleadings raised and proven without objection during trial. The rule is not intended to allow a judgment to be rendered in the complete absence of pleadings. Rule 67 covers the gaps in pleadings where the parties have overlooked an omission in the pleadings or have failed to plead carefully or clearly the issues to be tried. Rule 67 does not envision a circumstance where parties can orally request an adjudication on a matter of controversy between them. The allegations contained in the pleadings determine the nature and character of a suit. Wynn v. State ex rel. Wichita County, 431 S.W.2d 934, 935 (Tex.Civ.App. — Amarillo 1968, no writ). The petition must contain a statement in clear and concise language of the plaintiff’s cause of action and must give fair notice of the claim involved. Christy v. Hamilton, 384 S.W.2d 795, 796 (Tex.Civ.App. — Amarillo 1964, no writ); TEX.R. CIV.P. 47. A party must recover in the right in which he sues and upon proof of the facts stated in his pleadings; he cannot recover through a right not asserted. Jay Fikes & Associates v. Walton, supra at 889. It is mandatory that a judgment conform to the pleadings. Cunningham v. Parkdale Bank, supra; TEX.R.CIV.P. 301. The order on the military retirement benefits should be deleted from the judgment; the only remaining matter would be the order on contempt of which we have no jurisdiction.
Accordingly, I would reverse the judgment and order the cause dismissed.