Court Opinion

ID: 9827784
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-01 17:51:07.585592+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:42:36.635166
License: Public Domain

On Motion for Rehearing.
Appellants have filed a motion for rehearing, together with a request for additional findings of fact. The first two requested findings are apparently supported by undisputed evidence. From- recitations contained in the judgment, it appears that the trial court found in accordance with appellants’ third requested finding. Appellants’ request for additional findings is therefore granted and we find as follows:
First. That during the time suit for divorce was pending and between March 28, 1940 (when divorce was obtained) and April 13, 1940 (when the parties remarried each other), there was no change in the location of any of the property belonging to the said parties, and that same continued in the same position and situation, undisturbed.
Second. The said parties, Fred McDaniel and Dida McDaniel, did not make or attempt to -make any property division between themselves in contemplation of permanent separation or divorce; and,
Third. That said parties, Fred McDaniel and Dida McDaniel, agreed by and upon their remarriage to leave their said property as it was before the divorce.
Appellants contend that no objection based upon the statute of frauds was raised with reference to the agreement between Fred and Dida McDaniel “to leave their said property as it was before the divorce.”
However, we do not base our decision upon the applicability of the statute of frauds. .The controlling .question in this case is whether Article 2571, or Article 2578, applies to the property which is the subject matter of this suit. The answer to this question is determined by the legal classification of the property. Was it community property of Fred and Dida McDaniel, or did Dida McDaniel own an undivided interest therein as a part of her separate property? The legal status of property as “community” or “separate” is primarily determined by constitutional and statutory enactments. Article 16, § 15 of the Constitution of Texas provides that “All property, both real and personal, of the wife, owned or claimed by her before marriage * * * shall be her separate property; * *
Dida McDaniel acquired an undivided one-half interest in the property here involved prior to her marriage of April 13, 1940. It was therefore her separate property and as she died without leaving a will the provisions of Article 2571 are applicable thereto. The trial court correctly so held.
We grant appellant’s request for additional findings. The motion for rehearing is overruled.