Court Opinion

ID: 9857372
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 14:32:22.548596+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:38:20.784119
License: Public Domain

On Motions for Rehearing.
Both appellant and appellee have filed motions for rehearing. Appellee complains of our failure to pass on her counterpoint and cross-assignment of error No. 1 to effect that the trial court erred in withholding in its registry the sum of $2666.79 pending the disposition of this appeal, and requests that this court order this sum disbursed equally to appellant and appellee.
The appeal that was perfected in this cause is from the judgment of the trial court entered July 19, 1949. No appeal was perfected from the judgment of the trial court entered December 12, 1949, by which the $2666.79 was impounded in the registry of the court and the receiver ordered discharged. We have no jurisdiction of this matter. The trial court has the power and duty to determine the proper disposition of this fund. We adhere to our views on the other matters complained of by appellee; her motion for rehearing is therefore overruled.
Appellant complains of our holding that appellant by accepting his distributed share of the proceeds from the sale of the property found to be community property by the trial court, and by receiving his part of the community -funds used in paying the separate debts of appellee, thereby waived his appeal from the portion of the judgment of the trial court awarding appellee attorney’s fees in the sum of $6500 and dismissing appellant’s appeal from said portion of the judgment. We have concluded that appellant’s motion in this respect should be granted. Appellant has received his interest in the community property which was sold in strict accordance with the judgment of July 19, 1949. However, he has received only what he was entitled to receive under the judgment. Insofar as the attorney’s fee is concerned, appellee’s rights are in no way infringed by such conduct. He took nothing from appellee to which he was not entitled under the judgment. His right to appeal should not be affected by the fact that ap-pellee may have received something under the judgment to which she was not entitled. There is still $2666.79 of the proceeds of community property in the registry of the court from which appellant may receive in part his just share of the proceeds of community property sold if the trial court was in error in charging the entire attorney’s fee against his interest in the community property rather than against all of the community. Furthermore, under our opinion and judgment we have remanded the cause insofar as the property described as 605 Guadalupe Street is involved, and should it be determined on another trial that such property is community property it is probable that there will be sufficient community property to satisfy the entire amount of attorney’s fees awarded therefrom.
It is our view that the trial court did err in charging the entire attorney’s fee against appellant’s interest in the proceeds of the sale of the community property. The opinion of this court in Becker v. Becker, Tex.Civ.App., 299 S.W. 528 is in apparent conflict with the opinion in Russell v. Russell, Tex.Civ.App., 79 S.W.2d 639 (see Vol. 18 Texas Law Review, pp. 87-88) and with a great deal that was said in Brown v. Brown, 152 S.W.2d 790 by the Galveston Court of Civil Appeals, and in Moore v. Moore, 192 S.W.2d 929 by the Fort Worth Court of Civil Appeals. We think that the sounder view is that attorney’s fees incurred by the wife either in prosecuting or defending a divorce suit in good faith are necessaries and are properly chargeable against the community estate of the husband and wife. Therefore, appellant’s motion for rehearing on this point is granted and our former judgment in this respect set aside.
The judgment of the trial court insofar as it charged the $6500 attorney’s fee against appellant’s interest in the proceeds *917of the sale of the community property is reversed and judgment here rendered that such attorney’s fees be charged against the proceeds of the sale of such community property before any distribution thereof should be made in accordance with the terms of the judgment. In all other respects appellant’s motion for rehearing is overruled.