Byrnes v. Byrnes
Texas Court of Appeals
19 S.W.3d 556 (2000)
- Written by Whitney Kamerzel , JD
Facts
Kathleen Byrnes (plaintiff) and William Byrnes (defendant) were married for 20 years when William moved out of the Byrneses’ home and told Kathleen that he wanted a divorce. Soon thereafter they met at a restaurant, and Kathleen gave William a document titled agreement incident to divorce, which divided up ownership of the Byrneses’ property. The document did not mention the word partition or reference the changing of community property into separate property. The document was prepared by Kathleen’s attorney. William did not review the agreement prior to this meeting, and he was not represented by counsel. Nevertheless, William signed the agreement. Kathleen subsequently filed for divorce and asked the court to divide their community property in accordance with the agreement. William filed a formal repudiation of the agreement. The court disregarded the agreement, asked each party to submit a proposed property division, and granted the proposal submitted by William. Kathleen appealed, arguing the agreement was either a valid agreement incident to divorce or a partition agreement.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Day, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 832,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,500 briefs, keyed to 994 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.
