Fanning v. Fanning
Texas Court of Appeals
828 S.W.2d 135 (1992)
- Written by Whitney Kamerzel , JD
Facts
Whitney Fanning (defendant) and Nita Kissel (plaintiff) were married in September 1980. Both were attorneys with successful law practices. In August 1980, Whitney and Nita signed a premarital agreement, which specified that personal earnings from Whitney’s or Nita’s law practices would remain separate property. It also stated that all income from a list of separate property would remain separate property. In the premarital agreement, Whitney and Nita acknowledged that under current law, most of their future property would be community property. However, Whitney and Nita stated that if a then-proposed Texas constitutional amendment that allowed community property to be reclassified as separate property were passed, their agreements would take effect. The amendment passed in 1980. Whitney and Nita executed a 1981 partition agreement that stated there would no longer be any community-property interest in income derived from the separate property of either of them. Nita filed for divorce, and the trial court failed to enforce the premarital or partition agreements. Instead, the trial court gave much of the assets and custody of their children to Nita. Whitney appealed.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Cummings, 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. 46,400 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.