CARLTON HUGHES
401 Corporate Dr., Suite 100
Lewisville, Texas 75057
Office: (972) 384-4505
Fax: (972) 384-4507
Email: CarltonHughes@aol.com

6060 N. Central, Suite 560
Dallas, Texas 75206

555 Republic, Suite 200
Plano, TX 75074

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COMPLEX PROPERTY ISSUES

Few attorneys have experience and knowledge to deal successfully with property issues involving large estates. With more than 25 years of experience, this law firm can represent their clients with complex divorce property issues.

Here are examples of such complex divorce property issues:

real estate, residential, commercial, farm and ranch

Oil and gas royalties and other mineral interests

Employer benefits and retirement plans

Stock options

Separate property characterization and tracing

Deferred compensation plans

Economic contribution and reimbursement claims

Insurance issues

Intellectual property issues, copyrights and patents.

Significance of characterizing property
This firm has represented clients with large estates involving separate and community properties. Separate property is property acquired prior to marriage, or during marriage by gift, inheritance, or the non-economic recovery in a personal injury case. Community property is all property obtained during the marriage except separate property. The law only permits a court to divide community property. The court may divide the community property as the court deems just and fair with regard to the rights of each party and any children of the marriage.

Under the Texas Family Code, the law presumes that all property possessed by either party is community property. It is critical to prove that the separate property is not community property. This firm has years of extensive experience of representing clients to preserve their separate property.

Property may be divided in a divorce as well as from the death of a spouse or through a will or a prenuptial agreement.

If your spouse were to die prior to the granting of a divorce, how would the assets be divided? Does your spouse have a will? Does your spouse have a designation of beneficiary in a life insurance policy (if so, who is the beneficiary?) Do your spouse have a revocable living trust and are you the beneficiary? How are you and your spouse listed as the grantees on a deed? (do you own the property or do you have a life interest in the property?) These are matters we will need to review when we meet to go over your assets.

Examples of separate property and reimbursement claims
Carlton Hughes represented a wife where her husband had provided $36,000 from his separate property for the purchase and building of the community property home. Over 10 years later after that separate property contribution to the community property, his attorneys in the divorce traced the money from a trust that pre-existed the marriage. The Family Code provides for a complicated reimbursement of the community to his separate property. His attorneys argued and demonstrated that he should receive $152,000; Mr. Hughes didn’t deny the claim for reimbursement; rather, Mr. Hughes showed that calculation was done incorrectly and that his reimbursement claim should be $36,000. Result: The court awarded $36,000, instead of $152,000.

In another case, Carlton Hughes represented a spouse where there was a question about whether two pieces of property were separate property or community property and whether the other spouse had committed a fraud on the community. In the specific case, the husband had convinced a title attorney that he was the owner of the property and the title attorney authorized a correction deed to change the grantee on two deeds; this constituted fraud because the title company ignored his client’s deeds that had been on file for 10 years. Carlton Hughes ended up having to sue a mortgage company and to resolve whether the deed of trust applied to his innocent spouse client. Result: the court held that the property was community but that the deed of trust did not attach to Mr. Hughes’ client’s interest in the property.

Contact this firm
If you wish to schedule an appointment, go to the attorney contact page on this site or call us at 972-384-4505.

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