## Facts

- Virginia Eggemeyer and Homer Joseph Eggemeyer divorced and had four minor children.
- The trial court appointed Virginia managing conservator and ordered Homer to pay child support of $100 per child per month until each child turned eighteen.
- The parties’ principal asset was a small family farm encumbered by substantial liens and debt.
- The trial court found Homer owned an undivided one-third interest in the farm as his separate property by gift from his mother.
- As part of the divorce decree, the trial court divested Homer of title to that one-third separate interest and transferred it to Virginia, while also creating an additional lien payable to Homer at a later date.
- The court of civil appeals reversed the divestiture of Homer’s separate real property and remanded for consideration of lawful support-related alternatives.
- The Texas Supreme Court granted review due to a perceived conflict among intermediate appellate decisions.

## Issues

1. Whether Texas Family Code § 3.63 authorizes a divorce court, as part of a “just and right” division, to divest a spouse of separate real property and transfer title to the other spouse.

## Decision

- The Texas Supreme Court affirmed the court of civil appeals.
- The Court held that § 3.63 does not permit divestiture of a spouse’s separate real property or transfer of its title to the other spouse in a divorce decree.
- The case was remanded for further proceedings consistent with the rule that child-support obligations must be met without stripping title to separate real property.

## Legal Principles

- Texas Family Code § 3.63 authorizes a “just and right” division of the parties’ estate only as to community property; it does not extend to separate real property.
- Separate property is constitutionally protected in Texas; a divorce decree cannot transfer title to one spouse’s separate realty to the other spouse.
- A divorce court may order that rents, revenues, income, or use of a spouse’s separate property be applied for the support of minor children, but it may not permanently divest title to that separate real property for that purpose.

## Conclusion

The Texas Supreme Court barred divorce courts from transferring title to one spouse’s separate real property to the other under the “just and right” division statute, while confirming that support orders may reach the income or use of separate property without divesting ownership.


Eggemeyer v. Eggemeyer, 554 S.W.2d 137 (Tex. 1977)