## Facts

- Simon Garza and Carmen Garza were married.
- Carmen filed for divorce in Texas state court.
- In dividing the parties’ community property, the trial court divested Simon of title to certain real property and awarded that property to Carmen.
- The decree also granted Simon a 90-day option to purchase the same property from Carmen at a fixed price.
- The decree provided that if Simon did not exercise the option within 90 days, the property would remain Carmen’s.
- Carmen did not timely appeal the divorce decree’s property-division terms.
- Within the 90-day period, Simon exercised the option to purchase and filed a motion to enforce the judgment, asking the court to compel Carmen to convey the property to him under the decree.
- The trial court granted Simon’s motion to enforce.
- Carmen appealed the enforcement order, arguing that the trial court lacked authority, in the original divorce decree, to grant Simon an option to purchase property that the decree otherwise awarded to her.

## Issues

1. In a Texas divorce property division, may the trial court award real property to one spouse while also granting the other spouse a time-limited option to purchase that property at a set price?
2. After failing to timely appeal the divorce decree, may a party resist a later enforcement order by arguing the option provision was beyond the trial court’s authority?

## Decision

- The court of appeals affirmed the trial court’s enforcement order.
- The court held the option-to-purchase provision was a permissible part of the divorce court’s “just and right” division of the community estate.
- Because Carmen did not timely appeal the decree’s property-division structure, the decree’s option provision could be enforced according to its terms once Simon timely exercised the option.

## Legal Principles

- Texas trial courts have broad discretion to divide community property in a manner the court deems “just and right.”
- A divorce decree’s property-division terms may include conditional or time-limited mechanisms affecting how property will be transferred between former spouses, including an option to purchase at a stated price, when included as part of the division.
- When a divorce decree becomes final without a timely appeal, later proceedings to enforce the decree focus on carrying out the judgment’s terms; they are not a vehicle to relitigate the propriety of the original property-division design.

## Conclusion

Garza v. Garza holds that a Texas divorce court may, as part of a “just and right” property division, award real property to one spouse while granting the other spouse a limited-time option to buy that property at a fixed price, and that when the option is timely exercised and the decree was not timely appealed, the trial court may enforce the decree by compelling conveyance under the option provision.


Garza v. Garza, 666 S.W.2d 205 (1983)