## Facts

- Roy Livingston Jacobs, Jr. (husband) and Ellen English Jacobs (wife) divorced; the dispute on appeal concerned only division of the community estate.
- The trial court valued the community estate at approximately $1.3–$1.5 million and found that about half of that value related to reimbursement claims.
- The trial court awarded the community estate reimbursement for: (1) the husband’s time, toil, and effort benefiting his separate-property corporation; (2) certain community expenditures benefiting the husband’s separate estate; and (3) certain income allegedly earned by the husband but diverted to third parties.
- The husband appealed, challenging reimbursement awards, characterization of several assets, and an award of appellate attorney’s fees to the wife regardless of outcome.
- The court of appeals found multiple errors, rendered judgment eliminating two reimbursement claims (one for lack of evidence; one for lack of pleadings), corrected certain property characterizations, vacated the appellate-fee award, and remanded only limited portions of the property division tied to specified items.
- The husband sought further review, arguing that once reversible error was found, the entire community property division had to be remanded for a new “just and right” division.

## Issues

1. When an appellate court finds reversible error that materially affects a trial court’s “just and right” division of community property, must it remand the entire community estate for a new division rather than remanding only specific items?

## Decision

- The Texas Supreme Court reversed the portion of the court of appeals’ judgment that limited the remand to specific properties.
- The court ordered a remand of the entire community estate to the trial court for a new “just and right” division.
- The court affirmed the remainder of the court of appeals’ judgment, leaving intact the intermediate court’s rulings on reimbursement defects, property characterization errors, and vacatur of the wife’s appellate attorney’s fees award.

## Legal Principles

- A divorce property division is an interdependent “just and right” allocation; significant appellate changes to estate components can defeat the balance the trial court struck.
- If reversible error materially affects the “just and right” division of the community estate, the proper remedy is remand of the entire community estate for a new division.
- An appellate court should not rework an overall property division through item-by-item corrections when the identified errors substantially alter the estate considered by the trial court.

## Conclusion

Because the appellate findings of error affected substantial components of the marital estate and therefore materially affected the trial court’s “just and right” division, the Texas Supreme Court required remand of the entire community estate for a new division and rejected a limited, item-specific remand.


Jacobs v. Jacobs, 687 S.W.2d 731 (Tex. 1985)