## Facts

- Truan Anh Tran and Sheryn Nguyen lived together and began holding themselves out as married in 1988, creating an alleged Texas common-law marriage.
- Nguyen had a daughter from a prior relationship, J.T.; Tran and Nguyen led J.T. to believe Tran was her father until she was about ten.
- Tran and Nguyen later had two daughters together, K.N. and P.T.
- In 2010, Nguyen and Tran separated after Nguyen learned Tran had been sexually assaulting then 13-year-old J.T. for about a year.
- Tran pleaded guilty to sexual assault and received a twelve-year prison sentence.
- Nguyen filed for divorce, which required the trial court to decide conservatorship, possession/access, child support, and division of the parties’ property.
- Tran sought visitation with K.N. and P.T., pointing to his prior relationship with them.
- Nguyen testified the girls were aware of Tran’s offense; P.T. did not communicate with Tran after the conviction, and K.N. had stopped communicating; both girls did not want to visit Tran in prison.
- The trial court granted the divorce and, based largely on Tran’s conviction and the children’s circumstances, denied Tran visitation.
- The trial court also entered financial orders, including child-support relief structured in part through the division of property (including the home), and Tran appealed.

## Issues

1. Did the trial court abuse its discretion by denying Tran any possession of or access to K.N. and P.T. based on his sexual-assault conviction involving a child in the household?
2. Did the trial court abuse its discretion by structuring child support as a lump-sum award tied to Tran’s interest in the marital residence given his incarceration?
3. Did the trial court abuse its discretion in dividing the parties’ estate, including awarding Nguyen the home, such that the division was manifestly unjust and unfair?

## Decision

- The court of appeals affirmed the trial court’s divorce decree and related orders.
- The trial court acted within its discretion in denying Tran visitation because the evidence supported a finding that contact was not in the children’s best interest in light of Tran’s offense and the children’s expressed unwillingness to visit or communicate.
- The trial court did not abuse its discretion by ordering child support in a lump-sum form connected to Tran’s interest in the home, given the practical limits created by Tran’s lengthy incarceration and the children’s ongoing needs.
- The property division, while favorable to Nguyen, was not shown to be manifestly unjust and unfair when evaluated under Texas’s “just and right” standard and the record facts, including Tran’s misconduct and Nguyen’s responsibilities for the children.

## Legal Principles

- Orders on conservatorship and possession/access are reviewed for abuse of discretion, with the child’s best interest as the controlling consideration.
- A trial court may deny possession or access when the evidence shows visitation would not serve the child’s best interest, including where a parent has committed sexual abuse within the family.
- Texas trial courts have broad discretion to set child support in the child’s best interest and may, in appropriate circumstances, order support in a nontraditional form, including a lump-sum award tied to property, when periodic payments are not realistic.
- In a divorce, the trial court must divide the marital estate in a “just and right” manner; an appellate court will reverse only if the division is so one-sided as to be manifestly unjust and unfair.
- Fault and serious misconduct that affected the family may be considered in both possession/access rulings and the financial terms of a divorce decree.

## Conclusion

The Fourteenth Court of Appeals affirmed the divorce judgment, holding that the trial court stayed within its discretion in denying the incarcerated father visitation after his child sexual-assault conviction and in ordering financial relief, including lump-sum child support linked to the home and a property division that was not manifestly unjust or unfair.


Tran v. Nguyen, 480 S.W.3d 119 (2015)