## Facts

- Husband signed an earnest-money contract on August 2, 1975 to buy a residence in Missouri City, Texas while unmarried.
- Before marriage, husband applied for and received a VA loan commitment as a single man.
- The parties married on November 25, 1975.
- After marriage, husband received the deed to the residence in his name as a single man and executed the promissory note and deed of trust in his individual capacity.
- In the divorce decree, the trial court characterized the residence as husband’s separate property and awarded it to him.
- The trial court awarded wife a $6,000 money judgment and $3,000 in attorney’s fees, but refused to impose a lien on the homestead to secure those awards.
- Wife appealed the separate-property characterization and the denial of a homestead lien.
- Husband cross-appealed, arguing the $6,000 award was impermissible alimony.

## Issues

1. Whether the residence was husband’s separate property or community property when the purchase contract and financing commitments arose before marriage but the deed and loan documents were executed after marriage.
2. Whether the trial court erred by refusing to secure the wife’s money judgment and attorney’s fees by imposing a lien on the homestead.
3. Whether the $6,000 award to the wife constituted unlawful alimony or a permissible component of the divorce property division.

## Decision

- The appellate court affirmed the divorce judgment.
- The residence was properly characterized as husband’s separate property under the inception-of-title doctrine based on the pre-marriage purchase contract and separate-funds down payment.
- The trial court did not err in refusing to impose a lien on the homestead to secure the wife’s money judgment and attorney’s fees.
- The $6,000 award was upheld as part of the property division, not impermissible alimony.

## Legal Principles

- The character of property as separate or community is fixed at inception of title, i.e., when a party first acquires a right or claim that later ripens into legal title.
- Property possessed at divorce is presumed community property; the presumption is rebutted by evidence tracing the inception of title and acquisition to separate property or separate credit.
- A pre-marriage contract right to acquire real property can establish inception of title even if the deed and formal evidence of title are obtained during marriage.
- Homestead property is generally exempt from liens arising from ordinary money judgments in divorce absent a recognized exception; a court may decline to secure a money award by a homestead lien when the award is not an ownership interest in the homestead.
- A lump-sum award in a divorce may be upheld as a “just and right” property division and is not invalid merely because it resembles support, so long as it functions as a property settlement rather than ongoing alimony.

## Conclusion

The court affirmed a divorce decree awarding the marital residence to the husband as his separate property because his right to acquire the property arose before marriage, and it also upheld an unsecured money judgment and attorney’s-fees award to the wife because homestead protections barred imposing a lien to secure those amounts and the lump-sum award was treated as property division rather than alimony.


Wierzchula v. Wierzchula, 623 S.W.2d 730 (Tex. Civ. App.—Houston [1st Dist.] 1981)