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Texas Family Law Influenced by Baseball?

Bob Leonard Law Group, PLLC

Jun 18, 2015

Texas Family Law Influenced by baseball?

Texas Family Law influenced by Texas Rangers’ divorce?

Texas Family Law Clarified by Baseball

Esteban Loaiza was a pitcher who played with the Texas Rangers from 1998 to 2000.  In a previous blog I detailed information about how we frequently misread court documents using the divorce pleadings of the Rangers’ Josh Hamilton as my example.  This blog will show you how another Rangers’ player, helped to make Texas Family Law history.

 

While in Texas, Esteban Loaiza and his wife Christina, were divorced.  The court divided their community property and Christina appealed.  Among other things, she claimed a right in part of Esteban’s guaranteed payments under a contract that he has with the Toronto Blue Jays.

 

In October of 1998, Esteban and Christina were married prior to his being traded to the Texas Rangers.  He was traded in July of 2000 to the Blue Jays.  Apparently, he maintained a Tarrant County residence because in August of 2000, he filed for divorce.

In February, 2001, while he was separated from his wife, he signed a contract with the Blue jays that provided for “guaranteed” payments on $4 million in 2001 and $5.8 million in 2002.

They were finally divorced on April 30, 2002, and the court held that the payments were separate property because he was required to complete his services as a baseball player before he was entitled to the money.

Generally, whether an asset is community or separate depends on its status at the time that title was acquired.  In other words, if one buys a house before marriage it is his or her separate property, but if it is acquired during the marriage it is the spouses’ community property.  Christina claims that the payments under the Blue Jay contract were community property because the contract was signed during the marriage.

Esteban, however, contended that because he was required to render services as a baseball player, he was being paid for services rendered after the divorce.  He alleged that a spouse is not entitled to a percentage of his or her spouse’s future income after divorce.  A spouse is only entitled to a division of property that the community owns at the time of the divorce.

 

The appellate court agreed with the trial court and Esteban and decided that the 2002 payments were his separate property.

 

The decision as to whether property is community or separate is often complicated with many conflicting rules.  Although I omitted discussing them, there were a lot of other arguments in this case.  I thought that you might be interested in how two baseball cases influenced and interacted with Texas Family Law.

If you are looking for a Texas Family Law Attorney in Fort Worth or surrounding counties, Contact the Bob Leonard Law Group at 817 335-8600. Bob is Board Certified in Family Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization, a claim that less than one-percent of Texas lawyers can make.

817-336-8500

info@bobleonardlawgroup.com

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