STATUTORY REIMBURSEMENT IN TEXAS: A NEW SET OF RULES OR A REVERSION TO THE OLD
REGIME? JAMES L. MUSSELMAN* I. II.
INTRODUCTION ........................................... HISTORY OF THE EQUITABLE-REIMBURSEMENT DOCTRINE
PRE-1999...............
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III.
THE ECONOMIC CONTRIBUTION STATUTE: 1999-2009.................
IV.
THE 2009 AMENDMENTS .......................... A. The New Statutory Scheme....................
B. V.
What Does the FutureHold?...............
CONCLUSION
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I.
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INTRODUCTION
Texas courts have long recognized a doctrine, created for purposes of Texas marital property law, known as "equitable reimbursement."' The doctrine was created by Texas courts to resolve inequities that resulted from the application of another marital property law doctrine known as "inception of title." 2 Texas is one of the community property law jurisdictions in the United States. When a spouse dies or when spouses divorce, and in certain other situations, such as when a creditor is attempting to collect a debt from a married person, the property owned by such spouses must be "characterized."4 Characterization of marital property requires determining which one of three marital property estates owns such property.5 The three marital property estates are the separate property estate of the husband, the separate property estate of the wife, and the community
* James L. Musselman is a Professor of Law at South Texas College of Law in Houston, Texas. He has been on the faculty at South Texas since 1987, and served as Associate Dean from 1990 to 1998. Professor Musselman received a B.S. in Accounting from Illinois State University in 1973 and a J.D., Magna Cum Laude, from Brigham Young University in 1979, where he served as Editor of the Brigham Young University Law Review and was a J. Reuben Clark Scholar. Before joining the faculty at South Texas, Professor Musselman was engaged in the private practice of law with firms in Denver, Colorado and Pheonix, Arizona. His teaching and scholarship are in the areas of Federal Income Tax, Bankruptcy, Commercial Law, and Marital Property. 1. See Colden v. Alexander, 171 S.W.2d 328, 334 (Tex. 1943) (citing MacRae v. MacRae, 144 S.W.2d 320 (Tex. Civ. App.-El Paso 1940, writ ref d)). 2. See, e.g., Dakan v. Dakan, 83 S.W.2d 620, 627 (Tex. 1935) (citing Rice v. Rice, 21 Tex. 58 (1858)) (holding that the improvement of separate property with community funds does not change the character of the property). 3.
Lisa C. Johnson, Do You Live in a Community Property State?, LEGALZOOM (Oct.
2010), https://www.legalzoom.com/articles/do-you-live-in-a-community-property-state. 4. See, e.g., Tarver v. Tarver, 394 S.W.2d 780, 784 (Tex. 1965). 5. Id at 783.
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