pjc-family-2024-lib

E NFORCEABILITY OF P ROPERTY A GREEMENTS

PJC 207.1

PJC 207.1

Enforceability of Property Agreements—Separate Trials (Comment)

The Committee suggests that, if a suit involves the question of the enforceability of a premarital agreement, a partition or exchange agreement, an agreement between spouses concerning income or property derived from separate property, or an agree ment to convert separate property to community property, the court should consider a separate trial to determine the validity of the agreement. See Tex. R. Civ. P. 174(b). Otherwise, the sets of alternative instructions on marital property will be unnecessarily confusing. Additionally, if enforceability and property issues are tried together, the lit igants will have to advance alternative theories and produce evidence supporting those theories. On the other hand, if the determination of the enforceability of the property agreements is made first, the presentation of evidence and the jury’s task are greatly simplified.

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