Marriage

Eugene Volokh | 9.22.2025 8:32 AM

A short excerpt from the long majority in In the Matter of Benavides, by Justice Jeffrey Boyd:

A woman appointed as guardian for her elderly father moved him out of the house he shared with his fourth wife and later filed for divorce on his behalf on the ground that the couple had lived apart for more than three years. The trial court granted the divorce, and the wife appealed…. The wife [appeals], arguing [that] … Texas law does not permit a guardian to sue for divorce on her ward's behalf ….

We need not definitively decide [this] issue …. To whatever extent the Texas Estates Code may allow a guardian to seek a divorce on her ward's behalf, it at least requires the guardianship and divorce courts to find that permitting the divorce would promote the ward's well-being and protect his best interests. Because neither court made that finding in this case and—because of the ward's death—neither can do so now, we reverse the court of appeals' judgment, vacate the divorce decree, and dismiss….

Carlos "C.Y." Benavides, Jr. was the [wealthy] patriarch of "one of Laredo's oldest and most powerful clans." … Carlos married his fourth wife, Leticia Russo, on September 11, 2004. They each signed a pre-marital agreement and a post-marital agreement in which they stipulated that no community property would ever be created during the marriage and that each spouse's separate property and any income it produced would belong solely to that spouse, or to his or her estate, unless one transferred the property to the other "by will or other written instrument."

About seven months after Carlos and Leticia married, Carlos filed for divorce (the First Divorce Proceeding). About five months later (a year after they married, and while the divorce proceeding was pending), a physician diagnosed Carlos with dementia. Carlos did not pursue the divorce, and the trial court dismissed the First Divorce Proceeding for want of prosecution in February 2007. Leticia asserts that Carlos changed his mind about wanting a divorce. Carlos's adult daughter from a prior marriage—Linda Cristina Benavides Alexander—contends that Carlos wanted the divorce but was unable to pursue it because of his quickly worsening dementia.

By the end of 2007, Carlos had signed documents adding Leticia's name to his bank accounts, designating the accounts as joint accounts with a right of survivorship, conveying an office building to Leticia, and identifying both spouses as borrowers on a loan to refinance their residence. Leticia asserts that Carlos gave her "full authority" over his accounts and repeatedly told her that "todo lo mio es tuyo"—"all that I have is yours." Linda contends that, to the extent Carlos in fact did or said any of these things, he did so only because Leticia took advantage of his mental incapacity. The ensuing disputes between........

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