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CourtListener opinion 10565020

Date unknown · US

Extracted case name
pending
Extracted reporter citation
687 S.W.3d 285
Docket / number
sheet was not included in the record. See Baker
QDRO relevance 5/5Retirement relevance 5/5Family-law relevance 5/5gold label pending
Research-use warning: This page contains machine-draft public annotations generated from public opinion text. The headnote is not Willie-approved gold-label work product and is not legal advice. Verify the full opinion and current law before relying on it.

Machine-draft headnote

Machine-draft public headnote: CourtListener opinion 10565020 is included in the LexyCorpus QDRO sample set as a public CourtListener opinion with relevance to QDRO procedure / domestic relations order issues. The current annotation is conservative: it identifies source provenance, relevance signals, and evidence quotes for attorney/agent retrieval. It is not a Willie-approved legal headnote yet.

Retrieval annotation

Draft retrieval summary: this opinion has QDRO relevance score 5/5, retirement-division score 5/5, and family-law score 5/5. Use the quoted text and full opinion below before relying on the case.

Category: QDRO procedure / domestic relations order issues

Evidence quotes

QDRO

as moot. The record reflects that there were four principal documents considered by the trial court in making its October 2021 nunc pro tunc determination: a February 15, 1996 letter to counsel; the April 17, 1996 divorce decree; and two August 16, 1996 Qualified Domestic Relations Orders. Both parties refer to the February 15, 1996 letter as the trial court's rendition. 1 Because both parties had the same surname at times relevant to this appeal, we will refer to them by their first names to avoid confusion. 2 During the interim, Gregory attempted to appeal from the trial court's interlocutory order, and we dismissed that appeal for

retirement benefits

pellant Gregory Wayne Coon and Appellee Victoria Jacobs Coon (Thomas) 1 divorced in 1996. Twenty-five years later, in January 2021, Gregory filed a petition for enforcement of a portion of their divorce decree's property division, seeking 40% of Victoria's retirement benefits, and both parties moved for summary judgment. Victoria also filed a motion for judgment nunc pro tunc or to clarify. The trial court heard the motions at a consolidated hearing on October 21, 2021, and then granted Victoria's motion for judgment nunc pro tunc and awarded attorneys' fees to her. On June 1, 2023,2 the trial court entered a final judgment

domestic relations order

The record reflects that there were four principal documents considered by the trial court in making its October 2021 nunc pro tunc determination: a February 15, 1996 letter to counsel; the April 17, 1996 divorce decree; and two August 16, 1996 Qualified Domestic Relations Orders. Both parties refer to the February 15, 1996 letter as the trial court's rendition. 1 Because both parties had the same surname at times relevant to this appeal, we will refer to them by their first names to avoid confusion. 2 During the interim, Gregory attempted to appeal from the trial court's interlocutory order, and we dismissed that appeal for

valuation/division

n by Justice Birdwell MEMORANDUM OPINION Appellant Gregory Wayne Coon and Appellee Victoria Jacobs Coon (Thomas) 1 divorced in 1996. Twenty-five years later, in January 2021, Gregory filed a petition for enforcement of a portion of their divorce decree's property division, seeking 40% of Victoria's retirement benefits, and both parties moved for summary judgment. Victoria also filed a motion for judgment nunc pro tunc or to clarify. The trial court heard the motions at a consolidated hearing on October 21, 2021, and then granted Victoria's motion for judgment nunc pro tunc and awarded attorneys' fees to her. On June 1,

Source and provenance

Source type
courtlistener_qdro_opinion_full_text
Permissions posture
public
Generated status
machine draft public v0
Review status
gold label pending
Jurisdiction metadata
US
Deterministic extraction
reporter: 687 S.W.3d 285 · docket: sheet was not included in the record. See Baker
Generated at
May 14, 2026

Related public corpus pages

Deterministic links based on shared title/citation terms and QDRO / retirement / family-law retrieval scores.

Clean opinion text

In the
 Court of Appeals
 Second Appellate District of Texas
 at Fort Worth
 ___________________________
 No. 02-23-00210-CV
 ___________________________

 GREGORY WAYNE COON, Appellant

 V.

VICTORIA JACOBS COON (THOMAS), Appellee

 On Appeal from the 233rd District Court
 Tarrant County, Texas
 Trial Court No. 233-694810-21

 Before Sudderth, C.J.; Birdwell and Wallach, JJ.
 Memorandum Opinion by Justice Birdwell
 MEMORANDUM OPINION

 Appellant Gregory Wayne Coon and Appellee Victoria Jacobs Coon (Thomas) 1

divorced in 1996. Twenty-five years later, in January 2021, Gregory filed a petition for

enforcement of a portion of their divorce decree's property division, seeking 40% of

Victoria's retirement benefits, and both parties moved for summary judgment.

Victoria also filed a motion for judgment nunc pro tunc or to clarify. The trial court

heard the motions at a consolidated hearing on October 21, 2021, and then granted

Victoria's motion for judgment nunc pro tunc and awarded attorneys' fees to her. On

June 1, 2023,2 the trial court entered a final judgment, denying the parties' summary-

judgment motions and denying Gregory's petition for enforcement as moot.

 The record reflects that there were four principal documents considered by the

trial court in making its October 2021 nunc pro tunc determination: a February 15,

1996 letter to counsel; the April 17, 1996 divorce decree; and two August 16, 1996

Qualified Domestic Relations Orders. Both parties refer to the February 15, 1996

letter as the trial court's rendition.

 1
 Because both parties had the same surname at times relevant to this appeal, we
will refer to them by their first names to avoid confusion.
 2
 During the interim, Gregory attempted to appeal from the trial court's
interlocutory order, and we dismissed that appeal for want of jurisdiction. See Coon v.
Coon, No. 02-21-00381-CV, 2022 WL 7232163, at *5 (Tex. App.—Fort Worth
Oct. 13, 2022, no pet.) (mem. op.).

 2
 On March 1, 2024, the Supreme Court of Texas clarified the requirements for a

letter to counsel to be considered a rendition. Baker v. Bizzle, 687 S.W.3d 285, 293

(Tex. 2024). The court stated, in pertinent part,

 • "[A] letter to counsel could constitute a pronouncement of judgment if the
 letter (1) uses language reflecting a present intent to render judgment,
 (2) provides sufficient detail to state the court's decision on the matters at issue,
 and (3) is filed with the clerk of court." Id. at 292 (emphasis added).

 • "The form of writing is not important; the critical inquiries concern the court's
 use of language indicating a present intent to render a full, final, and complete
 decision and whether the court officially announced that decision publicly." Id. at 293
 (emphasis added).
 Because the contents of the record before us do not reflect that the

February 15, 1996 letter meets these requirements, 3 and because the parties and trial

court did not have the benefit of Baker when the trial court granted the judgment

nunc pro tunc, we reverse the trial court's judgment and remand the case for a new

hearing.

 /s/ Wade Birdwell
 Wade Birdwell
 Justice
Delivered: August 22, 2024

 3
 The February 15, 1996 letter was addressed to counsel and is not file-marked,
and a copy of the 1996 docket sheet was not included in the record. See Baker, 687
S.W.3d at 293 (noting that, in Baker, in which the court held that an email did not
constitute a rendition of judgment because it was not announced publicly, there was
no allegation that the trial court had delivered the email to the clerk of the court for
filing, entry, or inclusion in the public record or that it had taken any actions
reasonably calculated to effectuate such delivery). In Baker, the court stated, "To the
extent some cases can be read as holding that a private communication can constitute
a rendition of judgment, we disapprove them." Id. at 294.

 3