Unreported / Non-Citable
Background
Marsha Phillips sought judicial review under Texas Government Code section 51.903 of two summary-judgment orders entered by the Travis County Probate Court in Scott Phillips’s guardianship proceeding. The probate court found that Marsha had breached fiduciary duties concerning special warranty deeds for properties on Rocroi Drive and Scenic Lake Drive, declared the deeds void, and determined that Scott owned a 50% interest in the Scenic Lake Drive property and the entire Rocroi property.
After the orders were recorded in Williamson County, Marsha filed a verified motion in Williamson County district court alleging that they were fraudulent and should not receive claim or lien status. The district court concluded that the orders were not fraudulent, denied her motion, and dismissed the suit.
The Court’s Holding
The Third Court of Appeals affirmed. It held that the recorded orders were not presumed fraudulent under Chapter 51 because they were imposed by a court with jurisdiction—the probate court overseeing Scott’s guardianship proceeding.
Marsha did not allege that the orders were fabricated or that the judge’s signature was forged. Instead, she attacked the underlying basis for the probate court’s rulings. The court explained that a section 51.903 proceeding is limited to determining whether the challenged document is fraudulent as defined by section 51.901; it cannot adjudicate substantive evidentiary disputes or the validity of the underlying property interest. Her arguments therefore could not overcome the presumption that the orders were not fraudulent.
Key Takeaways
- A court-imposed lien or property claim is not presumed fraudulent under Texas Government Code section 51.901 when the issuing court had jurisdiction.
- Section 51.903 provides expedited review of the legitimacy of a filed document, not the substantive validity of the property interest reflected in it.
- A collateral attack on the reasoning behind a recorded judicial order falls outside the narrow scope of a section 51.903 proceeding.
Why It Matters
The decision reinforces the limited role of expedited fraudulent-lien review under Texas law. A property claimant cannot use section 51.903 as a substitute for directly challenging the merits of an order entered in another proceeding.
For practitioners, the distinction between an allegedly fraudulent document and an allegedly erroneous judicial ruling is decisive: Chapter 51 addresses the former, while challenges to the latter must proceed through an appropriate direct-review mechanism.