Texas Appeals Court Rejects Businessman's Claim to Plano Home Despite $287,000 Wire Evidence

A Dallas appeals court dismantled a Texas businessman’s claim to a Plano residential property, ruling that a $287,000 bank transfer failed to prove he owned the home over the estate of his deceased business partner.

Paper trails without legal precision carry no weight in probate court. The Fifth Court of Appeals of Texas at Dallas upheld a lower court decree awarding full control of the real estate to Hunter Scott Brasher and Sarah Nichols, the surviving children and co-independent administrators of Karrie Ellen Peterson’s estate. Peterson, who operated Hair Color Studios.com, LLC alongside businessman Kyle Harmon, died without a will in August 2021. Harmon and co-appellant Gina Maria Ottavio fought to claw back the residence through a statutory bill of review. They lost.

The $287,000 Transfer and the Failed Resulting Trust

Harmon testified that while stationed overseas in 2015, he enlisted Peterson to orchestrate the acquisition of the Plano residence on his behalf. But the paper trail shattered under appellate scrutiny. A June 2015 warranty deed named an entirely separate corporate vehicle, H.C.S LLC, as the official buyer. That deed bypassed the county clerk's office and was never recorded in municipal property records, though a copy surfaced in records filed with the local tax appraisal district.

To salvage ownership, Harmon asserted that his post-closing financial transfer established an equitable "resulting trust"—a legal doctrine recognizing ownership when one party funds an acquisition formally registered in another entity's name. The appellate bench discarded the argument.

Bank slips proved insufficient.

Judges emphasized that Harmon’s financial exhibit documented only a transfer of roughly $287,000 into an unidentified money-market account a week after the conveyance. Crucially, the banking ledger never identified the recipient, never specified the capital's purpose, and never traced the cash into Peterson’s hands for the real estate closing.

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The only evidence of Harmon's payment of the purchase price is his own testimony... that exhibit shows only that Harmon transferred approximately $287,000 to an unidentified money-market account a week after the deed to Hair Color Studios.com LLC.
Fifth Court of Appeals of Texas at Dallas

Entity Confusion and Disputed Conveyance Authority

Corporate muddling deepened the evidentiary void. In August 2022, a full year after Peterson’s sudden death, a corrective instrument was filed to switch the buyer named on the 2015 deed from H.C.S LLC to Hair Color Studios.com, LLC. Compounding the conflict was an intermediate deed executed in 2019 that transferred the home directly from H.C.S LLC into Peterson’s personal name.

Harmon attacked the 2019 deed as void, insisting Peterson lacked corporate authority to execute the transfer to herself. The appellate bench pushed back, noting the trial record omitted the corporate governance documents and equity breakdown required to establish who actually controlled H.C.S LLC. Peterson may well have held majority voting control. Harmon’s verbal say-so could not substitute for corporate ledgers.

Why It Matters

The decision reinforces the rigid threshold required under Texas property law to overturn settled probate orders. A statutory bill of review requires clear, conclusive demonstration of substantial legal error by the trial judge. Unsubstantiated wire confirmations sent to unverified accounts cannot disrupt titled real estate or intestate inheritance rights once an owner dies without a will.

The appellate justices concluded that undisputed testimony does not equal conclusive proof. Harmon and Ottavio failed to overturn the probate orders, leaving Peterson's heirs in uncontested possession of the Plano real estate as estate administration proceedings conclude.