TN Couple Can Divide Military Disability Benefit in Settlement

Tennessee case summary on military disability benefit division in divorce.

Angeli Chan Selitsch v. Michael John Selitsch

The husband and wife in this Tennessee divorce case married in 1989.  The husband retired from the military in 2009 with a 100% disability.  The wife filed for divorce in 2012.  In 2013, they agreed to division of the property, and there was a court hearing at which both testified as to their understanding and approval of the agreement.  It called for the husband to receive all of his VA disability benefits, with the wife receiving half of the husband’s other retirement benefit.  The court approved this agreement and made its final order.

The husband later came back to court to set aside the agreement due to lack of capacity and mistake.  He alleged that a federal law prohibits a court from treating a disability benefit as marital property.  He also asserted that he lacked capacity to make the agreement due to the pain and stress of his disease and medication.  The trial court denied this motion, and the husband then appealed to the Tennessee Court of Appeals.

The appeals court first addressed the lack of capacity issue.  The husband had offered evidence from his physician, who testified that persons with multiple sclerosis have flare ups, and that the husband had been receiving pain medications.  The physician testified that the husband could have been suffering from reduced capacity at the time of the settlement.

While sympathetic, the trial judge stated that he had come away from the settlement hearing with a belief that both parties had understood the agreement.  Especially because the physician testified that he had no knowledge of the husband’s exact condition at the time of the hearing, the trial court had ruled that the husband had capacity when he agreed to the settlement.

The appeals court agreed.  Even though it acknowledged that he suffered from diminished capacity at times, the appeals court concluded that the husband was able to understand the nature and ramifications of the hearing.

The court then turned to the issue of mutual mistake as to the divisibility of the military pension.  It examined the federal law and concluded that even though the court cannot reach some types of military benefits, spouses are still able to contractually agree as to how the money will be distributed, as happened in this case.  Since the agreement was not in violation of federal law, then the parties were not mistaken when they agreed that it could be divided.  Therefore, there was no mutual mistake in reaching the agreement.

For these reasons, the Court of Appeals affirmed the judgment of the lower court.

No. M2014-00905-COA-R3-CV (Tenn. Ct. App. Oct. 14, 2015).

See original opinion for exact language.  Legal citations omitted.

To learn more, see Property Division in Tennessee Divorce.