Air Force Ex-Wife Gets More Pension $ 12 Yrs After TN Divorce
Tennessee law case summary on post-divorce pension disputes in Tennessee divorce and family law from the Tennessee Court of Appeals.
Christina K. Deweese Richmond v. Gregory Alan Richmond – Tennessee pension law case
The Wife, Christina Richmond, and the Husband,Gregory Richmond divorced in June of 1999. In March of 2011, the Wife filed a motion to clarify the divorce degree. In the decree, the Wife was awarded one-half of the Husband’s retirement from the United States Air Force up until the date of the divorce. The Husband had not yet retired. The Husband retired in August of 2010, with 28 years of military service in total. Of that, 17 years were completed prior to the divorce.
The Wife sought an order to allow her to allow her to receive funds directly from the retirement account. The Trial court entered a Military Retired pay Division Order in June of 2011 holding inter alia the Wife’s award of 42.5 percent of the Husband’s disposable military retired pay. In July of 2011, it found that the Husband owes the Wife her property share of his retirement accruing from August of 2010 through June of 2011 for $4,915.90 less federal taxes. He was ordered to pay her $200 per month until he had paid the full sum. The Husband appealed this decision.
The Husband claimed the Wife did not have the ability to do this because she waited 12 years to file such claims. The trial court found that the Wife did not act in any negligent way in making her claims and that no willful failure to act was present. It denied the application of the unclean hands doctrine to the case. The appeals court agreed with this finding.
The Husband claimed the Wife waived her right to receive past payments by waiting this length of time. He claimed the Wife knew of her right to a portion of the funds from the dissolution agreement and that by neglecting and failing to act, she was waiving her rights. The appeals court disagreed with this noting that the Wife was not to receive funds until the Husband retired at some time in the future.
It stated that the Wife attempted to obtain her portion of the funds after the Husband’s retirement but that she could not do so under the current agreement. The Wife attempted to have the Husband sign documents to enable this but the Husband refused to sign such documents. She filed suit in March of 2011 to allow the transfer of the funds. As a result, it affirmed the lower court’s ruling in the case.
No. E2011-01687-COA-R3-CV, FILED MAY 7, 2012.
See original opinion for exact language. Legal citations omitted.
Memphis divorce lawyer, Miles Mason, Sr., JD, CPA practices family law exclusively and is founder of the Miles Mason Family Law Group, PLC, which handles Tennessee family law matters including divorce, child support, alimony, prenuptial agreements, child custody, parental relocation, child support modification, alimony modification, and divorces including business valuation and forensic accounting issues.
