Jones v. Jones, 84-SC-166-TG
| Decision Date | 06 December 1984 |
| Docket Number | No. 84-SC-166-TG,84-SC-166-TG |
| Citation | 680 S.W.2d 921 |
| Parties | James William JONES, Movant/Appellant, v. Patricia Ann JONES, Respondent/Appellee. |
| Court | United States State Supreme Court — District of Kentucky |
William R. Meredith, Harrodsburg, for movant/appellant.
Paula M. Raines, Lexington, for respondent/appellee.
The principal question presented on this appeal is whether military retirement benefits are marital property. The trial court entered judgment in a divorce action dividing military retirement benefits between the parties. We granted transfer and affirm the judgment of the trial court.
Shortly after the marriage of the parties in 1956, James Jones joined the Air Force and retired in 1976 after twenty-years' service with monthly benefits of $1,251.60. The parties separated in 1981 and were divorced in 1983. The trial court adjudged that Patricia Jones should have 50 percent of the net retirement for her lifetime or until the death of James Jones, whichever first occurs.
As background to this proposition, the United States Supreme Court in McCarty v. McCarty, 453 U.S. 210, 101 S.Ct. 2728, 69 L.Ed.2d 589 (1981), effectively closed the door on varied approaches to this problem by the various states. The Court, after reviewing the legislative history of the military retirement pay system, held that:
"...
The opinion further determined that the Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution requires that all states follow the interpretation of military retirement pay as non-marital property.
Congress then in 1982 enacted legislation, Title 10, § 1408(c)(1) of the United States Code, effective in February 1983, which relates to retirement pay and provides in pertinent part:
"Subject to the limitations of this section, a court may treat disposable retired or retainer pay payable to a member for pay periods beginning after June 25, 1981, either as property solely of the member or as property of the member and his spouse in accordance with the law of the jurisdiction of such court."
This legislation nullified McCarty and left this issue to the states.
We are of the opinion that in the absence of a statute to the contrary, military retirement pay should be treated as marital...
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