Robinson v. Robinson

• Decision Date: 17 January 2001
• Docket Number: No. 99-C-3097.,99-C-3097.
• Citation: 778 So.2d 1105
• Parties: June Coleman, Wife of Leslie Leon ROBINSON, Jr. v. Leslie Leon ROBINSON, Jr.
• Court: Louisiana Supreme Court

778 So.2d 1105

June Coleman, Wife of Leslie Leon ROBINSON, Jr. v. Leslie Leon ROBINSON, Jr.

No. 99-C-3097.

Supreme Court of Louisiana.

January 17, 2001.

Opinion on Rehearing Denied March 16, 2001.

Richard A. Hinckley, Philip Riegel, New Orleans and Terri L. Young, Counsel for Applicant.

Chris Troy, Terence L. Hauver, Lowe, Stein, Hoffman, Allweiss & Hauver, New Orleans; Marynell L. Piglia, New Orleans, Counsel for Respondent.

JOHNSON, J.¹

We granted writ of certiorari in this case to determine whether an agreement to partition community property must be construed using North Carolina law, as provided in the contract, or whether Louisiana has a more compelling interest in applying its own law. We also address whether a husband is obligated to designate his former wife as beneficiary of the survivor's annuity once his obligation to pay alimony has terminated. After a considered review of the record, applicable law, and both Louisiana and North Carolina jurisprudence, we reverse the decisions of the lower courts and remand.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Plaintiff, June Coleman, and defendant, Leslie L. Robinson, Jr., were married on June 30, 1955. Mr. Robinson was employed by the federal government as an administrative law judge and was transferred on several occasions. The parties were domiciled in the states of Wyoming, Texas, California and Virginia for various periods of their marriage, but spent the majority of their marriage in Louisiana. When the parties separated in January of 1986 they had been living in Louisiana since 1978. Ms. Coleman filed a Petition for Separation based on abandonment in the Orleans Parish Civil District Court on February 14, 1986 and a judgment was rendered in her favor on March 26, 1986. It was at this point that their community of acquets and gains was terminated. The parties divided the movables manually and sold the former matrimonial domicile. The revenue from that sale was equally divided between them. There was never an itemization of any assets or liabilities, and no values were ever assigned to any property in the partition.

Mr. Robinson subsequently established a residence in North Carolina, while Ms. Coleman remained in Louisiana. In December of 1986, Mr. Robinson filed for divorce in the Orleans Parish Civil District Court. After months of correspondence between the parties, it became clear that Ms. Coleman was hesitant to move to final judgment. In a letter dated April 24, 1987, addressed to Ms. Coleman, Mr. Robinson wrote:

After talking to you today I have given a good deal of thought to the difficulty in getting this divorce finalized. I realize you do not want to have to go to Court and do this and I suppose I understand that. At the same time, I do not want to have to return to New Orleans in order to get it done.... Therefore in order to give you an alternative, I have contacted an attorney here who is willing to handle the matter. He is going to file a divorce action here and forward the papers to your attorney. You will not need to do anything other than sign a few papers. The property settlement and alimony settlements will remain the same and will be attached to the judgment [sic].

Instead of pursuing the Louisiana divorce to a conclusion, Mr. Robinson filed for divorce in Mecklenberg County, North Carolina and obtained a default judgment on July 20, 1987. Robinson v. Robinson, No. 87-5782, slip op. (N.C. Dist.Ct. 1987). One month after the judgment, the parties entered into the Separation, Support, and Property Settlement Agreement ("Agreement") drafted by North Carolina counsel for Mr. Robinson.² Unlike the previous "New Orleans draft," the Agreement did not mention any community property which previously had been divided between the parties and substituted North Carolina law for Louisiana law to control the agreement.³ The Agreement contained the following relevant provisions:

Paragraph 3.

The Wife, for herself, her heirs, executors, administrators, and assigns, hereby releases and relinquishes unto the Husband, his heirs, executors, administrators, and assigns, all right of future support, all right of dower, inheritance, descent, and distribution, and right to dissent from his will, and any and all other rights arising out of their marriage relationship, and to any and all property or interest in property, real, personal, and mixed, now owned or hereafter acquired by Husband, and hereby agrees that Husband henceforth may acquire, hold, manage, alienate, lease, and convey his property without her knowledge, further consent, or joinder, in accordance with the provisions of law, the same as if she never had been married to him, and further does hereby release, relinquish, and renounce any and all right to administer upon his estate.

* * *

Paragraph 7.

Husband and Wife have accomplished a complete liquidation and division of their property in full settlement of all of their property rights, whether arising out of the equitable distribution statute (N.C.G.S. 50-20, etc.) or under the community of acquets and gains laws in the State of Louisiana, or any other provision of the law of any other jurisdiction, statutory or otherwise, and hereby ratify the division of such property, and agree that the same amounts to an equitable division of their property.

* * *

Paragraph 13.

This Agreement shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of North Carolina. This agreement shall continue in full force and effect even though one of the parties hereto may secure an absolute divorce from the other party subject only to the contingencies and limitations specifically enumerated herein.

Following the signing of the Agreement, the parties' legal relationship ended without further contact concerning the community. Ms. Coleman remarried in 1988 and Mr. Robinson remarried in 1989. Mr. Robinson retired in December, 1992 and began receiving his retirement benefits in 1993. Under the pension plan, his present wife is the designated beneficiary of the survivor benefits. In December of 1993, defendant filed a complaint in the North Carolina court seeking a declaratory judgment that plaintiff had no rights in his pension benefits. The complaint was dismissed by the North Carolina trial court for lack of personal jurisdiction, and affirmed by the North Carolina Court of Appeals. Robinson v. Hinckley, 119 N.C.App. 434, 458 S.E.2d 715 (1995).

On January 18, 1994, Ms. Coleman filed a Petition for Supplemental Partition, seeking a division of her former husband's pension benefits that were not partitioned in the property settlement. She followed her original petition with supplemental petitions seeking: (1)enforcement of the provision of the agreement in which defendant agreed to designate plaintiff as recipient of the survivor benefit, plus attorney's fees provided for in the agreement; and (2) a determination that defendant's actions and silence amounted to fraud, bad faith, and a breach of fiduciary duty, entitling plaintiff to damages and attorney fees and, alternatively, to a recision of the partition based on fraud. Mr. Robinson answered the petition and filed a Motion for Declaratory Judgment, Motion for Summary Judgment, and a Memorandum in Support for Summary Judgment.

A hearing was held in Civil District Court on December 1 and December 2, 1997, on the Motions for Declaratory Judgment and Summary Judgment filed by defendant and plaintiffs demand for supplemental partition. On December 15, 1997, the trial court rendered judgment in favor of the defendant, granting his Motion for Declaratory Judgment. The court found that "North Carolina governs any and all issues involving the Separation, Support, and Property Settlement Agreement (`Agreement') executed by the parties on August 27, 1987." On February 5, 1998, the trial court rendered judgment with reasons, dismissing plaintiff's petition for supplemental partition with prejudice.⁴ Plaintiff filed a Motion for New Trial that was argued on March 25, 1998. Ms. Coleman argued that the court failed to rule on her request for enforcement of the agreement with respect to the survivor's annuity. On April 1, 1998, the court rendered an amended judgment that denied Ms. Coleman's petition.

Ms. Coleman appealed to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal. Coleman v. Robinson, 98-1874 (La.App. 4 Cir. 9/1/99), 746 So.2d 65. The court of appeal affirmed the ruling of the trial judge, finding that "[t]he contractual choice of law is expressly set forth in the agreement. By the clear and unambiguous language of the Separation, Support, and Property Settlement Agreement, the parties agreed that North Carolina law would apply to the interpretation of the agreement." Accordingly, the court of appeal concluded that the trial court did not err in determining that North Carolina law controlled the agreement, nor did it err in its construction and application of North Carolina law. The court of appeal upheld the decision denying supplemental partition of defendant's pension plan. The court also denied plaintiff relief on her claim seeking to have defendant name her as beneficiary of his annuity because the court reasoned, "the purpose of Mr. Robinson having to choose Option B was to provide his former wife with some sort of income to replace the alimony she would lose should he predecease her. When plaintiff remarried, however, defendant was no longer required to chose Option B of the retirement plan." Finally, the court of appeal upheld the trial court's finding that there was no fraud, bad faith, or breach of duty on the part of Mr. Robinson. Judge Katz, dissenting, would have reversed the decision of the trial court as it relates to the partition of the federal pension benefits.

Plaintiff seeks review of this decision and assigns four errors. They are:

1. The lower courts erred in giving effect to the North Carolina choice of law provision in the agreement and further erred in their construction and

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