Source: https://law.justia.com/cases/california/supreme-court/3d/13/457.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-24 09:58:04+00:00

Document:
Dewar, Romig & Anton and Roderick L. Dewar for Appellant.
On this appeal, we hold that a married serviceman's right to disability pay, unlike a vested right to retirement pay, does not comprise a community asset and thus does not become subject to division upon dissolution of the marriage. Such disability pay is not a form of deferred compensation for past services. Rather, it serves to compensate the veteran for the personal anguish caused by the permanent disability as well as for the loss of earnings resulting from his compelled premature military retirement and from diminished ability to compete in the civilian job market. These losses and disabilities fall upon the disabled spouse, not on the uninjured and healthy one; hence, upon dissolution of marriage, the right of the disabled spouse to future disability payment should be his separate property.
Respondent Herschel Jones entered military service in 1957. He married petitioner Sumiko Jones in 1964. In 1969, Herschel lost a leg in combat in Vietnam, and was retired for disability, with monthly disability pay of $379.12. When Sumiko filed suit for dissolution of the marriage in 1972, she claimed her husband's right to lifetime disability payments as a community asset. The superior court rejected that claim, ruling that payments received after dissolution would be the separate property of the husband. Since we agree with the superior court that Herschel's right to disability payments subsequent to dissolution is not a community asset, we affirm the judgment.
[1c] Disability pay, however, does not serve primarily as a form of deferred compensation for past services. Although longevity of service plays a role, the veteran's right to disability payments, and the amount of the payments, depend primarily on the existence and extent of the disability. Such payments serve to compensate the disabled veteran for the loss of military pay caused by his premature retirement and for his diminished ability to compete for civilian employment. (See Note (1973) 27 JAG J. 392, 400.) So long as the marriage subsists, the veteran's reduced earnings works a loss to the community. But such community loss does not continue after dissolution; at that point the earnings or accumulations of each party are the separate property of such party. (Civ. Code, § 5119.) Then any diminution in earning capacity becomes the separate loss of the disabled spouse.
Disability payments serve a second purpose. We have suggested supra that they compensate the veteran for the pain, suffering, disfigurement and the misfortune caused by his disability. Pain, suffering, disfigurement or the loss of a limb, as here, is the peculiar anguish of the person who suffers it; it can never be wholly shared even by a loving spouse and surely not after the dissolution of a marriage by a departed one.
Disability pay, consequently, compares to compensation for personal injury rather than to retirement pay. fn. 5 The right of an injured spouse to such compensation, under California law, is not a community asset, and thus not subject to division upon dissolution of the marriage. Although compensation actually recovered during the marriage is community property (Zaragosa v. Craven (1949) 33 Cal. 2d 315, 320-321 [202 P.2d 73, [13 Cal. 3d 463] 6 A.L.R.2d 461]), we held in Washington v. Washington (1956) 47 Cal. 2d 249 [302 P.2d 569] that a cause of action for personal injuries which had not been reduced to judgment at the date of divorce became the separate property of the injured spouse.
Since disability pay serves primarily to compensate the disabled serviceman for current suffering and lost earning capacity, we conclude that only such payments as are received during the marriage constitute a community asset. The veteran's right to payments subsequent to dissolution is his separate and personal right.
Wright, C. J., McComb, J., Mosk, J., Sullivan, J., Clark, J., and Burke, J., concurred.
"(iii) the disability was incurred in line of duty in time of war or national emergency."
"The monthly retired pay of a person entitled thereto under this subtitle is computed according to the following table. For each case covered by a section of this title named in the column headed 'For sections', retired pay is computed by taking, in order, the steps prescribed opposite it in columns 1, 2, 3, and 4 .... However, if a person would otherwise be entitled to retired pay computed under more than one pay formula of this table or of any other provision of law, he is entitled to be paid under the applicable formula that is most favorable to him. Section references are to sections of this title.
FN 3. A disabled veteran may also be entitled to a Veteran's Administration pension or other benefits pursuant to part II of title 38 of the United States Code.
FN 4. Sumiko relies upon decisions of the Texas courts holding that, under Texas community property law, a veteran's right to disability pay is a community asset. (Busby v. Busby (Tex. 1970) 457 S.W.2d 551, 553-554; Dominey v. Dominey (Tex.Civ.App. 1972) 481 S.W.2d 473, 475-476; but cf. Ramsey v. Ramsey (Tex.Civ.App. 1971) 474 S.W.2d 939 (Veterans' Administration pension held separate property).) In both Busby and Dominey, however, the veteran receiving disability pay had completed 20 years of service and thus acquired a vested right to retirement pay (see 10 U.S.C. §§ 1201, 1401), which right, a community asset, he waived in return for a disability pension.
Interpreting the quoted language as declaring that Veteran's Administration pensions are a community asset, Sumiko argues by analogy that a retired serviceman's right to disability pay should be classed as a community asset. Fithian, however, held only that a vested retirement pension based upon longevity of service is a community asset; the classification of disability pensions, whether pursuant to title 10 or under Veteran's Administration programs, was not an issue before the Fithian court. Upon confronting that issue in the present case, we have concluded that such pensions, payable to a serviceman who has not acquired a vested right to retirement pay on a longevity basis, do not constitute a community asset.
FN 6. In Zaragosa v. Craven (1949) 33 Cal. 2d 315, 321-322 [202 P.2d 73, 6 A.L.R.2d 461], the court held that a wife's cause of action for personal injuries arising during the marriage is community property, and consequently barred by the contributory negligence of her husband. To overcome the injustice arising from the imputation of contributory negligence between husband and wife, the Legislature in 1957 enacted Civil Code section 163.5, which provided that all personal injuries damages were the separate property of the injured spouse. This rule, in turn, proved unsatisfactory (see 8 Cal. Law Revision Com. Rep. (1966) pp. 427-433), and in 1968 the Legislature amended section 163.5 to restore the community property status of personal injury damages recovered during the marriage and enacted section 169.3 to provide that damages received after dissolution are the separate property of the injured spouse. This time the Legislature met the problem of imputed contributory negligence head on, enacting Civil Code section 164.6 to bar imputation of contributory negligence between husband and wife. Sections 163.5, 164.4, and 169.3 were reenacted, as Civil Code sections 5109, 5112, and 5126 respectively, in the 1969 Family Law Act (Civ. Code, § 4000 et seq.).
FN 7. In arguing that section 5126 is limited to damages for tortious injury, petitioner relies on Northwestern R. Co. v. Industrial Acc. Com. (1920) 184 Cal. 484, 486 [194 P. 31] and Estate of Simoni (1963) 220 Cal. App. 2d 339, 344 [33 Cal. Rptr. 845], which held that workmen's compensation disability benefits were community property. Both cases, however, dealt with benefits received during the marriage. No decisions have determined whether an employee's right to future workmen's compensation benefits constitutes a community asset subject to division upon dissolution of the marriage.

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