Opinion ID: 1781943
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Vesting of Rights

Text: The Court needs to address vesting in conjunction with the divesting of title to realty or personalty. This Court has held that a vested interest in a military retirement pension plan is a marital asset; however, the spouse has no vested right in the serviceman's military retirement pension. Southern v. Glenn, 568 So.2d 281, 283 n. 1 (Miss. 1990); Bowe v. Bowe, 557 So.2d 793, 795 (Miss. 1990). As to the division of marital assets, this Court stated in Brown, 574 So.2d at 691 (citations omitted), that marital assets are not a source of vested rights. This Court stated: The matter rather is committed to the discretion and conscience of the Court, having in mind all of the equities and other relevant facts and circumstances. (citations omitted) ... the term vested [] has no hard edged definition, no fixed and invariable legal meaning. Vested means different things in different contexts. (Citations omitted) ... vesting is quite different from a rule of discretion which allows a chancery court, incident to a divorce, to consider the relevant facts and circumstances and, where it is equitable and just to recognize a party's contributions to the accumulation of jointly held assets, to decree an equitable division. Brown, 574 So.2d at 691. This Court adheres to the above principle that no right to property vests by virtue of the marriage relationship alone prior to entry of a judgment or decree granting equitable or other distribution pursuant to dissolution of the marriage. Thus the rights of alienation and the laws of descent and distribution are not affected by our recognition of marital assets. For the Court's definition of marital assets, see Hemsley v. Hemsley , decided July 7, 1994, 639 So.2d 909.