Opinion ID: 2440422
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: the military retirement pay

Text: In awarding a fraction of Paul Cameron's military retirement pay to his wife, the trial court followed a number of Texas decisions approving such a division upon divorce. Taggart v. Taggart, 552 S.W.2d 422 (Tex.1977); Cearley v. Cearley, 544 S.W.2d 661 (Tex.1976); Busby v. Busby, 457 S.W.2d 551 (Tex.1970); Herring v. Blakeley, 385 S.W.2d 843 (Tex.1965). While this cause was on appeal, the United States Supreme Court held that the supremacy clause of the United States Constitution, article VI, precludes a state court from dividing military nondisability retirement pay on divorce. McCarty v. McCarty, 453 U.S. 210, 101 S.Ct. 2728, 69 L.Ed.2d 589 (1981). In the wake of McCarty, we held that the supremacy clause effectively foreclosed the division of military retirement benefits under Texas community property laws. Trahan v. Trahan, 626 S.W.2d 485, 487 (Tex.1981); see also In re Marriage of Jacanin, 124 Cal.App.3d 67, 177 Cal.Rptr. 86, 87-88 (Ct.App.1981); Dedon v. Dedon, 404 So.2d 904, 905 (La.1981); Hill v. Hill, 291 Md. 615, 436 A.2d 67, 70 (1981). Mrs. Cameron urged that we should remand the cause to afford the trial court an opportunity to increase her award from the community property as a means of offsetting her loss of thirty-five percent of the future retirement pay. The United States Supreme Court had also closed the door to that remedy. McCarty, 453 U.S. at 228-29 n. 22, 101 S.Ct. at 2739 n. 22; see also Hisquierdo v. Hisquierdo, 439 U.S. 572, 588, 99 S.Ct. 802, 811, 59 L.Ed.2d 1 (1979). On September 9, 1982, the President signed into law the Uniformed Services Former Spouses' Protection Act, Pub.L.No. 97-252, 96 Stat. 730 (1982). The purpose of the act was to reverse the effect of the McCarty decision. Under the act, a divorce court may divide military retirement pay between the spouses in accordance with the law of the jurisdiction of that court. The act limits such division of retirement pay to periods beginning after June 25, 1981. Id. § 1002(a) [to be codified at 10 U.S.C. § 1408(c)(1)]. Paul Cameron served in the military for more than nineteen years of his twenty-one and a half year marriage to Sue Cameron. Under the act, Sue Cameron is entitled to receive a portion of Paul Cameron's retirement pay. The divorce decree, dated March 29, 1979, awards Sue Cameron thirty-five percent (35%) of the gross present and future Military Retirement presently being received. Sue Cameron is entitled to recover that thirty-five percent, but not for the period from March 29, 1979 to June 25, 1981. Therefore, we affirm that part of the trial court judgment awarding Sue Cameron thirty-five percent of the military retirement pay, but only for the period beginning after June 25, 1981.