Opinion ID: 20895
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Participant Annuity

Text: 40 Regarding Janice's insistence that, following Jack's death, the Plan continue making monthly payments of $302 to her, the district court correctly determined that (1) the domestic relations order granted to Janice by the state court nowhere clearly states that she would continue to receive such payments after Jack's death (presumably for the remainder of her lifetime), and (2) had that domestic relations order contained such a provision as to Jack's participant annuity ---- as distinct from the surviving spouse annuity ---- it could not (or at least should not) have been recognized as a QDRO. On the first point, any fair reading of the words of Janice's domestic relations order confirms that it did nothing more or less than carve a $302 portion out of Jack's $623 monthly benefit under his lifetime participant's annuity. Nowhere in the QDRO is a reference to Janice's payments modified by for life or for her lifetime or any other such phrase. Her payments had to be co-terminus with his which, by definition, ceased as of his death. This expectation is confirmed by its obverse: Under one express provision of her QDRO, Janice's death before Jack's would not have terminated her $302 monthly payments; rather, following her death the $302 payments would have continued, month after month, until his death, and would have been paid either to her designated successor or to her estate, i.e., her heirs or legatees. 25 41 Janice's domestic relations order specifies that she shall receive payment from[the pension plan] of Participant, Jack Lee Dorn.... The only benefit that Jack had under the Plan was a QJ&SA which comprised (1) his lifetime annuity (which was not, as in some commercial products, payable for as long as either spouse lived), and (2) the survivor's pension, i.e., the surviving spouse annuity, equal to 50% of the Participant's lifetime pension. As already noted, the surviving spouse annuity is not addressed anywhere in the subject domestic relations order, and Janice has not expressly demanded any part of it. 42 In conclusion, we agree completely with the district court: 43 The pension benefit component [of Jack's QJ&SA] in which [Janice] did receive payments, terminated upon the death of the participant. The survivor's annuity is the only benefit currently payable under the [Plan]. It vested in [Jack's] current wife on the date he became eligible for benefits.