Opinion ID: 2435790
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: case law and legislative history

Text: To consider the federal statutes we review their legal history. When perhaps a majority of the states held to the contrarythat military retirement benefits did not become property until it vestedwe held that military retirement and disability benefits earned during the marriage were community property subject to division upon divorce. Cearley v. Cearley, 544 S.W.2d 661, 666 (Tex. 1976); Busby v. Busby, 457 S.W.2d 551 (Tex. 1970); Herring v. Blakeley, 385 S.W.2d 843 (Tex.1965). We held that when the divorce decree did not divide the community military retirement benefits, the parties jointly owned them as tenants in common and that a partition suit was a proper remedy to divide these benefits after divorce. Harrell v. Harrell, 692 S.W.2d 876 (Tex.1985); Busby, 457 S.W.2d at 554. In 1981, the United States Supreme Court halted state suits to divide military nondisability retirement, whether by divorce suit, partition proceedings or otherwise. In this significant decision, the Court held that because of the government's interest in national defense, Congress intended that only the persons expressly specified, under the conditions set out in the military retirement statutes, could collect. The Court prohibited the division of military retirement benefits by state courts and further proscribed any adjustment in the award of other community property to offset the loss of these benefits. See McCarty v. McCarty, 453 U.S. 210, 101 S.Ct. 2728, 69 L.Ed.2d 589 (1981). In 1982, Congress responded to McCarty by enacting the Uniformed Services Former Spouses' Protection Act, Pub.L. No. 97-252, 96 Stat. 730 (codified as amended at 10 U.S.C. § 1408 (1983)). The purpose of this Act was to reverse McCarty `s effect and to once again allow state courts to treat retired pay of a spouse with military service as marital property subject to division under state law. Mansell v. Mansell, 490 U.S. 581, 584, 109 S.Ct. 2023, 2026, 104 L.Ed.2d 675 (1989); Grier v. Grier, 731 S.W.2d 931, 932 (Tex.1987); Cameron v. Cameron, 641 S.W.2d 210, 212 (Tex.1982). The Act used the day before the McCarty decision, June 25, 1981, to define which retirement pay period benefits could be divided under it. Effective November 5, 1990, Congress amended the Act. This time Congress sought to limit the power of state courts that were abusing the original Act. The amendment states: A court may not treat retired pay as property in any proceeding to divide or partition any amount of retired pay of a member as the property of the member and the member's spouse or former spouse if a final decree of divorce, dissolution, annulment, or legal separation ( including a court ordered, ratified, or approved property settlement incident to such decree ) affecting the member and the member's spouse or former spouse (A) was issued before June 25, 1981, and (B) did not treat (or reserve jurisdiction to treat) any amount of retired pay of the member as property of the member and the member's spouse or former spouse. 10 U.S.C. § 1408(c)(1)(emphasis added). Legislative history indicates that Congress did not intend for state courts to use the Former Spouses' Protection Act to reopen pre- McCarty divorces to divide military retirement benefits. A number of courts ... interpreted the law differently, and ... reopened pre- McCarty decisions in order to award a share of retired pay to former spouses. H.R. Rep. No. 923, 101st Cong., 2d Sess., v.6, at 609 (1990), U.S.Code Cong. & Admin. News 2931, 3166. Congress enacted the amendment to stop that practice. One report elaborated on this abuse: The committee is concerned because some state courts have been less than faithful in their adherence to the spirit of the law [Former Spouses' Protection Act]. The reopening of divorce cases finalized before the Supreme Court's decision in McCarty v. McCarty that did not divide retired pay continues to be a significant problem. Years after final divorce decrees have been issued, some state courts, particularly those in California, have reopened cases (through partition actions or otherwise) to award a share of retired pay. Although Congress has twice stated in report language that this result was not intended, the practice continues unabated. Such action is inconsistent with the notion that a final decree of divorce represents a final disposition of the marital estate. H.R. Rep. No. 665, 101st Cong., 2d Sess., v.6 at 279, reprinted in 1990 U.S.Code Cong. & Admin. News 2931, 3005. Our task is to apply the amendment to the Buys' property settlement agreement incorporated into the divorce decree.