Opinion ID: 2293705
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Marital Portion of Robert's Military Pension

Text: [¶ 15] A court's determination that a retirement benefit or account, or a part thereof, is marital or nonmarital property is reviewed for clear error. Murphy v. Murphy, 2003 ME 17, ¶ 20, 816 A.2d 814. However, we review the application of the law to the facts de novo. Warren v. Warren, 2005 ME 9, ¶ 20, 866 A.2d 97. [¶ 16] A state divorce court is permitted to treat military retirement benefits as property that is divisible upon divorce. Black v. Black, 2004 ME 21, ¶¶ 5, 8, 842 A.2d 1280. In this case, the trial court applied a time formula to determine the marital portion of Robert's military benefit, ordering that the marital portion of the benefit will be calculated by dividing the number of years of creditable service during the marriage, though without finding how many years that is, into the total number of years of creditable service at the time Robert retires. This is a common method for calculating the marital portion of retirement benefits that accumulate based solely on time in employment, but it is not the proper method for determining the marital portion of a military retirement benefit that will include both active duty service and reserve duty service. [¶ 17] Pursuant to statute, military retirement benefits for reservists are based on the total number of points that the service member accumulates. 10 U.S.C.S. §§ 12733, 12739 (1998 & Supp.2011); see Dew v. United States, 192 F.3d 366, 369 (2d Cir.1999) (Members of the Ready Reserve. . . receive points toward military retirement benefits.). The benefit that the service member will receive is the product of the base pay for the rank achieved at retirement and two-and-one-half percent of the points representing the years of service credited. Barr v. Barr, 418 N.J.Super. 18, 11 A.3d 875, 885 (N.J.Super.Ct.App.Div.2011) (citing 10 U.S.C.S. § 12739). [2] [¶ 18] Retirement points can be earned in different ways. Reservists receive one point per day of active service and fifteen points per year for membership in a reserve component of the armed forces. 10 U.S.C.S. § 12732(a)(2)(A), (C) (1998 & Supp.2011). Additional points are accrued based on the completion of certain training or instruction, attendance at drills, and funeral honors duty. 10 U.S.C.S. § 12732(a)(2) (1998 & Supp.2011). [¶ 19] For a reservist, retirement points do not accrue based solely on the length of service. Instead, points accrue based on the nature and frequency of duties and service. 10 U.S.C.S. §§ 12732-12733 (1998 & Supp.2011); see Faulkner v. Goldfuss, 46 P.3d 993, 1003 & n. 35 (Alaska 2002); Woodson v. Saldana, 165 Md.App. 480, 885 A.2d 907, 910 (2005). Depending on how active a reservist is, the reservist could accumulate more points before marriage than are accumulated during marriage, even though the reservist has spent more calendar time as a married reservist than as an unmarried one. Bloomer v. Bloomer, 927 S.W.2d 118, 120 (Tex.App. 1996). Accordingly, as one court has observed: Use of a simple years of service computation rather than recognition of the point system will, in some situations, lead to inequitable conclusions. The greatest potential for distortion of the marital share of the benefit occurs in situations where the member of the military retirement system switches from regular component to reserve component service. In re Marriage of Beckman, 800 P.2d 1376, 1379-80 (Colo.App.1990). [¶ 20] In a situation in which military retirement benefits are earned entirely while the service member is on active duty, application of the common time rule is appropriate. See Hasselback v. Hasselback, 2007 Ohio 762, ¶¶ 13-14, 2007 WL 549461 (Ohio Ct.App.2007); Bloomer, 927 S.W.2d at 120 & n. 3. However, when, as here, a service member will earn a military pension through a combination of active and reserve duty, courts must calculate the marital share of retirement benefits based on the accrual of retirement points. [¶ 21] Other courts considering this issue have reached the same conclusion. See Hasselback, 2007 Ohio 762, ¶¶ 8-14, 2007 WL 549461 (holding that in an instance such as this where the value of the retirement benefit is not directly related to the length of employment, but rather is dependent on the number of points earned during service, the coverture fraction should be modified to reflect the number of points earned during the marriage and the total number of points earned; to base the calculation solely on years of service does not lead to an equitable conclusion in a situation where retirement is earned from a combination of reserve and active duty); accord Faulkner, 46 P.3d at 1003 & n. 35; In re Marriage of Poppe, 97 Cal.App.3d 1, 158 Cal.Rptr. 500, 503-04 (1979) (concluding that the basis upon which the apportionment was made, years of service during the marriage before separation compared to `qualifying' years in service, bears no substantial rational relationship to the amount of the pension for a service member who served on active duty before and after the date of marriage, then joined the reserves); see also Woodson, 885 A.2d at 913-14. [¶ 22] Accordingly, the divorce court erred when it determined the marital portion of Robert's military retirement benefits using a time-based rule rather than a point-accrual-based rule. See Faulkner, 46 P.3d at 1003 & n. 35; Hasselback, 2007 Ohio 762, ¶¶ 13-14, 2007 WL 549461. On remand, the court must make a factual finding as to the total number of military points that Robert earned during the marriage. The court must then order that the marital portion of Robert's military retirement benefit will be calculated at the time of Robert's retirement by dividing the number of retirement points that Robert earned during the marriage (the numerator), as found by the court, by the total number of retirement points that Robert earns as of the date of his retirement from military service (the denominator). Finally, the court must state how the marital portion of the retirement benefit will be divided as between the parties.