Court Opinion

ID: 9754726
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 20:11:12.028678+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:27:56.878307
License: Public Domain

NANCY STEFFEN RAHMEYER,
Chief Judge, dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. As noted in the majority opinion, a trial court has a duty to render judgment in accordance with the mandate of the appellate court, as read in conjunction with the opinion filed in the case and in accordance with any direction set out therein. As stated in In re Cranor, 78 S.W.3d 150 (Mo.App. S.D.2002) (“Cra-nor I ”), if husband had taken an immediate retirement, Wife would be entitled to a portion of those benefits as marital property because they would be a form of deferred compensation funded by money earned during the parties’ marriage. Id. at 155. The opinion also states that if husband and wife had accumulated funds in almost any other type of retirement account from income earned during their marriage, such funds would be subject to distribution as marital property. Husband *227contributed almost $45,000 to his retirement fund through payroll deductions and the entire amount was earned during the marriage. Id. at 154. The entire amount was contributed during the thirty-year marriage of the parties. Id. at 152. Clearly, Husband’s retirement benefits are marital property. Id. Both the retirement annuity and the disability annuity are funded by the employee’s contribution, all of which were clearly marital property. Id. at 154.
Husband sought to circumvent Wife’s right to retirement benefits in the declaration that the disability benefits were actually deferred compensation for future services, rather than deferred compensation for past services. The weakness of that argument is that, even absent the disability finding and payment, if Husband had quit his job, he still would have been entitled to an retirement annuity based on his length of service with his employer; the only question would be at what age and what amount that annuity would have been. It is settled law that even if a person is not entitled to take immediate retirement, the deferred compensation earned during the marriage is marital property. Doss v. Doss, 822 S.W.2d 427, 428 (Mo. banc 1992): Kuchta v. Kuchta, 636 S.W.2d 663, 665-67 (Mo. banc 1982); Williams v. Williams, 17 S.W.3d 559, 562 (Mo.App. E.D.1999).
If Husband is found not to have a disabling condition, or if he chooses or is forced to take the very same amount of the annuity as retirement income rather than disability income, then by this ruling, Wife will have been foreclosed from any portion of what is clearly marital property without the benefit of the court doing any analysis under section 452.330 or the benefit of an appeal from that analysis.1 It would not be unusual for the court to fashion an order that divides future deferred compensation. Courts routinely enter orders intended to be qualified domestic relations orders for deferred retirement benefits. See § 452.330; Brooks v. Brooks, 98 S.W.3d 530, 531 (Mo. banc 2003); Ricketts v. Ricketts, 113 S.W.3d 255 (Mo.App. W.D. 2003); Novak v. Novak, 83 S.W.3d 597, 599-601 (Mo.App. E.D.2002).
I believe that both the mandate and the opinion indicated that the trial court was to find that the portion of income from the disability retirement was nonmarital property; however, the portion that would have been Husband’s retirement income was marital property subject to division. In fact our opinion states, “the majority of Husband’s retirement benefits stem from marital funds and are intended to compensate him for past services. Therefore, that portion of the benefits should have been subject to division as marital property.” Cranor I, 78 S.W.3d at 156. The trial court skirted that obligation by finding it all marital property — contrary to our opinion and mandate.
As the majority opinion noted, the earliest that Husband would have been eligible to retire was at age 55 with 30 years of service, or at age 60 with 20 years of service. Husband was 50 at the time of the dissolution. At some time in the near future, it is reasonable to assume that the money husband receives is not for current wages, but for his past services to the Postal Services. Twenty-nine years of those services were during the marriage.
Given the resolution in Cranor I of affirming the denial of maintenance and the *228property distribution, at this juncture I am unwilling to find that a distribution to Husband of the entire $351,812 is an equitable distribution of marital property. The pri- or mandate of this court simply allowed the trial court to divide the marital property in accordance with the factors set forth in section 452.830.1. I believe the majority opinion unfairly narrows the mandate without consideration of the total opinion of Cranor I and I, therefore, respectfully dissent.

. I have not addressed the issue of whether I would find that the disability income in this particular situation is in fact marital property because that issue has not been presented on this appeal. Nevertheless, I believe that issue deserves further scrutiny given the character of the marital property used to fund both the disability and the retirement income.