Court Opinion

ID: 9790991
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 02:02:40.130161+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:37:32.994303
License: Public Domain

BAKES, Justice,
concurring specially:
The Court’s opinion affirms the district court’s ruling that the military disability payments received after divorce are the separate property of the appellant, and that the remaining retirement benefits earned during the marriage are community property. This case is being remanded to the trial court only to consider, with additional evidence if necessary, whether a non-equal *129distribution of the community property may be “just.” The division of the community property is within the discretion of the trial court, and a non-equal distribution, while not required by this opinion, might be used to avoid “substantial injustice in some cases,” assuming that such a practice would not constitute an “offset” prohibited by federal law. See Hisquierdo v. Hisquierdo, 439 U.S. 572, 99 S.Ct. 802, 59 L.Ed.2d 1 (1979). See also 10 U.S.C.A. § 1408(a)(4) (statute effectively overruling McCarty does not apply to disability pay).