Court Opinion

ID: 9710317
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 04:06:43.049817+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:21:50.109341
License: Public Domain

Mr. JUSTICE TRAPP, dissenting: The very terms of the principal opinion contradict the concepts of the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act, section 503(c) (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1977, ch. 40, par. 503(c)), providing for the division of marital property when it states: “[Sjince the pay is a personal entitlement payable to the retired member himself as long as he lives, no part of the pay should pass to the former wife’s estate should she predecease him.” 70 Ill. App. 3d 706, 709. That provision is rationally inconsistent and unmanageable, for if upon remand the trial court awarded to the wife a greater share of undisputed marital property to theoretically balance or compensate for the retirement pay anticipated after the dissolution of the marriage, under the language it would become necessary to return the compensating quantum of property so awarded to the husband upon the death of the wife. If, as the quoted portion of the opinion suggests, it is contemplated . that the trial court may order distribution when the husband receives the payments, as was done in Kruger v. Kruger (1977), 73 N.J. 464, 375 A.2d 659, we return to a provision for permanent periodic alimony which appears to be contrary to the legislative concept of maintenance as stated in section 504 of the Act. Section 503(a)(3) (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1977, ch. 40, par. 503(a)(3)) specifically provides that “property” acquired after a judgment of legal separation shall be “non-marital” property. It does not appear to be contended that the husband has any right to installments of retirement pay which have not been received. There is no suggestion of contribution to the retirement pay by either party and no evidence of a contractual right as might be found in some forms of compensation plans. The opinion quotes Ellis v. Ellis (Colo. 1976), 552 P.2d 506, in which that supreme court determined that military retirement pay is not property because it lacks “cash surrender value; loan value; redemption value; lump sum value; and value realizable after death.” The opinion cites Berkey v. United States (Ct. Cl. 1966), 361 F.2d 983, as authority for stating that military retirement pay is “an earned right.” That opinion was solely concerned with retirement pay accumulated and withheld while the veteran was hospitalized as an incompetent, and the statement concerning the “property right” was directed to the issue of the distribution of the accumulated pay following the death of the veteran. In Savage v. Savage (Ind.App. 1978), 374 N.E.2d 536, the trial court purporting to act under the Dissolution of Marriage Act, awarded the wife a portion of monthly pension payments which “does not give a right of lump sum payment,” but was limited to periodic payments under a defined plan in which receipt of payments was contingent upon survival of the beneficiary. The reviewing court found such an award to be in error, saying: “[A]n actual award under the property settlement must consist of assets in which the parties have a vested present interest which is sufficient to qualify the asset as marital property.” (374 N.E.2d 536, 540.) That court concluded that the property did not so qualify. In Wilcox v. Wilcox (Ind.App. 1977), 365 N.E.2d 792, the husband had become a tenured professor. The wife contended that his future salary as such a professor until retirement should be discounted to present value and divided as marital property. The Indiana Statute for the division of marital property is substantially similar to the provisions of the Illinois Statute. The court stated: “When determining what is to be divided there is nothing in the statute which lends itself to the interpretation that future income is ‘property’ and therefore divisible. It appears that a vested present interest must exist for the item to come within the ambit of ‘marital assets’. We cannot say that Gerald has a vested present interest in his future earnings and the legislature cannot be said to have considered it as such. $ « « To allow the discounting of a future stream of income to be called ‘property’ runs contra to the statutory provisions forbidding maintenance without a showing of incapacitation. Regardless of the label attached to an award above the value of the marital assets, its true nature would shine through as maintenance.” 365 N.E.2d 792, 795. The provisions of section 503(a) and 503(c) of the Act (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1977, ch. 40, pars. 503(a), 503(c)) reflect that the legislature did not intend to create or adopt the concepts of community property. There is no apparent reason why this court should attempt to integrate the case precedents of community property jurisdiction into this Act and in effect, legislate that which the legislature did not do. I would affirm the trial court.