Court Opinion

ID: 9850421
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 04:56:57.683557+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:20:36.847948
License: Public Domain

OPINION FEDERICI, Justice. This case is before us pursuant to a writ of certiorari granted to review the opinion of the Court of Appeals. The facts, law and result reached by the Court of Appeals are set forth in its opinion of December 12, 1985, 104 N.M. 85, 717 P.2d 61, and we direct that the Court of Appeals opinion be published with this opinion. In its opinion, the Court of Appeals held that the rule established in LeClert v. LeClert, 80 N.M. 235, 453 P.2d 755 (1969) has been reinstated. We agree with the Court of Appeals but we write this opinion to clarify the application of LeClert. In LeClert, we held that military retirement pay was community property. Our subsequent opinions concerning the community aspect of retirement pay were based on the LeClert rule. See, e.g., Copeland v. Copeland, 91 N.M. 409, 575 P.2d 99 (1978); Hughes v. Hughes, 91 N.M. 339, 573 P.2d 1194 (1978); Otto v. Otto, 80 N.M. 331, 455 P.2d 642 (1969). However, in 1981, the United States Supreme Court in McCarty v. McCarty, 453 U.S. 210, 101 S.Ct. 2728, 69 L.Ed.2d 589 (1981) held that nondisability military retirement pay was not community property. In Espinda v. Espinda, 96 N.M. 712, 634 P.2d 1264 (1981), we held that McCarty effectively overruled LeClert and its progeny which held that military retirement pay was community property. In Whenry v. Whenry, 98 N.M. 737, 652 P.2d 1188 (1982), we refused to apply either McCarty or Espinda retroactively to those judgments based on LeClert which became final before McCarty. In 1982, Congress enacted the Uniformed Services Former Spouses’ Protection Act. 10 U.S.C. § 1408 (1982). Section 1408(c)(1) permits the states to treat military disposable retirement or retainer pay either as separate or community property after June 25, 1981. Several months later, in Walentowski v. Walentowski, 100 N.M. 484, 672 P.2d 657 (1983), we held that the Uniformed Services Former Spouses’ Protection Act applied retroactively to the date of the McCarty decision of June 26, 1981. We also reinstated “the law as it was under LeClert. ” Id. at 486, 672 P.2d at 659. See also Koppenhaver v. Koppenhaver, 101 N.M. 105, 678 P.2d 1180 (Ct.App.), cert. denied, 101 N.M. 11, 677 P.2d 624 (1984).  The Court of Appeals concluded that LeClert, which was decided in 1969, does not apply to this case because petitioner’s decree of dissolution of marriage was entered in 1965. This result is correct. The Court of Appeals further concluded that reinstating LeClert must have the effect of preserving the final judgments entered pursuant to the rule established in LeClert. This result is also correct.  We have previously held, and now reaffirm that: (1) the LeClert rule that military retirement pay is community property has been reinstated in New Mexico, and applies to those final judgments entered prior to the McCarty decision; and (2) that the Uniform Services Former Spouses’ Protection Act applies retroactively only to judgments which were final after the announcement of the McCarty opinion on June 26, 1981. We affirm the opinion of the Court of Appeals. IT IS SO ORDERED. RIORDAN, C.J., SOSA, Senior Justice, and STOWERS, J., concur. WALTERS, J., dissents.