Court Opinion

ID: 9496298
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 16:22:40.329499+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:57:28.809283
License: Public Domain

LOKEN, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
The Hen priority issue in this case involves the interplay of two federal statutory regimes, ERISA and the Internal Revenue Code. The Code provides that a judgment lien, when perfected, has priority over an existing federal tax lien unless notice of the tax lien has been filed in accordance with state law. See 26 U.S.C. § 6323(a), (f). ERISA provides that a former spouse may acquire an enforceable fight to a participant’s pension plan benefits pursuant to the provisions of a “qualified domestic relations order” (QDRO).5 Here, the IRS more or less concedes that the Texas divorce court’s domestic relations order granted Mary Taylor a judgment lien on Francis Taylor’s ERISA plan benefits. The issue, then, is whether her lien on those plan benefits is entitled to priority over the IRS’s tax liens under § 6323(a).
Federal law governs whether a judgment lien created by state law is perfected for purposes of § 6323(a). The federal rule is that a Hen is perfected, or choate, “when the identity of the lienor, the property subject to the Hen, and the amount of the Hen are estabHshed.” United States v. Pioneer Am. Ins. Co., 374 U.S. 84, 89, 83 S.Ct. 1651, 10 L.Ed.2d 770 (1963) (quotation omitted). A Treasury Regulation now codifies this principle. 26 C.F.R. § 301.6323(h)-l(g). Though Mary Taylor’s judgment Hen was created by state law, ERISA provides that, to be perfected — that is, enforceable against Francis Taylor’s plan benefits — the state court order must be a QDRO. And Congress’s definition of a QDRO incorporates the substance of the federal law definition of a perfected Hen: a domestic relations order qualifies as a QDRO if it clearly specifies the plan participant, the alternative payee (the lienholder), each plan to which the order applies, the amount or percentage of the benefits to be paid to the alternate payee, and the number of payments or period to which the order appHes. 26 U.S.C. § 414(p)(2).
Given this overlap between the judicially developed federal rule of perfection, and the statutory elements of a QDRO, I agree with the court that a QDRO is a perfected judgment Hen for purposes of the priority rules of § 6323(a). Like the court, I reject the IRS’s argument that, to be perfected under § 6323(a), the judgment Hen created by a QDRO must also satisfy any levy or seizure requirements generally applicable to Hens created by the laws of that State. Congress codified the perfection require*954ments for a QDRO in another section of the Internal Revenue Code, and ERISA would preempt any local law that interfered with its anti-alienation provisions. In the absence of a Treasury Regulation specifically addressing the relationship between Code §§ 6323(a) and 414(p)(2), I decline to apply a general reference to local law in a pre-existing Treasury Regulation, 26 C.F.R. § 301.6323(h)-l(g), in a manner inconsistent with the QDRO perfection provisions of ERISA.
There remains the question whether Mary’s judgment lien was perfected (acquired QDRO status) prior to the IRS filing notice of its tax liens in Dallas County, Texas, in late December 1995. Mary’s judgment lien arose on July 28,1995, when the Texas divorce court entered a domestic relations order awarding her a 90% interest in Francis Taylor’s ERISA plan benefits. Northwest Airlines as plan administrator determined that amended versions of that order qualified as QDROs, long after the tax liens were filed in December 1995. The court nonetheless concludes that Mary’s QDRO-perfected lien has priority because “Mary’s interest in the plan proceeds relates back to the date of the initial [divorce court order].” Ante at 952. I disagree.
ERISA provides that, when a domestic relations order is submitted for a QDRO determination, the plan administrator must make the determination “within a reasonable period after receipt of such order,” 26 U.S.C. § 414(p)(6)(A)(ii), and must segregate plan benefits that would be payable to the alternate payee (here, Mary Taylor) for up to eighteen months while it makes that determination, § 414(p)(7). See Hogan v. Raytheon, Co., 302 F.3d 854, 857 (8th Cir.2002). If the administrator determines within the eighteen-month approval period that the submitted order or a “modification” of that order is a QDRO, it must pay the segregated amounts to the alternate payee. 26 U.S.C. § 414(p)(7)(B); see Trustees of the Dirs. Guild of Am.-Producer Pension Benefits Plans v. Tise, 255 F.3d 661 (9th Cir.2000). In that situation, although the issue is not free from doubt, I do not take issue with the court’s conclusion that QDRO status should “relate back” to the entry of the initial domestic relations order for purposes of § 6323(a) lien priority because ERISA has conferred a direct interest in the segregated plan funds at that earlier date.6 Cf. Nelson v. Rametter, 322 F.3d 541, 544 (8th Cir.2003) (for bankruptcy purposes, alternative payee acquires QDRO interest in plan funds on the date the domestic relations order is first entered); Gendreau v. Gendreau, 122 F.3d 815, 818 (9th Cir.1997) (same), cert. denied, 523 U.S. 1005, 118 S.Ct. 1187, 140 L.Ed.2d 318 (1998).
But assuming the court has adopted a correct relation-back principle, it has misapplied that principle to the facts of this case. Unlike the plan administrator in Cooper Indus., Inc. v. Compagnoni, 162 F.Supp.2d 702 (S.D.Tex.2001), Northwest Airlines did not invite Mary and Francis Taylor to submit a modified domestic relations order to cure defects in the July 28, *9551995, order. Rather, Northwest Airlines as plan administrator issued three letters between October 16 and November 8, 1995, initially determining that the July 28,1995, domestic relations order did not qualify as a QDRO with respect to any of the three plans, and advising the Taylors that these initial determinations would become final at the conclusion of the sixty-day appeal period provided for in the three plans. When the Taylors did not appeal, Northwest Airlines issued three final negative determinations. At that point, ERISA expressly provides that Mary as alternate payee had no further interest in any segregated plan benefits. 26 U.S.C. § 414(p)(7)(C). Consistent with the statute, Northwest Airlines then paid the segregated benefits for the months from July 1995 to January 1996 to Francis Taylor. At that point, though the eighteen-month period had not expired, Mary’s claim to a perfected judgment hen as of July 28, 1995, was finally rejected.7
As the court notes, the Texas court entered a modified domestic relations order on January 8,1996, after the plan administrator’s final negative determinations. The Taylors submitted that order to Northwest Airlines as plan administrator. Northwest Airlines again issued three notices that it had received a domestic relations order (one notice for each plan), which is the first step in the QDRO-deter-mination process. See 26 U.S.C. § 414(p)(6)(A)(i). In June 1996, Northwest Airlines finally determined that the January 8, 1996, order qualified as a QDRO with respect to Francis Taylor’s savings plan and stock plan benefits. However, on April 15, 1996, Northwest Airlines initially determined that the January 8 order did not qualify as a QDRO with respect to Francis Taylor’s retirement plan benefits. Again, the Taylors failed to appeal within the plan’s sixty-day appeal period, and that determination became final. Again, after the appeal period expired, the Taylors submitted another modified domestic relations order, entered by the Texas court on August 29, 1996, which Northwest Airlines- finally determined to be a QDRO on January 7, 1997.
On this undisputed record, I conclude that the plan administrator’s QDRO determinations did not grant Mary Taylor a perfected judgment lien interest in Francis Taylor’s plan benefits prior to January 8, . 1996. As the IRS properly filed notice of its liens in late December 1995, the federal tax liens have priority over Mary’s judgment hen under § 6323(a). Accordingly, I respectfully dissent.

. Significantly, the QDRO provisions of ERISA appear in both the Internal Revenue Code and the Title 29 labor laws. See 29 U.S.C. § 1056(d); 26 U.S.C. § 414(p). I will cite to the Code provisions in this dissent.

. My doubt stems from the fact that the initial domestic relations order, if seriously deficient, may not satisfy the QDRO requirements in § 414(p)(2) that correspond to the elements that make a judgment lien choate under federal common law. Here, for example, the July 28, 1995, order did not identify to which of the three Northwest Airlines plans it applied and thus did not clearly define the 90% interest that Mary was awarded. In such a case, for purposes of priority against a federal tax lien, I am not sure whether QDRO status should only relate back to the date the deficient domestic relations order was modified, or all the way back to the entry of the initial, non-choate domestic relations order. I need not resolve that question here.

. The court has no support for its assertion that "[t]he plan administrator, by plan procedures, cannot shorten [the] eighteen month qualification period.” Ante at 952. The assertion is contrary to the plain language of the statute, which requires a QDRO determination "within a reasonable period,” provides that affected benefits must be segregated while the determination is made, but places an eighteen-month limit on the plan administrator’s duty to segregate. The assertion is also contrary to the Department of Labor’s interpretation of the QDRO provisions: "the '18-month period’ during which a plan administrator must preserve the ‘segregated’amounts ... is not the measure of the reasonable period for determining the qualified status of an order and in most cases would be an unreasonably long period of time to take to review an order.” U.S. Dep't of Labor, Employee Benefits Sec. Admin., ODROs — The Division of Pensions Through Qualified Domestic Relations Orders, Question 2-12 at p. 19, available online at <http://www.dol.gov /ebsa/Publications/qdros.html>.