Court Opinion

ID: 9718668
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 07:29:43.56468+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:24:01.373401
License: Public Domain

THE COURT.
In its petition for rehearing the Fund contends that our opinion conflicts with the decision recently rendered by the United States Supreme Court in Hisquierdo v. Hisquierdo (1979) 439 U.S. 572 [59 L.Ed.2d 1, 99 S.Ct. 802]. The Hisquierdo court reviewed a California marital-dissolution judgment in which the community property law of this state had been applied as the basis for awarding the wife an interest in future pension benefits to be paid the husband under the Railroad Retirement Act. (45 U.S.C.A. § 231 et seq.) The court held that California’s community property laws could not support the award because they conflicted with pertinent provisions of the Railroad Retirement Act, which had therefore preempted them by operation of the supremacy clause; (U.S. Const., art. VI, cl. 2; Hisquierdo, supra, at p. 590 [59 L.Ed.2d at p. 16].) In a footnote, however, the court expressly distinguished ERISA and established that the decision did not reach it. (Hisquierdo, supra, at p. 590, fn. 24 [59 L.Ed.2d at p. 16].) Hisquierdo therefore does not affect the present case.
The petition of the appellant Trust Fund for a hearing by the Supreme Court was denied April 12, 1979.