Former wife filed Qualified Domestic Relations Order (QDRO), seeking portion of former husband’s military retirement benefit pursuant to divorce decree. Held: the 1984 divorce decree established wife’s entitlement to 1/2 of ten years of husband’s military retirement, regardless of the fact that the Defense Financing and Accounting Service (DFAS) denied wife’s first claim on the basis the divorce decree lacked specificity, and District Court abused its discretion when it erroneously concluded that it was bound by the marital foundation approach to determine that former wife’s marital fraction should be applied to former husband’s actual retirement benefit.
Laura W. Morgan is the owner and operator at Family Law Consulting in Charlottesville, Virginia. Laura is available for consultation, brief writing and research on family law issues throughout the country. She can be reached through her website: www.