Spiars v. Watson
Texas Court of Appeals
2007 WL 2428041 (2007)
- Written by Whitney Kamerzel , JD
Facts
Harvey Spiars (defendant) and Phyllis Watson (plaintiff) were married for several years and divorced on February 18, 1981. The divorce decree stated that Watson was entitled to an amount of Spiars’s police retirement benefit. The decree stated that Watson’s portion was to be calculated by taking the value of any and all monthly payments that Spiars was entitled to, then multiplying this value by a fraction equal to the number of years that Spiars worked with the police department until the divorce divided by the total number of years that Spiars worked with the police department until retirement, and finally multiplying this product by one-half. The value of Spiars’s retirement benefit at the date of his divorce was $539.51, and its value at the date of his retirement was $2,686.32. The trial court determined that Watson was entitled to 33.5 percent of the value of the benefit at the date of Spiars’s retirement. Spiars appealed, arguing that the divorce decree required the trial court to award Watson 33.5 percent of the value of the retirement benefit as of the date of the divorce, rather than the value as of the date of Spiar’s retirement.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Hilbig, J.)
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