Webster v. Webster

Leonard Webster (plaintiff) and Susan Webster (defendant) married in 1983 and divorced in 2005. Leonard retired early voluntarily in 2004 and started receiving pension payments. Leonard never contributed to social security while working. Susan was still working, had no plans to retire, and consistently contributed to social security. Susan also had a pension from which she would receive payments after retirement. Because Leonard and Susan were married for over 10 years, once Susan reached retirement age, Leonard would be eligible to receive a divorced spouse’s benefit payment equal to 50 percent of Susan’s social security entitlement. In the divorce decree, the trial court awarded Susan and Leonard each half of the marital portion of the other’s pension. The trial court did not make any adjustments to account for the disparity in Leonard’s and Susan’s expected social security payments. Leonard challenged the divorce decree, arguing that (1) the pension distributions should be equalized to account for the fact that Leonard’s pension was already in pay status but Susan’s was not, which would allow Susan to collect her share of Leonard’s pension for years before Leonard could collect his share of Susan’s pension; and (2) the trial court erred in failing to offset the property-distribution awards to account for the disparity in Susan’s and Leonard’s expected social security monthly payments.