Haddox v. Haddox

2022 Ohio 3500, 197 N.E.3d 1014
Ohio Court of Appeals·Decided September 30, 2022·No. L-21-1168·Published·Cited by 5 cases

Opinion

IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF OHIO SIXTH APPELLATE DISTRICT

LUCAS COUNTY

Joan H. Haddox Court of Appeals No. L-21-1168 Appellant Trial Court No. DR 1997-0600 v. Donald H. Haddox, Jr. DECISION AND JUDGMENT Appellee Decided: September 30, 2022

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Theodore B. Tucker, III, for appellant.

Joseph B. Clarke, for appellee.

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ZMUDA, J.

I. Introduction

{¶ 1} In this post-divorce action, appellant, Joan Haddox, appeals the judgment of the Lucas County Court of Common Pleas, Domestic Relations Division, issuing a division of property order (DOPO) concerning its prior award of a portion of Joan’s State

Teachers Retirement System of Ohio (STRS) retirement benefit to appellee, Donald Haddox.

A. Facts and Procedural Background

{¶ 2} This action began on April 21, 1997, the date Joan filed her complaint for divorce. During the pendency of the divorce proceedings, an issue arose concerning the valuation and distribution of future distributions from Joan’s STRS retirement account. At the time, Joan was still employed as an elementary school teacher. Likewise, Donald was a teacher and was also enrolled in STRS. The trial court’s handling of Donald’s retirement benefits are not at issue in this appeal.

{¶ 3} Relevant to the issue surrounding Joan’s STRS benefit, a letter dated December 29, 1997, was sent to the parties’ counsel from an attorney and certified public account who was retained to perform a review and evaluation of the parties’ retirement benefits, William Kimmelman. In the letter, Kimmelman informed counsel that STRS told him “the law has recently changed to allow members of the Plan to withdraw contributions with interest” and that “the Board has determined that rather than provide estimated benefits, they would provide the lump sum distribution value.” Kimmelman stated that the lump sum present value of the marital portion of Joan’s STRS account was $87,850.90 as of the date of the letter.

{¶ 4} Eventually, the parties were divorced pursuant to a judgment entry of divorce issued by the trial court on March 26, 1999. In its entry, the trial court noted:

The parties agree that at the time of [Joan’s] retirement, the OSTRS and Social Security benefits acquired during the marital period from December 19, 1981 through April 30, 1997, shall be divided equally between the parties and the appropriate offset made from [Joan’s] OSTRS plan to [Donald’s]. The Court shall retain jurisdiction to make the order in the future.

{¶ 5} Approximately 17 years later, Joan decided to retire from teaching. She applied for retirement using an online portal and, in so doing, elected to receive her benefits under the “single life annuity” option.

{¶ 6} Meanwhile, Donald was informed of Joan’s retirement plans ahead of her date of retirement. On April 14, 2016, after he was made aware of Joan’s plans, Donald sent a letter to STRS concerning Joan’s upcoming retirement, in which he provided STRS with a copy of the trial court divorce decree and thanked STRS for “taking care of this for us by including this to both of our accounts.”

{¶ 7} STRS replied one week later and informed Donald that the divorce decree “does not require [Joan] to designate [Donald] as a pre-retirement beneficiary or elect a retirement plan of payment that provides a continuing benefit to [Donald] in the event of [Joan’s] death.” STRS further indicated that it had not received a DOPO in connection with Joan’s retirement account.

{¶ 8} Additionally, STRS sent a letter to Joan in June 2016, questioning whether her choice of a single life annuity plan of payment was in compliance with the requirements of the trial court’s divorce decree. In its letter, STRS stated: “Your decree of divorce indicates the division of your STRS Ohio account will be decided upon your retirement. As written, we cannot determine what plan of payment or amount of the monthly benefit, if any, you are to provide to your former spouse.” STRS went on to inform Joan that it would withhold any retirement benefit payments to her until it received “additional court documentation clarifying the interest, if any, your former spouse has in your retirement benefit after your death.”

{¶ 9} Joan ultimately retired on July 1, 2016. However, she received only partial benefit payments for the months of July, August, and September 2016, and no such payments thereafter. The parties then engaged in discussions about how to proceed with Joan’s STRS retirement benefit. Joan asked Donald to sign a STRS form affidavit to facilitate the resumption of her retirement benefit, but Donald refused.

{¶ 10} Thereafter, on January 27, 2017, Joan filed a motion for contempt. In her motion, Joan asserted that Donald’s refusal to sign the paperwork constituted willful failure to cooperate in order to effectuate the division of her STRS benefit pursuant to the trial court’s divorce decree.

{¶ 11} A two-day hearing before a magistrate on Joan’s motion for contempt began on June 15, 2017. During the hearing, Kimmelman, Joan, and Donald each testified.

{¶ 12} For his part, Kimmelman testified that he “was asked to calculate what each parties’ entitlement of the other’s retirement benefits would be in conjunction * * * with the terms of the divorce decree.” He then proceeded to review the documentation given to him by the parties to ascertain what portion of the parties’ monthly retirement benefits “would be considered marital property for the court’s purposes.” Using the information provided, Kimmelman calculated the portion of the monthly benefits received by the parties that should be considered marital by comparing the duration of the marriage and the total time in which the parties contributed to STRS.

{¶ 13} Relevant here, Kimmelman indicated that Joan retired in July 2016, and Donald was presently collecting a disability benefit from STRS and social security. Kimmelman testified that Joan’s monthly STRS benefit totaled $5,626, $2,363.43 of which was marital based on his calculations. Further, Donald’s monthly STRS benefit was $3,554.72, $978.63 of which was marital. Additionally, Donald received a social security benefit in the amount of $1,443.70, $469.33 of which was marital.

{¶ 14} In order to equalize the marital portion of these benefits, Kimmelman testified that Donald would need to receive a monthly share of Joan’s STRS benefit in the amount of $457.74. Notably, Kimmelman agreed on cross examination that Donald’s share could also be expressed as a percentage of the account value in lieu of a dollar amount. Moreover, Kimmelman testified that the present lump-sum value of Donald’s marital interest in Joan’s STRS retirement account was $86,859.17.

{¶ 15} According to Kimmelman, a DOPO was not possible under Ohio law in existence at the time of the parties’ divorce. However, Ohio law was changed in the intervening years, and now provides for such orders. At the hearing, Kimmelman indicated he was capable of preparing a DOPO to provide for the withholding of $457.74 from Joan’s monthly benefit. Nonetheless, on cross examination Kimmelman indicated that he was never asked to prepare a DOPO by Joan or her counsel.

{¶ 16} As to the issue of survivorship benefits relating to Joan’s STRS retirement account, Kimmelman agreed that the divorce decree is silent on the matter. Further, Kimmelman authenticated a STRS form affidavit that was required to be executed by both parties before Joan could select a benefit option without survivorship rights to Donald.

{¶ 17} On cross examination, Kimmelman explained that Joan had the option to choose to receive her STRS benefits in a number of different ways. First, she could receive a “straight single life monthly payment annuity,” which would not provide for any survivorship benefits to beneficiaries unless she so elected (thereby reducing her monthly benefit amount). Second, Joan could elect “a single life annuity using a PLOP where she takes a specified lump sum immediately upon retirement.” According to

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Haddox v. Haddox, 2022 Ohio 3500, 197 N.E.3d 1014 (Ohio Ct. App. 2022).

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