Lyddy v. Lyddy

7 Ohio App. Unrep. 186
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedOctober 19, 1990
DocketCase No. L-89-245
StatusPublished

This text of 7 Ohio App. Unrep. 186 (Lyddy v. Lyddy) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lyddy v. Lyddy, 7 Ohio App. Unrep. 186 (Ohio Ct. App. 1990).

Opinion

This matter is before the court on appeal from a qualified domestic relations order issued July 19, 1989, by the Lucas County Court of Common Pleas, Domestic Relations Division.

On November 19, 1981, appellant, Leo L. Lyddy, and appellee, Veronica M. Lyddy, were granted a divorce after a twenty-four year marriage. As part of its judgment entry, the trial court ordered Leo Lyddy to pay Veronica Lyddy $900 per month as sustenance alimony. The court stated that the alimony award would be reviewed in five years at which time the court would consider Veronica Lyddy's ability to support herself. The court further awarded Leo Lyddy all rights in his General Motors pension fund.

On September 8, 1986, Leo Lyddy filed a motion to modify or terminate alimony. That motion was found not well-taken in a November 19, 1986 judgment entry and affirmed and finalized in an order on November 25, 1987. Leo Lyddy appealed that order, which this court affirmed on October 21, 1988. Thus, the original alimony order remained in effect.

In November 1986, Leo Lyddy ceased making his monthly alimony payments to Veronica Lyddy. In response, Veronica Lyddy filed a motion to show cause, for lump sum judgment, for incarceration and to join the Administrator of the General Motors Retirement Program for Salaried Employees as a party-defendant.

On November 16, 1987, the trial court entered a default judgment against Leo Lyddy, finding that he had been duly notified of the September 10, 1987 hearing and had failed to appear. The court awarded Veronica Lyddy a lump sum judgment of $8,550 which comprised the alimony in arrears as of September 7, 1987. The court ordered Leo Lyddy to pay Veronica Lyddy $900 per month plus an additional $500 per month on the arrearage and ordered that a wage withholding statement be filed for such support. The court further ordered that the Administrator of the General Motors pension fund be joined as a party-defendant and entered a qualified domestic relations order ("QDRO") withholding $900 per month continuing alimony and an additional $500 per month to apply on the arrearage. The court then enjoined the Administrator from disbursing any of Leo Lyddy's pension benefits until it received the QDRO pertaining to those benefits.

Leo Lyddy continued to refuse to make any alimony payments to Veronica Lyddy. On June 10, 1988, the trial court filed a second QDRO (the first had not been accepted by the Administrator), ordering the Administrator to pay Veronica Lyddy $900 per month, plus $500 per month on the arrearage, out of Leo Lyddy's accrued benefits, so long as the same did not exceed the limits set forth in Section 303(b) of the Consumer Credit Protection Act. Section 1673(b), Title 15, U.S. Code. The order further stated that until the QDRO was accepted by the Administrator, the court retained jurisdiction to modify the same.

In October 1988, the QDRO had not yet been accepted by the Administrator, and Leo Lyddy continued to fail to pay on the judgment entered against him. Veronica Lyddy thus filed another motion to show cause, for lump sum judgment and for fees and costs against Leo Lyddy. On December 15, 1988, the trial court entered a default judgment against Leo Lyddy, again noting his failure to appear after being duly notified. The court awarded Veronica [187]*187Lyddy a lump sum judgment of $21,150, the amount of the arrearage as of October 18, 1988.

On April 5, 1989, having yet to receive her alimony payments, Veronica Lyddy filed a motion to show cause and for payment of alimony against the Administrator of the General Motors Retirement Program for Salaried Employees. Consequently, the trial court on May 2, 1989, filed a nunc pro tunc QDRO directing the Administrator to pay Veronica Lyddy accordingly.Pursuant to this order, the Child Support Enforcement Agency ("CSEA") investigated the parties' employment and income status and found that as of July 4, 1989, Leo Lyddy's arrearages amounted to $29,250.

The prior QDRO still being unacceptable to the Administrator, on July 19, 1989, the trial court, with some assistance from the General Motors pension fund counsel, entered a final QDRO ordering the Administrator to pay Veronica Lyddy $900 per month in alimony and $500 per month on the $29,250 arrearage. Finally, on August 1, 1989, the Administrator accepted the QDRO.

It is from the trial court's QDRO of July 19, 1989 that Leo Lyddy has filed this timely appeal, setting forth the following assignments of error:

"FIRST ASSIGNMENT OF ERROR THE TRIAL COURT'S ORDER ESTABLISHING A QUALIFIED DOMESTIC RELATIONS ORDER, PREDICATED UPON SECTION 3113.21 O.R.C., IS VOID AS ITS APPLICATION IN THE INSTANT CASE IS UNCONSTITUTIONAL.

"SECOND ASSIGNMENT OF ERROR THE QUALIFIED DOMESTIC RELATIONS ORDER VIOLATES APPELLANT'S DUE PROCESS RIGHTS UNDER BOTH OHIO AND FEDERAL CONSTITUTIONS IN THAT REASONABLE NOTICE REQUIREMENTS TO APPELLANT HAVE NOT BEEN SATISFIED.

"THIRD ASSIGNMENT OF ERROR THE TRIAL COURT ERRED IN NOT MAKING A DETERMINATION AS TO THE MAXIMUM AMOUNT PERMITTED TO BE WITH-ELD [sic] FROM APPELLANT'S PENSION IN CONTRAVENTION OF SECTION 303 OF THE CONSUMER PROTECTION ACT (15 U.S.C.1673)."

Before addressing appellant's assignments of error, we find that the following quote from a recent decision of the Supreme Court of Ohio would be helpful in our discussion of this case

"A QDRO is a qualified domestic relations order 'which creates or recognizes the existence of an alternate payee s right to, or assigns to an alternate payee the right to, receive all or a portion of the benefits payable with respect to a participant under a plan ***.' Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 ('ERISA') Section 206(d)(3)(B)(i)(I) and Section 414(p)(l)(A)(i), Title 26 U.S. Code. Under the Retirement Equity Act of 1984 ('REA'), the QDRO allows the transfer of retirement benefits to an alternate payee (generally the former spouse) without triggering the anti-assignment or alienation provision of a retirement plan. *** The QDRO must be drafted to include very specific information with explicit instructions to the plan administrator. It is then the responsibility of the plan administrator to review the order of the trial court and determine whether it constitutes a QDRO pursuant to Section 414(p), Title 26, U.S. Code." Hoyt v. Hoyt (1990), 53 Ohio St. 3d 177, 179-180.

In his first assignment of error, Leo Lyddy contends that because he had a vested property right in his pension plan prior to the enactment of the applicable provisions of R.C. 3113.21 and ERISA, the trial court's retroactive application of these statutes through its QDRO amounted to an unconstitutional taking of his property without due process of law.

Retroactive legislation which is remedial in nature gives a new remedy for the enforcement of an existing right. Gager v. Prout (1891), 48 Ohio St. 89. Such legislation, although retroactive or retroactively applied, does not violate the constitutional prohibition against retroactive laws. In the case before us, Leo Lyddy was granted his pension benefits in 1981. At that time there was ample legislation authorizing the attachment of pension benefits to secure the payment of court-ordered alimony. R.C. 3105.111 and 3105.18(B),2 which were in force in their present form in 1981, have been interpreted as providing for such a remedy. Dayton v. Dayton (1987), 40 Ohio App. 3d 17, 18.

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Bluebook (online)
7 Ohio App. Unrep. 186, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lyddy-v-lyddy-ohioctapp-1990.