Thornton v. Thornton

746 N.W.2d 627, 277 Mich. App. 453
CourtMichigan Court of Appeals
DecidedOctober 23, 2007
DocketDocket No. 270931
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 746 N.W.2d 627 (Thornton v. Thornton) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Michigan Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Thornton v. Thornton, 746 N.W.2d 627, 277 Mich. App. 453 (Mich. Ct. App. 2007).

Opinion

FER CURIAM.

In this domestic relations action, plaintiff appeals by leave granted two orders signed by the trial court on May 23, 2006. The first order reduced plaintiffs award of spousal support and the second amended a qualified domestic relations order (QDRO) to eliminate plaintiffs award of a survivor benefit under defendant’s pension plan. We conclude that the trial court improperly modified the division of property by amending the QDRO to eliminate plaintiffs survivor benefit and erred when it modified plaintiffs award of spousal support without adequate record evidence and definite factual findings. Therefore, we vacate the orders of May 23, 2006, and remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

I. FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

On September 14, 1993, the trial court entered the parties’ consent judgment of divorce. The judgment of divorce provided that defendant must pay permanent alimony of $125 a week to plaintiff until further order of the court. In addition, the judgment of divorce provided:

Plaintiff... shall be awarded fifty percent (50%) of the Defendant’s monthly accrued benefit of his pension and [455]*455retirement benefits with General Motors Corporation from the date of this marriage, December 1, 1978, until the date this Judgment of Divorce is filed with the Clerk of the Court. The terms of this award shall be set forth in a [QDRO].

At the same time that the individual parties approved the form and content of the judgment of divorce,1 the parties also approved of the QDRO referred to by the judgment of divorce. The trial court signed this QDRO on September 15, 1993.2 The QDRO provided:

[Defendant] shall elect a benefit form that provides a survivor benefit (surviving spouse option). The survivor benefit shall be at least fifty percent (50%) of the benefit provided to [defendant] during [defendant’s] life. [Defendant] shall designate [plaintiff] as the beneficiary of this survivor benefit unless [plaintiff] elects to receive her benefits in a form that provides either a lump-sum distribution or a life annuity, based on her life.

In March 2005, defendant moved to amend the QDRO to eliminate plaintiffs survivor benefit and to reduce or terminate his spousal-support obligation. In his motion, defendant argued that, because the judgment of divorce did not specifically provide for an award of a survivor benefit under defendant’s pension plan, the QDRO could not include such an award. Defendant also argued that changed circumstances warranted a reduction or termination of his spousal-support obligation.

[456]*456On January 31, 2006, the trial court issued an opinion in which the court agreed that the QDRO impermissibly included an award of survivor benefits to plaintiff and that changed circumstances warranted a reduction in defendant’s spousal-support obligation. Therefore, the trial court ordered the parties to draft an amended QDRO that does not award plaintiff a survivor benefit under defendant’s pension. The trial court also ordered the parties to draft an order that reduced defendant’s spousal-support obligation to $217.50 a month. On May 23, 2006, the trial court entered the orders amending the QDRO and reducing defendant’s spousal-support obligation. See MCR 2.602(A)(2).

This appeal followed.

II. AMENDMENT OP THE QDRO

Plaintiff first argues that the trial court erred when it amended the QDRO to eliminate plaintiffs survivor benefit under defendant’s pension. Specifically, plaintiff contends that the QDRO was essentially part of the judgment and, therefore, the trial court was without the authority to modify it more than 12 years after it was entered. We agree.

Where a judgment of divorce is entered pursuant to an agreement of the parties, the agreement is a contract, which this Court will enforce absent a showing of factors such as fraud or duress. In re Lobaina Estate, 267 Mich App 415, 418; 705 NW2d 34 (2005). The proper interpretation of a contract is a matter of law that this Court reviews de novo. Clark v Daimler-Chrysler Corp, 268 Mich App 138, 141; 706 NW2d 471 (2005).

After a hearing held on August 26, 1993, the parties agreed to entry of a judgment of divorce. Each of the parties and their attorneys approved the judgment as to [457]*457both form and content. The judgment of divorce specifically provided that plaintiff would receive 50 percent of defendant’s monthly accrued benefit under his pension during the term of the marriage. The judgment further provided that “[t]he terms of this award shall be set forth in a [QDRO].” The QDRO mentioned in the judgment of divorce refers to the same August 26,1993, hearing and was approved as to form and content by defendant’s attorney on the same day that defendant and his attorney approved the judgment of divorce as to form and content. Further, in the QDRO, the parties clarified that it was their mutual intent “to provide [plaintiff] with a retirement payment that fairly represents what they have agreed to be her marital share of [defendant’s] accrued retirement benefit” through the assignment provisions of the QDRO. Given the totality of these circumstances, we conclude that the parties intended the judgment and the QDRO to be read together as a comprehensive division of the marital estate. Hence, the division of property described in the judgment incorporates by reference the substantive provisions of the QDRO.

Because the parties incorporated the substantive provisions of the QDRO into their judgment of divorce, we find the trial court erred when it relied on Quade v Quade, 238 Mich App 222; 604 NW2d 778 (1999), and Roth v Roth, 201 Mich App 563; 506 NW2d 900 (1993), for the proposition that the QDRO could not provide for a surviving-spouse benefit. Neither case dealt with a QDRO that was incorporated into the judgment by reference and entered contemporaneously with the judgment.3 Instead, those cases addressed whether a QDRO entered after the entry of a judgment of divorce [458]*458could include awards of property that were either precluded by the plain language of the judgment, see Roth, supra at 569, or not specifically included within the judgment of divorce, see Quade, supra at 224-225. Because the present case involves a contemporaneously executed QDRO that was incorporated into the judgment of divorce, its provisions must be treated as part of the settlement.

Because the QDRO addressed the division of marital property, the trial court was without authority to modify those provisions absent fraud, duress, or mutual mistake. Quade, supra at 226. Likewise, to the extent that defendant’s motion can be interpreted as a motion for relief from judgment under MCR 2.612, we conclude that the motion was untimely and unreasonable. See MCR 2.612(C)(2) and Roth, supra at 570. Therefore, the trial court erred when it entered an order amending the QDRO to alter its substantive provisions.

III. MODIFICATION OF SPOUSAL SUPPORT

Plaintiff next argues that the trial court erred when it found that there was a sufficient change in circumstances to warrant modification of defendant’s spousal-support obligation.

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Thornton v. Thornton
746 N.W.2d 627 (Michigan Court of Appeals, 2008)

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Bluebook (online)
746 N.W.2d 627, 277 Mich. App. 453, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/thornton-v-thornton-michctapp-2007.