Williams v. Williams

37 So. 3d 1196, 2009 Miss. App. LEXIS 281, 2009 WL 1451342
CourtCourt of Appeals of Mississippi
DecidedMay 26, 2009
Docket2007-CA-01736-COA
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 37 So. 3d 1196 (Williams v. Williams) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Mississippi primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Williams v. Williams, 37 So. 3d 1196, 2009 Miss. App. LEXIS 281, 2009 WL 1451342 (Mich. Ct. App. 2009).

Opinions

ISHEE, J.,

for the Court.

¶ 1. On May 16, 2006, Barbara Williams and Julius Williams II were granted a divorce in the Harrison County Chancery Court on the ground of irreconcilable differences after thirty-two years of marriage. The judgment of divorce incorporated a property settlement agreement, which had been signed by both parties. The agreement contained a provision entitled “Survivor Benefit for Wife,” for which Barbara filed a motion to clarify judgment and/or for modification and other relief. A hearing was held on the merits of Barbara’s motion. The chancellor found that Barbara was entitled to receive survivor benefits, and he ordered the entry of a Qualified Domestic Relations Order (“QDRO”). The chancellor also ordered Julius to pay $1,647 for Barbara’s attorney’s fees and court costs plus interest. Julius timely filed this appeal, asserting that the chancery court’s ruling was actually a modification, not a clarification, of the property settlement agreement, and that the chancellor erred in granting Barbara survivor benefits with regard to Julius’s military pension and in granting Barbara attorney’s fees. Finding that the chancellor erred in interpreting the property settlement agreement to include Julius’s military survivor benefits, we must reverse.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

¶ 2. Barbara and Julius were married on February 24, 1974. The divorce proceedings commenced in August 2002, and the parties finally entered into a stipulation of divorce on March 29, 2006, stipulating to irreconcilable differences as the ground for divorce. A property settlement agreement, which had been executed by the parties, was incorporated into the judgment of divorce that was entered on May [1199]*119916, 2006. On May 30, 2006, Julius remarried.

¶ 3. On November 14, 2006, Barbara filed a motion to clarify judgment and/or for modification and other relief regarding the “Survivor Benefit for Wife” provision of the property settlement agreement. The provision reads as follows:

It is the agreement and contract of the parties that the Wife is to have all survivors’ benefits otherwise accorded to her by law including, but not limited to, fifty-five percent (55%) of Husband’s survivor annuity, upon his death[,]from Civil Service Retirement System. A QDRO will be entered allowing Wife 50% of Husband’s Military Retirement based upon Husband’s years of military service during this marriage. A QDRO will be entered allowing Wife 55% of Husband’s Survivor Annuity upon his death from Civil Service Retirement System.

¶ 4. A hearing was held on June 27, 2007, and the chancellor ordered, in part, that Julius: (1) pay $1,647 plus interest to cover Barbara’s attorney’s fees and court costs, (2) “do any and all things necessary for ... [Barbara] to receive survivor’s benefits and for the entry of the Qualified Domestic Relations Order,” and' (3) “execute any and all documents needed for the United States Military to determine the number of retirement points that [have] accumulated during the time frame that he was in the military and married to [Barbara] ... the same being required for a determination of the amount of retired pay to which [Barbara] is entitled.” The chancellor also awarded Barbara fifty percent of Julius’s retirement pay, and he ordered that the QDRO be entered nunc pro tunc to May 16, 2006.

¶ 5. At the time of the divorce, Julius was in the military reserves and employed in a civil service position. He retired the following year on May 19, 2007. He does not dispute that Barbara is entitled to fifty percent of his military retirement, nor does he dispute that she is entitled to fifty-five percent of his survivor annuity from the Civil Service Retirement System. The parties disagree, however, over whether the property settlement agreement required Julius to pay fifty percent of his military survivor benefit plan to Barbara.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

¶ 6. This Court is limited when reviewing a chancellor’s decision on appeal. Townsend v. Townsend, 859 So.2d 370, 371-72(¶ 7) (Miss.2003). The chancellor’s opinion will not be disturbed “when supported by substantial evidence unless the chancellor abused his discretion, was manifestly wrong, clearly erroneous, or an erroneous legal standard was applied.” Id. (quoting McBride v. Jones, 803 So.2d 1168, 1169(¶ 7) (Miss.2002)).

DISCUSSION

I. Survivor Benefit Plan

¶ 7. Julius argues that the judgment entered by the chancellor on September 7, 2007, was not a clarification of the property settlement agreement, but it was instead a modification of that agreement. He contends that the military retirement plan for a surviving spouse, which is called the Survivor’s Benefit Plan (the Plan), allows only one person to be named as the beneficiary to receive the full survivor’s benefit, and that person may not be named until the time of retirement. At the time Julius retired, he was married to Wenoka Williams; therefore, he named Wenoka as his beneficiary under the Plan. Julius argues that the property settlement agreement did not award Barbara any benefits from the Plan and that making Barbara his beneficiary would “strip Julius of his [1200]*1200vested right to provide security for [Weno-ka].”

¶ 8. Mississippi law favors settling disputes by agreements. In re Dissolution of the Marriage of De St. Germain, 977 So.2d 412, 420(¶ 23) (Miss.Ct.App.2008). Absent fraud or overreaching, parties are afforded wide latitude in entering property settlement agreements. Steiner v. Steiner, 788 So.2d 771, 776(¶ 17) (Miss.2001). “Property settlement agreements are contractual obligations.” West v. West, 891 So.2d 203, 210(¶ 13) (Miss.2004) (citation omitted). “When the parties have reached [an] agreement and the chancery court has approved it, [the appellate court] ought to enforce it and take a dim view of efforts to modify it, as we ordinarily do when persons seek relief from their improvident contracts.” Id. at 211(¶ 15) (citation omitted).

¶ 9. “[P]eople are free to enter into property settlement agreements— even unfavorable ones. We will not disturb such agreements simply because an agreement is not necessarily in one’s best interest.” De St. Germain, 977 So.2d at 420(¶ 23). The fact that a spouse “might have made a bad deal does not relieve him of his duty to live up to his end of the bargain.” Steiner, 788 So.2d at 776(¶ 17).

¶ 10. Julius argues that this issue is one of contract interpretation. Courts are obligated to enforce a contract that is executed by legally competent parties containing clear and unambiguous terms, and parties are bound by its provisions. Ivison v. Ivison, 762 So.2d 329, 335(¶ 16) (Miss.2000). “The mere fact that the parties disagree about the meaning of a provision of a contract does not make the contract ambiguous as a matter of law.” Id. This Court “is not concerned with what the parties may have meant or intended but rather what they said, for the language employed in a contract is the surest guide to what was intended.” Id. at (¶ 17). The meaning of a contract is determined using an objective standard, rather than taking into consideration a subjective intent or a party’s belief that may conflict therewith. Palmere v. Curtis, 789 So.2d 126, 131(¶ 10) (Miss.Ct.App.2001) (citation omitted). The supreme court has established the following process for contract interpretation:

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Bluebook (online)
37 So. 3d 1196, 2009 Miss. App. LEXIS 281, 2009 WL 1451342, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/williams-v-williams-missctapp-2009.