2009AP2433-FT Topolski v. Topolski

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Family
Marital settlement agreements; disability benefits

A marital settlement agreement dividing “all retirement, pension, and deferred benefit accounts” does not include disability benefits.

“This holding places the husband and wife in the same position they would have been in had the husband not become disabled. This holding gives both the husband and wife exactly what they bargained for in the Marital Settlement Agreement: The husband retains, as the parties agreed, full right to earnings from his employment (here the disability payments are a substitute for earnings from employment); the wife is not entitled, under the Marital Settlement Agreement, to any part of the husband’s earnings. The husband’s retirement benefits under the Pension Plan are not reduced or otherwise affected by the disability payments made to the husband. ‘If and when’ the husband ‘receives’ his retirement benefits under the Pension Plan, the wife is to be paid $912.88 per month under the Marital Settlement Agreement. The husband is eligible to receive full retirement benefits at age 62 under the Pension Plan and ‘if and when’ the husband receives retirement benefits at age 62 the husband pays his wife the monthly sum upon which they agreed in the Marital Settlement Agreement.”

Affirmed as modified.

2009AP2433-FT Topolski v. Topolski

Abrahamson, C.J.

Attorneys: For Appellant: Owens, Joseph F., New Berlin; For Respondent: Schneck, Thomas J., Waukesha

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