William R. Lott v. Maria V. Lott
SocialSecurity ERISA Privacy JusticiabilityDoctri
May a state court enforce a contractual agreement entered into between a disabled veteran and his former spouse, which agreement obligates the veteran to use restricted federal benefits to indemnify his former spouse, where there is no federal statute expressly authorizing the state to exercise jurisdiction or authority over such benefits
Petitioner comes to the Court presenting the same issue that has been presented in several other petitions brought by Counsel of Record on behalf of disabled veterans nationwide, who have had their personal right and entitlem ent to federal veterans’ benefits stripped from them by state courts that have ignored the Supremacy Clause’s absolute preemption over state law in this subject despite multiple admonitions by this Court th at such benefits are offlimits and they have no authority or jurisdiction to vest these benefits in anyone other than the statutorily designated beneficiaries – the disabled veteran. See Howell v. Howell , 581 U.S. 214, 137 S. Ct. 1400 (2017). In this case, the Virginia Court of Appeals ruled that Petitioner’s Chapter 61 disability pay, which is non-disposable disability retirement pay, and therefore expressly and automatically excluded from consideration as a divisible asset in state court divorce proceedings by the Uniformed Services Former Spouses Protection Act (USFSPA), 10 U.S.C. § 1408, could nonetheless be considered a disposable asset because Petitioner agreed that he would indemnify Respondent for her loss of her statutory share of Petitioner’s disposable retired pay. The question presented is as follows: May a state court enforce a contractual agreement entered into between a disabled veteran and his former spouse, which agreement obligates the veteran to use ii restricted federal benefits to indemnify his former spouse, where there is no federal statute expressly authorizing the state to exercise jurisdiction or authority over such benefits; where a federal statute (38 U.S.C. § 5301) expressly prohibits the state court from using “any legal or equitable power whatever” to compel the veteran to abide by such an agreement; and where that same statute expressly prohibits and voids any and all such agreements?