Hamilton’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

1 district · 4 state decisions

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 7 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Section 1055(a)(1) states that `in the case of a vested participant who does not die before the annuity starting date, the accrued benefit payable to such participant shall be provided in the form of a qualified joint and survivor annuity' (emphasis added). This provision, known as the `QJSA' provision, does not apply here because [the plan participant] died prior to the annuity starting date.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. In Re Marriage of Padgett

2. “under the statutory language coupled with a complementary interpretation of the plans, the surviving spouse benefit must be explicitly assigned to a former spouse in a QDRO in order to overcome the surviving spouse's right to an annuity under ERISA.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. In Re Marriage of Padgett

3. “`failure to include a survivorship provision in the QDRO often goes undetected until the participant dies or retires, that is, when the survivor benefits irrevocably vest in the current spouse and it is too late to do anything about it.'”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. In Re Marriage of Padgett