Smiley v. Smiley’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 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 2 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Disposition of the husband’s interest in the pension plan is controlled by Kuchta v. Kuchta, No. 62439 (Mo. Banc Sept. 8, 1981) 2 : When the [retirement plan] benefit is received by the retiree, in the present case in the form of monthly payments, then it is property acquired by him within the meaning of § 452.330 [RSMo.1978]. In a plan such as this, until there is payment, there can be no marital property because the employee only acquires that property within the meaning of the statute when the final contingency — that he be alive to receive the payment — is fulfilled. The only acquired property identifiable before that actual payment is the contribution of the employee to the plan itself. Since it is only this amount which the employee-spouse can be said to have acquired, it is only this amount which may be regarded as marital property and hence subject to division at the time of dissolution. As the husband has not reached his Normal Retirement Date, he has acquired no marital property under the plan. And as all contributions have been made by the husband’s employer, no property acquired during the marriage is identifiable in the plan. The trial court did not err in adjuding the interest in the pension plan to be non-marital property.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Coon v. Union Electric Co.