635 So. 2d 483 - Killgore v. Killgore’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. “... the services rendered by the nonemployee spouse to the community during the early, low paid years of the employee spouse's employment provide the foundation for the post-divorce escalation of pension benefits and thereby usually justify applying the [ Sims ] community fraction to the entire pension benefit including any increases after divorce. In other words, a brick at the bottom of a wall may be more important to its stability than quite a few near the top. Nevertheless, there will be unusual cases in which a substantial part of the increased retirement benefits earned by the employee spouse after divorce will not result from a foundation provided by prior community earnings.... ... The community should not be given credit when a substantial post-community increase to a retirement fund is due to a singular personal factor such as individual effort, education or achievement resulting in a merit raise or an extraordinary promotion or series of promotions.... On the other hand, when such an increase results from nonpersonal elements such as longevity raises, cost-of-living raises,... and investment returns, the community should participate in that gain.... ... Because the employee spouse is generally in a position of superior knowledge and is attempting to prove the unusual or unlikely case, the burden of going forward with evidence and of persuasion on the issue properly should be assigned to the employee spouse.... [C]ases of doubt should be resolved in favor of the com”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 661 So. 2d 529 - Withers v. Withers