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CourtListener opinion 2688238

Date unknown · US

Extracted case name
In re Marriage of Brown
Extracted reporter citation
776 N.W.2d 644
Docket / number
3-1113 / 13-0534
QDRO relevance 5/5Retirement relevance 5/5Family-law relevance 5/5gold label pending
Research-use warning: This page contains machine-draft public annotations generated from public opinion text. The headnote is not Willie-approved gold-label work product and is not legal advice. Verify the full opinion and current law before relying on it.

Machine-draft headnote

Machine-draft public headnote: CourtListener opinion 2688238 is included in the LexyCorpus QDRO sample set as a public CourtListener opinion with relevance to QDRO procedure / domestic relations order issues. The current annotation is conservative: it identifies source provenance, relevance signals, and evidence quotes for attorney/agent retrieval. It is not a Willie-approved legal headnote yet.

Retrieval annotation

Draft retrieval summary: this opinion has QDRO relevance score 5/5, retirement-division score 5/5, and family-law score 5/5. Use the quoted text and full opinion below before relying on the case.

Category: QDRO procedure / domestic relations order issues

Evidence quotes

QDRO

CKLEY, Plaintiff-Appellant, vs. JAMES ALLEN HINCKLEY, Defendant-Appellee. ________________________________________________________________ Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Washington County, Myron L. Gookin, Judge. A divorced spouse contends a qualified domestic relations order entitles her to an amount specified in the order and not an amount that accounts for investment losses. AFFIRMED. Joseph W. Younker of Bradley & Riley, P.C., Iowa City, for appellant. Leslie D. Lamping of Lamping, Schlegel & Salazar, L.L.P., Washington, for appellee. Considered by Danilson, C.J., and Vaitheswaran and Potterfield, JJ. 2 VAITHESWAR

retirement benefits

in the order or an amount that accounted for investment losses. I. Background Facts and Proceedings Cindy and James Hinckley dissolved their marriage. The dissolution decree incorporated a stipulation under which Cindy was to receive $165,746 of Jim's retirement account, to be distributed pursuant to a QDRO. The QDRO was executed two months after the dissolution decree was filed, and funds were transmitted to Cindy five months after the decree was filed. In the interim, the account value plummeted from $342,139.55 to $220,916.33. Cindy only received $103,981.25. Cindy filed an application seeking a declaration of th

alternate payee

61,844.75. The district court concluded that the amount Cindy received "was proper and correct." Cindy appealed. II. Analysis Cindy contends the language governing this appeal appears in a section of the QDRO titled "amount of benefit to be paid to the alternate payee." 1 That section states Cindy's interest in the plan will be "$165,746 of [Jim's] Account Balance as of October 3, 2008" (the date the dissolution decree was filed) and the interest will "be subject to earnings and losses subsequent to October 3, 1 Cindy does not argue that the QDRO is inconsistent with the language of the dissolution decree. See In re

domestic relations order

aintiff-Appellant, vs. JAMES ALLEN HINCKLEY, Defendant-Appellee. ________________________________________________________________ Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Washington County, Myron L. Gookin, Judge. A divorced spouse contends a qualified domestic relations order entitles her to an amount specified in the order and not an amount that accounts for investment losses. AFFIRMED. Joseph W. Younker of Bradley & Riley, P.C., Iowa City, for appellant. Leslie D. Lamping of Lamping, Schlegel & Salazar, L.L.P., Washington, for appellee. Considered by Danilson, C.J., and Vaitheswaran and Potterfield, JJ. 2 VAITHESWAR

Source and provenance

Source type
courtlistener_qdro_opinion_full_text
Permissions posture
public
Generated status
machine draft public v0
Review status
gold label pending
Jurisdiction metadata
US
Deterministic extraction
reporter: 776 N.W.2d 644 · docket: 3-1113 / 13-0534
Generated at
May 14, 2026

Related public corpus pages

Deterministic links based on shared title/citation terms and QDRO / retirement / family-law retrieval scores.

Clean opinion text

IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF IOWA

 No. 3-1113 / 13-0534
 Filed February 19, 2014

CINDY SUE HINCKLEY,
 Plaintiff-Appellant,

vs.

JAMES ALLEN HINCKLEY,
 Defendant-Appellee.
________________________________________________________________

 Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Washington County, Myron L.

Gookin, Judge.

 A divorced spouse contends a qualified domestic relations order entitles

her to an amount specified in the order and not an amount that accounts for

investment losses. AFFIRMED.

 Joseph W. Younker of Bradley & Riley, P.C., Iowa City, for appellant.

 Leslie D. Lamping of Lamping, Schlegel & Salazar, L.L.P., Washington, for

appellee.

 Considered by Danilson, C.J., and Vaitheswaran and Potterfield, JJ.
 2

VAITHESWARAN, J.

 We must decide whether a qualified domestic relations order (QDRO)

entitled a divorced spouse to the amount specified in the order or an amount that

accounted for investment losses.

 I. Background Facts and Proceedings

 Cindy and James Hinckley dissolved their marriage. The dissolution

decree incorporated a stipulation under which Cindy was to receive $165,746 of

Jim's retirement account, to be distributed pursuant to a QDRO.

 The QDRO was executed two months after the dissolution decree was

filed, and funds were transmitted to Cindy five months after the decree was filed.

In the interim, the account value plummeted from $342,139.55 to $220,916.33.

Cindy only received $103,981.25.

 Cindy filed an application seeking a declaration of the parties' rights under

the QDRO and an order requiring payment of an additional $61,844.75. The

district court concluded that the amount Cindy received "was proper and correct."

Cindy appealed.

 II. Analysis

 Cindy contends the language governing this appeal appears in a section

of the QDRO titled "amount of benefit to be paid to the alternate payee." 1 That

section states Cindy's interest in the plan will be "$165,746 of [Jim's] Account

Balance as of October 3, 2008" (the date the dissolution decree was filed) and

the interest will "be subject to earnings and losses subsequent to October 3,

1
 Cindy does not argue that the QDRO is inconsistent with the language of the
dissolution decree. See In re Marriage of Brown, 776 N.W.2d 644, 650 (Iowa 2009).
 3

2008." The QDRO also states benefits will "be calculated on a pro-rata basis

unless specifically indicated otherwise" and

 [i]f the total amount of $165,746 assigned to [Cindy] in the Order is
 not immediately available for distribution due to . . . investment
 losses, then [Cindy] shall receive 100% of [Jim's] account balance
 as of the date of distribution.

Cindy focuses on the term "distribution" in this final clause. She contends the

district court misinterpreted the term.

 We need not interpret "distribution" to determine whether Cindy is entitled

to receive $165,746.00 or a lesser amount because the first part of the quoted

section clearly answers the question. It states that, while Cindy's interest will be

$165,746 "as of October 3, 2008," that interest "shall be subject to earnings and

losses subsequent to October 3, 2008." Applying this sentence, Cindy's interest

had to be reduced by the losses sustained after October 3, 2008.

 The last sentence of the section does not alter our analysis. It addresses

the possibility that "the total amount of" Cindy's interest "might not immediately

[be] available for distribution" due to specified occurrences, including investment

losses. That possibility did not become a reality. The total amount of Cindy's

interest was $165,746.00—subject to earnings and losses—and Jim's account

contained more than that balance on the date of the dissolution decree, the date

of the QDRO, and the date Cindy received the funds. The last sentence was

simply not applicable.
 4

 We conclude Cindy was entitled to $165,746 minus losses incurred after

October 3, 2008. This was the amount Cindy received and the amount the

district court confirmed in its declaratory ruling. We discern no error in the ruling.

 AFFIRMED.