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CourtListener opinion 3031149

Date unknown · US

Extracted case name
pending
Extracted reporter citation
pending
Docket / number
pending
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 3031149 is included in the LexyCorpus QDRO sample set as a public CourtListener opinion with relevance to ERISA / defined contribution 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: ERISA / defined contribution issues

Evidence quotes

QDRO

t Judge. Richard Schieffer and his law firm appeal the Bankruptcy Appellate Panel's (BAP's) determination that a debtor's interest in an ERISA-qualified retirement plan should be excluded from the debtor's bankruptcy estate when the interest derives from a qualified domestic relations order (QDRO) rather than directly from the plan. See Nelson v. Ramette (In re Nelson), 274 B.R. 789, 798 (B.A.P. 8th Cir. 2002). We affirm. I Ronald Nelson, a self-employed carpenter/contractor, and his wife, Denise, a cabin attendant for Northwest Airlines, obtained a divorce on September 28, 2000. The divorce decree awarded Ronald $71,089 from Denise's reti

retirement benefits

, 2003 ___________ Before McMILLIAN, JOHN R. GIBSON, and BYE, Circuit Judges. ___________ BYE, Circuit Judge. Richard Schieffer and his law firm appeal the Bankruptcy Appellate Panel's (BAP's) determination that a debtor's interest in an ERISA-qualified retirement plan should be excluded from the debtor's bankruptcy estate when the interest derives from a qualified domestic relations order (QDRO) rather than directly from the plan. See Nelson v. Ramette (In re Nelson), 274 B.R. 789, 798 (B.A.P. 8th Cir. 2002). We affirm. I Ronald Nelson, a self-employed carpenter/contractor, and his wife, Denise, a cabin attendant fo

ERISA

Filed: March 7, 2003 ___________ Before McMILLIAN, JOHN R. GIBSON, and BYE, Circuit Judges. ___________ BYE, Circuit Judge. Richard Schieffer and his law firm appeal the Bankruptcy Appellate Panel's (BAP's) determination that a debtor's interest in an ERISA-qualified retirement plan should be excluded from the debtor's bankruptcy estate when the interest derives from a qualified domestic relations order (QDRO) rather than directly from the plan. See Nelson v. Ramette (In re Nelson), 274 B.R. 789, 798 (B.A.P. 8th Cir. 2002). We affirm. I Ronald Nelson, a self-employed carpenter/contractor, and his wife, De

domestic relations order

Richard Schieffer and his law firm appeal the Bankruptcy Appellate Panel's (BAP's) determination that a debtor's interest in an ERISA-qualified retirement plan should be excluded from the debtor's bankruptcy estate when the interest derives from a qualified domestic relations order (QDRO) rather than directly from the plan. See Nelson v. Ramette (In re Nelson), 274 B.R. 789, 798 (B.A.P. 8th Cir. 2002). We affirm. I Ronald Nelson, a self-employed carpenter/contractor, and his wife, Denise, a cabin attendant for Northwest Airlines, obtained a divorce on September 28, 2000. The divorce decree awarded Ronald $71,089 from Denise's reti

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
pending
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

United States Court of Appeals
 FOR THE EIGHTH CIRCUIT
 ___________

 No. 02-2045
 ___________

In re: Ronald J. Nelson, *
 *
 Debtor. *
________________________________ *
 *
Ronald J. Nelson, *
 * Appeal from the United States
 Appellee, * Bankruptcy Appellate Panel
 * for the Eighth Circuit.
 v. *
 *
James E. Ramette; Richard Schieffer, *
and the law firm of Anderson, Dove, *
Fretland & Van Valkenburg, *
 *
 Appellant. *
 ___________

 Submitted: December 11, 2002

 Filed: March 7, 2003
 ___________

Before McMILLIAN, JOHN R. GIBSON, and BYE, Circuit Judges.
 ___________

BYE, Circuit Judge.

 Richard Schieffer and his law firm appeal the Bankruptcy Appellate Panel's
(BAP's) determination that a debtor's interest in an ERISA-qualified retirement plan
should be excluded from the debtor's bankruptcy estate when the interest derives from
 a qualified domestic relations order (QDRO) rather than directly from the plan. See
Nelson v. Ramette (In re Nelson), 274 B.R. 789, 798 (B.A.P. 8th Cir. 2002). We
affirm.

 I

 Ronald Nelson, a self-employed carpenter/contractor, and his wife, Denise, a
cabin attendant for Northwest Airlines, obtained a divorce on September 28, 2000.
The divorce decree awarded Ronald $71,089 from Denise's retirement plan. The
divorce decree provided the award would be made pursuant to a QDRO. On
November 17, 2000, the divorce court issued a domestic relations order (DRO) to
effect the distribution from Northwest's retirement plan.

 On February 26, 2001, while the retirement plan was determining whether the
DRO qualified as a QDRO, and before it had distributed any funds to Ronald, he filed
for bankruptcy. Ronald claimed in the bankruptcy proceeding that his pending
distribution from the retirement plan should be excluded from his bankruptcy estate
pursuant to 11 U.S.C. § 541(c)(2)1 because it was subject to ERISA's anti-alienation
provision, 29 U.S.C. § 1056(d)(1).2 Because Ronald still owed attorney fees to his
divorce attorney, Richard Schieffer, Schieffer objected to Ronald's claim arguing the
pending distribution should be included in the bankruptcy estate and distributed to
creditors.

 1
 \A restriction on the transfer of a beneficial interest of the debtor in a trust that