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CourtListener opinion 4114523

Date unknown · US

Extracted case name
pending
Extracted reporter citation
pending
Docket / number
33593-3-III Veneziano v. Chvatal the trial
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 4114523 is included in the LexyCorpus QDRO sample set as a public CourtListener opinion with relevance to pension / defined benefit 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: pension / defined benefit issues

Evidence quotes

QDRO

Chvatal represented Cynthia Veneziano in the dissolution action and negotiated the terms of the parties' property division on Ms. Veneziano's behalf. Among assets divided was a pension earned through Mr. Veneziano's employment with Fluor Daniel Hanford. A qualified domestic relations order (QDRO) divided the pension between the parties on the following terms (\Alternate Payee\" refers to Ms. Veneziano):

pension

ice action against Patricia Chvatal, arising out of Ms. Chvatal's negotiation of the division of marital assets in Ms. Veneziano's divorce. Ms. Veneziano's legal experts testified that Ms. Chvatal's approach to the negotiated division of Mr. Veneziano's pension-a major marital asset-undervalued Ms. Veneziano's interest and fell below the standard of care. While the trial court agreed with Ms. Veneziano that her evidence presented genuine issues of fact on most elements of her malpractice claim, it found her evidence lacking on the required element of proximately- caused harm. Ms. Veneziano assigns error

alternate payee

roperty division on Ms. Veneziano's behalf. Among assets divided was a pension earned through Mr. Veneziano's employment with Fluor Daniel Hanford. A qualified domestic relations order (QDRO) divided the pension between the parties on the following terms (\Alternate Payee\" refers to Ms. Veneziano):

domestic relations order

epresented Cynthia Veneziano in the dissolution action and negotiated the terms of the parties' property division on Ms. Veneziano's behalf. Among assets divided was a pension earned through Mr. Veneziano's employment with Fluor Daniel Hanford. A qualified domestic relations order (QDRO) divided the pension between the parties on the following terms (\Alternate Payee\" refers to Ms. Veneziano):

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
docket: 33593-3-III Veneziano v. Chvatal the trial
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

I
I
1j
 FILED
j JANUARY 10, 2017
I In the Office of the Clerk of Court
 WA State Court of Appeals, Division Ill
I
II IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON
 DIVISION THREE

 I CYNTHIA VENEZIANO, )

I Appellant,
 )
 )
 )
 No. 33593-3-111

I V.

 PATRICIAJ. CHVATAL,
 )
 )
 )
 UNPUBLISHED OPINION

 )
 Respondent. )

 SIDDOWAY, J. -Cynthia Veneziano appeals the trial court's summary judgment

 dismissal of her legal malpractice action against Patricia Chvatal, arising out of Ms.

 Chvatal's negotiation of the division of marital assets in Ms. Veneziano's divorce. Ms.

 Veneziano's legal experts testified that Ms. Chvatal's approach to the negotiated division

 of Mr. Veneziano's pension-a major marital asset-undervalued Ms. Veneziano's

 interest and fell below the standard of care. While the trial court agreed with Ms.

 Veneziano that her evidence presented genuine issues of fact on most elements of her

 malpractice claim, it found her evidence lacking on the required element of proximately-

 caused harm.

 Ms. Veneziano assigns error to the trial court's refusal to grant her a continuance

 of the motion, its decision on the merits of the summary judgment motion, and its denial

 of her motion to supplement the record or for reconsideration. We find her challenge to
 No. 33593-3-III
Veneziano v. Chvatal

the trial court's decision on the merits to be dispositive. We reverse the order dismissing

her complaint and remand for further proceedings.

 FACTS AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

 Cynthia Veneziano and her ex-husband, Tim Veneziano, lived together as husband

and wife for 21 years before separating in 1997. In January 2001, the court entered

findings of fact and conclusions of law along with a decree of legal separation. An order

converting the decree of legal separation to a decree of dissolution was entered in August

2005.

 Patricia Chvatal represented Cynthia Veneziano in the dissolution action and

negotiated the terms of the parties' property division on Ms. Veneziano's behalf. Among

assets divided was a pension earned through Mr. Veneziano's employment with Fluor

Daniel Hanford. A qualified domestic relations order (QDRO) divided the pension

between the parties on the following terms (\Alternate Payee\" refers to Ms. Veneziano):