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CourtListener opinion 76899

Citation: Domestic Relations Order · Date unknown · US

Extracted case name
pending
Extracted reporter citation
Domestic Relations Order
Docket / number
02-00067-CV-JTC-3 RICHARD CHARLES FONTAINE
QDRO relevance 5/5Retirement relevance 2/5Family-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 76899 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 2/5, 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

fore DUBINA and FAY, Circuit Judges, and GOLDBERG*, Judge. PER CURIAM: In this appeal, defendant-appellant Joan Thomas Guth (f. k. a. Joan Thomas Fontaine) appeals from the district court's determination that the 1986 Qualified Domestic Relations Order ("QDRO") governing the equitable division of marital assets between defendant-appellant and plaintiff-appellee Richard Charles Fontaine remains in effect. Defendant-appellant requests that the Court reverse the district court's determination that the 1990 and 1991 QDROs, which were mutual modifications of the original 1986 QDRO, are null and void. Georgia do

domestic relations order

orgia (March 8, 2005) Before DUBINA and FAY, Circuit Judges, and GOLDBERG*, Judge. PER CURIAM: In this appeal, defendant-appellant Joan Thomas Guth (f. k. a. Joan Thomas Fontaine) appeals from the district court's determination that the 1986 Qualified Domestic Relations Order ("QDRO") governing the equitable division of marital assets between defendant-appellant and plaintiff-appellee Richard Charles Fontaine remains in effect. Defendant-appellant requests that the Court reverse the district court's determination that the 1990 and 1991 QDROs, which were mutual modifications of the original 1986 QDRO, are null and void. Geo

valuation/division

rict court's determination that the 1990 and 1991 QDROs, which were mutual modifications of the original 1986 QDRO, are null and void. Georgia domestic relations law makes clear that post-judgment modification by a court of a divorce decree concerning the equitable distribution of property is normally not permissible. See, e.g., Williams v. Williams, 268 Ga. 126, 129, 485 S.E.2d 772, 775 (Ga. 1997) ("[A]n unexpected increase in the value of a risky * Honorable Richard W. Goldberg, Judge, United States Court of International Trade, sitting by designation. 2 asset is insufficient grounds to upset the policy disfavoring modif

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: Domestic Relations Order · docket: 02-00067-CV-JTC-3 RICHARD CHARLES FONTAINE
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

[PUBLISH]

 IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
 FILED
 FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT
 U.S. COURT OF APPEALS
 ELEVENTH CIRCUIT
 March 8, 2005
 THOMAS K. KAHN
 No. 04-12343 CLERK

 D. C. Docket No. 02-00067-CV-JTC-3

RICHARD CHARLES FONTAINE,

 Plaintiff-Appellee,

 versus

JOAN THOMAS GUTH,
f.k.a. Joan Thomas Fontaine,

 Defendant- Cross-Defendant-
 Appellant,

DELTA AIR LINES, INC.,

 Defendant-Cross-Claimant-
 Appellee,

LARRY H. EVANS,

 Defendant.
 Appeal from the United States District Court
 for the Northern District of Georgia

 (March 8, 2005)

Before DUBINA and FAY, Circuit Judges, and GOLDBERG*, Judge.

PER CURIAM:

 In this appeal, defendant-appellant Joan Thomas Guth (f. k. a. Joan Thomas

Fontaine) appeals from the district court's determination that the 1986 Qualified

Domestic Relations Order ("QDRO") governing the equitable division of marital

assets between defendant-appellant and plaintiff-appellee Richard Charles

Fontaine remains in effect. Defendant-appellant requests that the Court reverse

the district court's determination that the 1990 and 1991 QDROs, which were

mutual modifications of the original 1986 QDRO, are null and void.

 Georgia domestic relations law makes clear that post-judgment modification

by a court of a divorce decree concerning the equitable distribution of property is

normally not permissible. See, e.g., Williams v. Williams, 268 Ga. 126, 129, 485

S.E.2d 772, 775 (Ga. 1997) ("[A]n unexpected increase in the value of a risky

 *
 Honorable Richard W. Goldberg, Judge, United States Court of International Trade,
sitting by designation.

 2
 asset is insufficient grounds to upset the policy disfavoring modification of fixed

allocations of economic resources distributed in a property settlement."); Spivey v.

McClellan, 259 Ga. 181, 181-82, 378 S.E.2d 123, 124 (Ga. 1989) ("Fixed

allocations of economic resources between spouses, those that are already vested

or perfected, are not subject to modification by the court while terminable

allocations are."); Coffey v. Alembik, 221 Ga. App. 501, 502, 471 S.E.2d 590, 591

(Ga. Ct. App. 1996) ("[A] modification of the provisions of the divorce decree for

the equitable division of property . . . is not permissible.").

 Defendant-appellant nonetheless contends that the 1986 QDRO may be

modified by a court because the parties thereto made a "mutual mistake" in

drafting the terms of the court-approved settlement agreement. In support of this

proposition, defendant-appellant cites Georgia Supreme Court decisions which

permitted post-judgment modifications of divorce settlements in the limited

contexts of alimony and child support. See Douglas v. Cook, 266 Ga. 644, 645,

469 S.E.2d 656, 657 (Ga. 1996); Smith v. Smith, 230 Ga. 238, 240, 196 S.E.2d

437, 439 (Ga. 1973); see also O.C.G.A. § 19-6-19 (modification of child support

and alimony awards specifically allowed by statute). Because this case involves

the equitable distribution of property and not alimony or child support, the Court

declines to adopt defendant-appellant's fractured interpretation of Georgia law.

 3
 Defendant-appellant also contends that the 1986 QDRO may be modified by

a court in order to correct a clerical or scrivener's error therein. Defendant-

appellant is correct that Georgia law gives courts the authority to correct clerical

mistakes or other similar non-substantive errors arising from oversight or omission

in judgments, orders and other parts of the record. O.C.G.A. § 9-11-60(g). Upon

a close examination of the record, however, the Court has uncovered no evidence

of such an error.

 After reviewing the record, reading the parties' briefs and having the benefit

of oral argument, we affirm the judgment of the district court filed on October 6,

2003.

 AFFIRMED.

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