LexyCorpus case page
CourtListener opinion 9904422
Citation: Domestic Relations Order · Date unknown · US
- Extracted case name
- pending
- Extracted reporter citation
- Domestic Relations Order
- Docket / number
- pending
Machine-draft headnote
Machine-draft public headnote: CourtListener opinion 9904422 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“while Former Wife was a stay-at-home mother. Two years later, Former Husband moved for entry of two QDROs for the GE Savings Plan and the Lockheed Savings Plan. After holding a hearing where only these two QDROs were discussed, the lower court entered a QDRO for the GE Savings Plan and a QDRO for the Lockheed Savings Plan. Despite the Lockheed Martin Corporation Salaried Employee Retirement Program ("Lockheed Retirement Program") not being addressed in Former Husband's motion nor discussed during the hearing, the trial court also 2 entered a QDRO for the Lockheed Retirement Program. Additionally, the tria”
retirement benefits“n of marriage. In the final judgment of dissolution of marriage, the trial court equitably distributed the marital assets, including "retirement assets (401k) valued at in excess of $625,000.00 as well as pension benefits" and specifically distributed two retirement plans titled "Lockheed Martin Salaried Savings" ("Lockheed Savings Plan") and the "GE Retirement Savings" ("GE Savings Plan"). All of these accounts were generated by Former Husband's employment while Former Wife was a stay-at-home mother. Two years later, Former Husband moved for entry of two QDROs for the GE Savings Plan and the Lockheed Savings Plan. Af”
pension“Appellant, John Travis ("Former Husband"), appeals the order denying his motion for rehearing and reconsideration regarding several Qualified Domestic Relations Orders (QDROs) rendered by the trial court regarding the distribution of certain retirement or pension funds and the three QDROs issued after he filed his first notice of appeal. We affirm in part but vacate the February 2021 QDROs and remand for further proceedings. After over thirty years of marriage to Former Husband, Appellee, Deborah Travis ("Former Wife"), filed a petition for dissolution of marriage. In the final judgment of dissolution of marri”
401(k)“of marriage to Former Husband, Appellee, Deborah Travis ("Former Wife"), filed a petition for dissolution of marriage. In the final judgment of dissolution of marriage, the trial court equitably distributed the marital assets, including "retirement assets (401k) valued at in excess of $625,000.00 as well as pension benefits" and specifically distributed two retirement plans titled "Lockheed Martin Salaried Savings" ("Lockheed Savings Plan") and the "GE Retirement Savings" ("GE Savings Plan"). All of these accounts were generated by Former Husband's employment while Former Wife was a stay-at-home mother. Two”
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
- 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 DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF FLORIDA
FIFTH DISTRICT
NOT FINAL UNTIL TIME EXPIRES TO
FILE MOTION FOR REHEARING AND
DISPOSITION THEREOF IF FILED
JOHN TRAVIS,
Appellant,
v. Case No. 5D20-2617
LT Case No. 2013-DR-001364
DEBORAH TRAVIS,
Appellee.
________________________________/
Opinion filed July 1, 2022
Appeal from the Circuit Court
for Seminole County,
Jessica J. Recksiedler, Judge.
Nicholas A. Shannin and Carol B.
Shannin, of Shannin Law Firm, P.A.,
Orlando, for Appellant.
Moses Robert Dewitt, of Dewitt Law
Firm, P.A., Orlando, for Appellee.
EDWARDS, J.
Appellant, John Travis ("Former Husband"), appeals the order denying
his motion for rehearing and reconsideration regarding several Qualified
Domestic Relations Orders (QDROs) rendered by the trial court regarding the
distribution of certain retirement or pension funds and the three QDROs
issued after he filed his first notice of appeal. We affirm in part but vacate the
February 2021 QDROs and remand for further proceedings.
After over thirty years of marriage to Former Husband, Appellee,
Deborah Travis ("Former Wife"), filed a petition for dissolution of marriage. In
the final judgment of dissolution of marriage, the trial court equitably
distributed the marital assets, including "retirement assets (401k) valued at in
excess of $625,000.00 as well as pension benefits" and specifically
distributed two retirement plans titled "Lockheed Martin Salaried Savings"
("Lockheed Savings Plan") and the "GE Retirement Savings" ("GE Savings
Plan"). All of these accounts were generated by Former Husband's
employment while Former Wife was a stay-at-home mother.
Two years later, Former Husband moved for entry of two QDROs for
the GE Savings Plan and the Lockheed Savings Plan. After holding a hearing
where only these two QDROs were discussed, the lower court entered a
QDRO for the GE Savings Plan and a QDRO for the Lockheed Savings Plan.
Despite the Lockheed Martin Corporation Salaried Employee Retirement
Program ("Lockheed Retirement Program") not being addressed in Former
Husband's motion nor discussed during the hearing, the trial court also
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entered a QDRO for the Lockheed Retirement Program. Additionally, the trial
court also entered an Addendum to the final judgment to effectuate the
QDROs.
Former Husband filed a motion for rehearing or reconsideration,
arguing that the trial court did not have jurisdiction to enter the QDRO
discussing the Lockheed Retirement Program because it was a new benefit
not awarded in the final judgment. The trial court denied his motion and
Former Husband appealed. In February 2021, after Former Husband filed
his notice of appeal, the trial court entered three QDROs. One QDRO was
an amended version of the GE Savings Plan, with no substantive changes.
The other two QDROs split the two portions of the Lockheed Retirement
Program, which were distributed together in the original QDRO. 1 Former
Husband then filed an amended notice of appeal to include the three QDROs
entered.
Jurisdiction re: Lockheed Retirement Program QDRO and Addendum
At the time a judgment of dissolution of marriage becomes final,
the parties' property rights, if determined by the judgment are
fixed as a matter of law. Brandt v. Brandt, 525 So. 2d 1017 (Fla.
4th DCA 1988). A court may clarify what is implicit in a final
judgment, and enforce the judgment. But after a final judgment
is rendered, a trial court lacks jurisdiction under chapter 61 to
1
One portion is a qualified benefit and the other portion is a non-
qualified benefit, which the new QDRO refers to as the Lockheed Martin
Corporation Supplemental Retirement Plan.
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determine property rights, unless the final judgment reserves
jurisdiction for a specific purpose regarding identified property.
See Semko v. Semko, 537 So. 2d 588 (Fla. 3d DCA 1988);
Flanders v. Flanders, 516 So. 2d 1090, 1091 (Fla. 5th DCA
1987)[].
Encarnacion v. Encarnacion, 877 So. 2d 960, 963 (Fla. 5th DCA 2004)
(footnotes omitted). A clarification seeks to make a judgment clearer and
more precise, as opposed to a modification, which changes the status quo
and alters the rights and obligations of the parties. Bustamante v. O'Brien,
286 So. 3d 352, 355 (Fla. 1st DCA 2019) (citing Roque v. Paskow, 812 So.
2d 500, 503 (Fla. 4th DCA 2002)).
In Haas v. Haas, the Third District held that the trial court impermissibly
modified the final judgment where it awarded heavy duty tools and
equipment which were not expressly included in the final judgment of
dissolution of marriage and no term in the judgment was broad enough to
include them. 421 So. 2d 664, 666 (Fla. 3d DCA 1982); see Hobbs v. Hobbs,
518 So. 2d 439, 440 (Fla. 1st DCA 1988) (holding that the trial court clarified
what was meant by the property described in both the final decree and the
property settlement agreement as the marital home where both designated
the home by the mailing address instead of the legal description).
The final judgment of dissolution of marriage stated that "[e]quitable
distribution also results in an equitable distribution of retirement assets . . .
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as well as pension benefits." Although the judgment did not list the full name
of the Lockheed Retirement Program, it is the only retirement plan in the
record that is described as or referred to as a pension plan. Additionally, the
final judgment states that Former Husband's pension was marital property,
and Former Husband conceded that it was as well. Therefore, the term
"pension plan" in the final judgment must have referred to the Lockheed
Retirement Program and was broad enough to include the Lockheed
Retirement Program. Accordingly, we affirm because the trial court clarified
the final judgment when entering the QDRO on the Lockheed Retirement
Program and therefore did not distribute a new benefit in either the Lockheed
Retirement Program QDRO or the accompanying Addendum.
Three Additional QDROs
"Florida Rule of Appellate Procedure 9.600(c)(1) states that in a family
law case the trial court retains jurisdiction to enter orders awarding alimony
or ‘other awards necessary to protect the welfare and rights of any party
pending appeal.'" McPherson v. McPherson, 775 So. 2d 973, 973–74 (Fla.
4th DCA 2000). "This is a limited jurisdiction and is calculated to protect the
party seeking or needing relief until the appellate court decides the issue on
appeal." Campbell v. Campbell, 436 So. 2d 374, 375 (Fla. 5th DCA 1983)
(emphasis in original).
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None of the QDROs entered after Former Husband filed his notice of
appeal contained language stating that the QDROs were temporary and
would only affect the parties until this Court decided this appeal. We hold
that the trial court exceeded its limited jurisdiction granted by Florida Rule of
Appellate Procedure 9.600(c)(1) when entering these QDROs while this
appeal was pending. We vacate the three additional February 2021 QDROs
and remand for further proceedings.
Accordingly, we affirm the Lockheed Retirement Program QDRO and
accompanying Addendum and vacate the February 2021 QDROs and
remand for further proceedings.
AFFIRMED IN PART; VACATE February 2021 QDROs; and
REMANDED with instructions.
LAMBERT, C.J. and SASSO, J., concur.
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