Herring v. Herring
Annotate this CaseThe parties to this appeal reached a settlement in their divorce, providing that the qualified marital portion of the husband’s pension would be distributed to the wife and the nonqualified portion would be distributed to the husband, subject to a provision for equitable reallocation if the values of those portions changed significantly. The settlement also described four firearms and ammunition that the husband would deliver to the wife. After the decree issued, the wife’s portion of the pension declined in value and the husband’s portion increased, so the wife filed motions attempting to obtain information about the reasons for this change in value and attempting to enforce the settlement agreement’s equitable reallocation provision to compensate for the changes. She also argued that the husband had not delivered the guns. The superior court ruled for the husband in all respects, and it awarded enhanced attorney’s fees against the wife. The wife appealed. After review, the Alaska Supreme Court concluded that the significant change in the relative values of the parties’ pension accounts triggered the verification and reallocation provision of their settlement agreement. Accordingly, the superior court’s denial of the wife’s motion for an equitable reallocation was reversed and the case remanded for an equitable reallocation according to the parties’ agreement. Because the husband was no longer the prevailing party, the Court also vacated the superior court’s award of attorney’s fees to the husband. The Court affirmed the superior court’s decision as to the issue over the guns.
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.