Kilgore v. Kilgore

The Supreme Court affirmed the district court's distribution of community property upon the divorce of Richard Kilgore and Eleni Kilgore, holding that a district court has significant discretion when determining whether to grant or deny a non-employee spouse's request for pension payments before the employee spouse has retired.

On appeal, Richard argued that the district court (1) abused its discretion in concluding that Eleni was entitled to her community property share of his pension benefits even though he had not yet retired, reduced the amount to a judgment, and ordered him to pay Eleni a monthly amount it deemed fair, and (2) erred when it concluded that his vacation and sick pay were omitted from the divorce decree and thereafter divided them equally between the parties. The Supreme Court affirmed, holding that the district court (1) did not abuse its discretion in granting Eleni's request for pension payments before Richard retired; and (2) did not err in considering the omitted assets and dividing them equally between the parties.