Sandra Jean Dale Boggs v. Thomas F. Boggs, Harry M. Boggs and David B. Boggs (520 U.S. 833)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided June 2, 1997 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 520 U.S. 833 · 117 S. Ct. 1754
- Decided
- June 2, 1997
- Term
- October Term 1996
- Vote
- 5–4
- Majority author
- Justice Kennedy
- Issue area
- Federalism
- Disposition
- Reversed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
Opinion excerpt
Justice Kennedy delivered the opinion of the Court. We consider whether the Émployee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), 88 Stat. 832, as amended, 29 U. S. C. § 1001 et seq., pre-empts a state law allowing a nonparticipant spouse to transfer by testamentary instrument an interest in undistributed pension plan benefits. Given the pervasive significance of pension plans in the national economy, the congressional mandate for their uniform and comprehensive regulation, and the fundamental importance of community property law in defining the marital partnership in a number of States, the question is of undoubted importance. We hold that ERISA pre-empts the state law. I Isaac Boggs worked for South Central Bell from 1949 until his retirement in 1985. Isaac and Dorothy, his first wife, were married when he began working for the company, and they remained husband and wife until Dorothy’s death in 1979. They had three sons. Within a year of Dorothy’s death, Isaac married Sandra, and they remained married until his death in 1989. Upon retirement, Isaac received various benefits from his employer’s retirement plans. ' One was a lump-sum distribution from the Bell System Savings Plan for Salaried Employees (Savings Plan) of $151,628^94, which he rolled over into an Individual Retirement Account (IRA). He made no withdrawals and the account was worth $180,778.05 when he died.…
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