Nevada family-law case summaries

Richard and Eleni Kilgore married in 1992, both worked for Clark County (Richard as a marshal, Eleni as a teacher), and both earned retirement benefits through Nevada's PERS system. They divorced in 2013. The decree said how each spouse's PERS benefits would be split when the time came, but it did not address vacation pay or sick pay either spouse had built up during the marriage. In 2015, Eleni asked the district court to make Richard start paying her share of his PERS benefits, because Richard had reached the age and years-of-service combination that made him eligible to retire (he became eligible in 2011, when he turned 50, after more than 20 years as a marshal). She also asked for half of the vacation and sick pay Richard had accumulated during the marriage. Richard wanted to keep working to maximize his pension and argued he should not have to pay Eleni anything until he actually retires. The district court agreed that Eleni was entitled to her community-property share dating back to her March 2015 motion. It calculated that, had Richard retired, Eleni would have received $2,455 per month from PERS. Adding up the period from March 2015 to early 2017, the court found Richard owed Eleni $56,575.76 and reduced that to a judgment Eleni could collect by lawful means. But after looking closely at Richard's finances - his child-support obligation, basic living expenses, and what garnishment law would allow - the court ordered Richard to pay only $350 per month toward that judgment, rather than the full $2,455. The court also ordered Richard to pay Eleni half of the vacation and sick pay he had accrued during the marriage (after taxes). Both sides appealed. Richard argued the court should not have ordered any pre-retirement payment. Eleni argued she should have received the full $2,455 per month. Richard also argued vacation and sick pay are not community property and that it was too late to raise them. The Nevada Supreme Court affirmed everything. On the pension question, the court explained that under its prior decision in Gemma v. Gemma, a non-employee spouse can ask for her share of pension benefits once the employee spouse is first eligible to retire, even if he keeps working. But the Legislature later passed NRS 125.155, which gives the district court discretion to deny - or, the Supreme Court reasoned, reduce - such pre-retirement payments. The district court here used that discretion fairly: it preserved Eleni's full community-property interest by entering a judgment for the full amount owed, while letting Richard pay it down at $350 per month given his finances. On the vacation and sick pay, the court explained that a 2015 statute, NRS 125.150(3), lets either spouse come back within three years of discovering a mistakenly omitted asset and ask the court to divide it. Eleni did so within that window. The court held that vacation and sick pay earned during the marriage are a form of deferred compensation and therefore community property, even though they may be cashed out later.