S-1596               _______________________________________________

                                         SUBSTITUTE SENATE BILL NO. 5278

                        _______________________________________________

State of Washington                              50th Legislature                              1987 Regular Session

By Senate Committee on Judiciary (originally sponsored by Senators Tanner and Conner)

Read first time 2/06/87.

AN ACT Relating to community property; and adding a new section to chapter 26.16 RCW.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1.  A new section is added to chapter 26.16 RCW to read as follows:

          (1) Community property settlements, judgments, or decrees that became final on or after June 25, 1981, and before February 1, 1983, shall, upon the filing of a petition for modification of decree of dissolution to reconsider division of military retirement pay, be reconsidered by the court and may be modified to include a division of military retirement compensation payable on or after February 1, 1983, in a manner consistent with federal law and the law of this state as it existed before June 26, 1981, and as it has existed since February 1, 1983.

          (2) Modification of community property settlements, judgments, or decrees under this section may be granted whether the property settlement, judgment, or decree expressly reserved the military retirement pay issue for further determination, omitted any reference to military retirement pay, or assumed in any manner, implicitly or otherwise, that military retirement pay, divisible as community property before June 25, 1981, and on or after February 1, 1983, was not, as of the date the property settlement, judgment, or decree became final, divisible community property.  For purposes of a modification of a community property settlement, judgment, or decree under this subsection, military retirement pay may be included in the community property division.

          (3) Any proceeding brought pursuant to this section shall be brought before July 1, 1988.