Rohrbeck v. Rohrbeck

ALAN M. WILNER, Judge,

Specially Assigned.

This case turns on whether the Circuit Court for Montgomery County entered a judgment — a final, appealable judgment — on July 13, 1988. It has a broader import than that, however, and requires an examination of the nature and function of a device unknown to our courts before 1985 — the Qualified Domestic Relations Order (QDRO). The precise issue before us, and the answer to it, will become more clear if we begin with a discussion of this recent addition to our jurisprudence.

I. The QDRO

In 1974, Congress passed ERISA — the Employee Retirement Income…