Carpenter v. Carpenter

Almost twenty years after the entry of a judgment of divorce nisi that provided that the parties’ “marital property shall be divided with formula advanced by [Stanley R. Carpenter (husband)],” Patricia E. Carpenter (wife) filed a post-divorce complaint pursuant to G. L. c. 208, § 34, seeking a division of the husband’s municipal pension. The judge who presided at the trial on the postdivorce complaint (second judge) was not the judge who conducted the proceedings on the divorce *733complaint (first judge). The husband testified during the trial on the postdivorce complaint that his pension was…