Bottiggi v. Wall

Dolores Bottiggi was divorced from her husband, Robert Wall, by a final decree entered in 1976. In 1991, she filed a complaint seeking an equitable division of Wall’s United States Navy retirement pension. A judge of the Probate Court dismissed Bottiggi’s complaint on grounds of res judicata and on grounds that, even if the merits were open for consideration, the Federal Uniformed Services Former Spouses’ Protection Act, 10 U.S.C. § 1408(c)(1) (1990) (USFSPA), prohibited the *431pension division she sought. From that dismissal, Bottiggi appeals.1 The judge’s dismissal of the case on grounds of…