In Re Marriage of Skaden

Opinion

SULLIVAN, J. *

In In re Marriage of Brown (1976) 15 Cal.3d 838 [126 Cal.Rptr. 633, 544 P.2d 561], this court, overruling a long line of prior decisions originating in French v. French (1941) 17 Cal.2d 775 [112 P.2d 235, 134 A.L.R. 366], held that a spouse’s retirement pension rights, whether or not vested, represent a property interest, and that to the extent such rights derive from employment during coverture, they comprise a community asset subject to division in a dissolution proceeding. In the instant case we confront the related question whether vested “termination benefits”…