Diaz v. Babauta

Opinion

SONENSHINE, J.

Evangelis Babauta appeals from a postjudgment order finding his Marine Corps voluntary separation incentive (VSI) pay is the community property of himself and his former wife, Bernadette Babauta (now Bernadette Diaz). In this case of first impression in California, we decide whether the trial court possessed jurisdiction to divide the benefit and, if so, if it is community or separate property.1

I

At the time the parties divorced, Evangelis was a captain in the Marine Corps. Their 1991 dissolution judgment reserved the court’s jurisdiction over Evangelis’s military…