McDermott v. McDermott

The principal issue presented on this appeal requires us to consider whether the trial court, in the exercise of the broad *384discretion accorded to it by Domestic Relations Law § 236 (B), may limit the election by an employee spouse among alternate options available upon retirement under a public employment pension plan, and compel the employee spouse to designate irrevocably the nonemployee spouse as a beneficiary of pension benefits pursuant to the selected option. My colleagues in the majority concur in Special Term’s ruling in this case of apparent first impression in this department, that…