Emond v. Office of Personnel Management

Elizabeth A. Emond petitions for review of a decision of the Merit Systems Protection Board (“MSPB”) ruling that she is not entitled to receive a former spouse annuity. We affirm.

Background

Until their divorce in 1989, Ms. Emond was married to Bobby Burns, a federal employee who died while still employed by the Internal Revenue Service. In 2009, Ms, Emond applied to the United States Office of Personnel Management (“OPM”) for a survivor annuity. Relying on a copy of a March 24, 1989, divorce decree from Virginia state court that Ms. Emond had provided, which awarded Ms. Emond a former spouse…