## Facts

- Paul Archibald Cameron served in the U.S. Air Force from 1954 until retirement in August 1977.
- Paul and Sue Akers Cameron married in 1957 and briefly lived in California (a community-property state) before spending most of the marriage domiciled in common-law (non-community) property states.
- After Paul’s retirement, the couple moved to Texas; Sue filed for divorce in Texas in 1978.
- Disputed assets included (1) Paul’s military nondisability retirement pay based largely on service performed while the couple lived in common-law states and (2) U.S. Savings Bonds acquired during marriage while domiciled in common-law states.
- The trial court awarded Sue 35% of Paul’s gross present and future military retirement pay and 50% of the savings bonds; other property divisions were not contested.

## Issues

1. Whether Texas law permits a Texas divorce court to treat property acquired during marriage while the spouses were domiciled in common-law states as marital property subject to division in a manner analogous to community property.
2. Whether federal law permits division of military nondisability retirement pay upon divorce, and if so, whether such authority is limited by the effective date of the Uniformed Services Former Spouses’ Protection Act (USFSPA).
3. Whether U.S. Savings Bonds acquired during marriage in common-law jurisdictions must be treated as one spouse’s separate property or may be divided in a Texas divorce.

## Decision

- The Texas Supreme Court held that Texas may treat certain out-of-state acquisitions as quasi-community property for division in a Texas divorce, construing the governing provision as substantive law.
- The court reversed the court of civil appeals as to military retirement pay, holding the retirement pay could be divided only for the period beginning after June 25, 1981 (the USFSPA effective date).
- The court reversed the court of civil appeals and affirmed the trial court’s 50/50 division of the U.S. Savings Bonds.
- The court rejected the view that division could be justified as a “police power” divestiture of true separate property; the division had to rest on proper marital-property characterization.

## Legal Principles

- Texas may apply a quasi-community property doctrine in divorce to divide property acquired during marriage while domiciled in non-community property states, treating it as if community property for division purposes.
- A statute authorizing division of property acquired elsewhere may operate as substantive marital-property law, not merely as a procedural or venue provision.
- Federal preemption bars state division of military nondisability retirement pay for periods governed by McCarty v. McCarty; state authority to divide such pay exists only to the extent restored by the USFSPA, effective June 25, 1981.
- Assets acquired during marriage in common-law jurisdictions (including U.S. Savings Bonds) may be divisible in a Texas divorce when characterized as quasi-community property rather than as one spouse’s separate property.

## Conclusion

Texas permits equitable division at divorce of quasi-community property acquired during marriage in common-law states, including savings bonds, but division of military nondisability retirement pay is limited to payments attributable to periods after the USFSPA’s June 25, 1981 effective date.


Cameron v. Cameron, 641 S.W.2d 210 (Tex. 1982)