## Facts

- Deon Richard and Roberta Skinner Richard married in 1973, several months after the birth of their daughter.
- Deon had been discharged from the military in 1969 and received military disability payments.
- Deon later converted those military disability payments to Social Security disability benefits payable under the federal Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) program.
- At the time of the parties’ divorce in 1981, Deon, Roberta, and their daughter each received separate Social Security checks attributable to Deon’s disability (Deon’s own benefit and derivative benefits to Roberta and the child).
- After Deon filed for divorce, the trial court granted the divorce and awarded Roberta custody of the daughter.
- As part of the property division and support-related provisions, the trial court awarded Roberta:
  - one-half of Deon’s Social Security disability payments, and
  - all of Roberta’s own Social Security disability payments, and
  - the child’s Social Security payment to be received by Roberta for the child’s benefit in lieu of child support.
- Deon appealed only the portion of the decree that awarded Roberta one-half of his personal Social Security disability benefits.

## Issues

1. Does the Supremacy Clause preempt a Texas divorce court from dividing a spouse’s Social Security disability benefits under the OASDI program as community property?
2. Do the Social Security Act’s anti-assignment and anti-legal-process protections (including 42 U.S.C. § 407) prohibit a decree awarding the nonbeneficiary spouse a share of the beneficiary spouse’s disability checks?

## Decision

- The court held the trial court erred by awarding Roberta one-half of Deon’s Social Security disability benefits.
- Federal law preempted Texas community-property division of Deon’s OASDI disability benefits, and 42 U.S.C. § 407 barred diversion of those benefits through a divorce decree.
- The court reversed the portion of the judgment divesting Deon of one-half of his Social Security disability benefits and rendered judgment eliminating that award.
- The remainder of the divorce decree was left in place, including provisions concerning custody and the continued receipt of the separate derivative benefits paid to Roberta and the child.

## Legal Principles

- Under the Supremacy Clause, a state court may not apply state marital-property rules in a way that conflicts with a federal benefits program established by Congress.
- The Social Security Act protects benefits from transfer or assignment and from execution, levy, attachment, garnishment, or other legal process. 42 U.S.C. § 407.
- A divorce decree that awards the nonbeneficiary spouse a portion of the beneficiary spouse’s Social Security disability checks operates as legal process that diverts federally protected benefits and therefore conflicts with § 407.
- Congress created a uniform federal system for determining who receives Social Security benefits and in what amounts; allowing community-property division of the worker’s benefit would cause differing results based on state property law and would interfere with the federal design.
- The existence of separate dependent and child benefits within the federal program supports treating each payment as payable only to the federally designated beneficiary, rather than as divisible marital property.

## Conclusion

Richard v. Richard holds that a Texas divorce court cannot characterize or divide a spouse’s Social Security disability benefits as community property because federal law, including 42 U.S.C. § 407 and the Supremacy Clause, preempts such a division; the appellate court therefore removed the award granting the wife one-half of the husband’s disability benefit while leaving the rest of the decree intact.


Richard v. Richard, 659 S.W.2d 746 (1983)