Oklahoma Court of Civil Appeals

Division IV

119,233 — Tresa Diann Evans, Petitioner/Appellant, vs. Marcus Lynn Evans, Respondent/Appellee.  Appeal from an Order of the District Court of Oklahoma County, Hon. Martha Oakes, Trial Judge.  Tresa Diann Evans (Wife) appeals the trial court’s order nunc pro tunc correcting a previously filed Qualified Domestic Relations Order (QDRO) relating to the division of Marcus Lynn Evans’s (Husband) pension with the Oklahoma Firefighters Pension and Retirement System.  Wife argues the trial court erred by entering the nunc pro tunc QDRO without her requested language allowing her a share of the cost-of-living increase to the pension benefit.  The trial court is without jurisdiction or authority to issue a QDRO that substantively alters a final property division made in a divorce decree, and may only issue a subsequent QDRO if an initial one contains some ambiguity concerning the proper division of a retirement benefit under an earlier entered divorce decree, as long as the later QDRO does not alter what was awarded initially by the decree.  Here, the decree awarded Wife one-half of the “present value” of Husband’s pension, determined to be a monthly benefit of $1,812.13.  Accordingly, the trial court properly declined to include Wife’s requested language in the nunc pro tunc QDRO, and we affirm the trial court’s order.  AFFIRMED.  Opinion from Court of Civil Appeals, Division IV, by HIXON, P.J.; FISCHER, V.C.J., and RAPP, J., concur. – November 29, 2021