(plaintiff and spouse divorced in 2005 and entered into QDRO designating plaintiff as alternate payee under ex-spouse's qualified retirement plan; QDRO provided that plaintiff to receive 53 percent of ex-spouse's accrued benefit as of 12/20/04, and if payments to plaintiff began while ex-spouse still employed payments to be computed as if ex-spouse had retired on date on which payments to plaintiff began, not accounting for value of play subsidy for early retirement benefits; if ex-spouse retired before age 65, plaintiff's benefit to be recalculated to include 53 percent of any employer subsidy for early retirement; plaintiff elected to begin receiving benefits when ex-spouse turned 55; three years later ex-spouse terminated due to company-wide workforce reduction which made ex-spouse eligible for early retirement benefit equal to 80.7 percent of normal benefit; because purpose of separation benefit to enhance early retirement benefits and because ex-spouse eligible for early retirement, such amount was subsidy for early retirement and was within meaning of "early subsidy for early retirement" as defined by QDRO; plaintiff entitled to 53 percent of early retirement benefit).
Gruber v. PPL Retirement Plan, et al., No. 12-2123, 2013 U.S. App. LEXIS 7149 (3d Cir. Apr. 9, 2013)
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