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REPORTED IN THE COURT OF SPECIAL APPEALS OF MARYLAND No. 2380 September Term, 2001 _________________________________ JACQUELINE LEADROOT v. PHILLIP C. LEADROOT _________________________________ Davis, Kenney, Krauser JJ. ____________________________________ Opinion by Krauser, J. ____________________________________

Filed: November 6, 2002

Appellant, Jacqueline E. Leadroot, appeals from an order of the Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County, claiming that the circuit court's order constitutes an untimely and therefore

improper "revision" of the parties' Qualified Domestic Relations Order (QDRO). disagrees. Her former husband, appellee Philip C. Leadroot,

He asserts that what appellant calls a revision was

only a "clarification" of their QDRO; therefore, he claims, it was neither untimely nor improper. But, while appellee requests that

we affirm the circuit court's "clarification" of the parties' QDRO, he asks that we reverse the court's denial of his request for "credit for taxes [he] paid on the pension arrearage." After considering the parties' conflicting claims, we conclude that the circuit court's order did "revise" the QDRO, as appellant contends. And because there was no evidence of fraud, mistake, or

irregularity, we further conclude that the circuit court's belated revision of that QDRO was improper and should be reversed. On the

other hand, we believe that the circuit court did not err in requiring appellee to pay appellant the pension benefits, withheld by him since his retirement, without crediting him for taxes paid on those benefits. BACKGROUND On February 4, 1974, appellee, as a member of the Uniform Secret Service, began contributing to the District of Columbia

Police

and

Firemen's

Retirement

Relief

Fund

(D.C.

Retirement

System).

Nineteen months later, on October 25, 1975, the parties

married. During their nineteen-year marriage, the couple had three children. In 1978, appellee was transferred to Chicago to work for the Immigration and Naturalization Service. To pay for the move to

Chicago, appellee redeemed the monthly retirement contributions he had made between 1974 and 1978, or as he put it, "cashed in" his retirement for those years. Five years later, in 1983, he was His new position enabled him to

hired as a criminal investigator.1

participate in the Civil Service Retirement System. In 1991, the parties separated. On April 21, 1993, the

Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County granted them a judgment of absolute divorce, and that judgment incorporated a Qualified

Domestic Relations Order ("1993 QDRO").

The 1993 QDRO awarded

appellant "one-half (

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