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STATE OF MICHIGAN
COURT OF APPEALS


WAYNE S. BARBER, Plaintiff-Appellant, v SHARON BARBER, Defendant-Appellee.

UNPUBLISHED January 6, 1998

No. 198752 Macomb Circuit Court LC No. 93-003351 DO

Before: MacKenzie, P.J., and Hood and Hoekstra, JJ. PER CURIAM. By delayed leave to appeal granted, plaintiff challenges a post-judgment order of the Macomb Circuit Court, construing the spousal support provisions of the divorce judgment and ancillary qualifying domestic relations order (QDRO) so as to require plaintiff to continue paying alimony until his fiftieth birthday, which occurred on June 19, 1997. This appeal is being decided without oral argument pursuant to MCR 7.214(E). We affirm. In relevant part, the spousal support provisions of the divorce judgment provided for termination of the plaintiff 's alimony obligation upon "defendant's eligibility to collect her General Motors' retirement benefits." The contemporaneous QDRO, in subparagraphs 5.a.(i)-(iv) accorded to defendant various options as to when she might elect to receive her fifty-percent share of plaintiff 's pension benefits under the plan of his employer, General Motors Corporation. Under these provisions of the QDRO, defendant could elect to begin receiving her share of the pension benefits at different possible times, and such options would be removed only by the fact of plaintiff 's actual retirement prior to the exercise of such elections. Paragraph 5.c. of the QDRO grants defendant "the right to elect to receive benefit payments under the plan at any time beginning when the participant reaches early retirement age as defined in

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Michigan Law