22 U.S.C. 4054(A)(2) Remarriage Clause

In Wilson v. Collins, 27 Va. App. 411, 499 S.E.2d 560 (1998), the Court found no waiver of the "marriage disqualifier": We hold that the language of paragraph fourteen of the agreement and paragraph seven of the amendment does not constitute an express negation of the "remarriage clause" of 22 U.S.C. 4054(a)(2). The only issues expressly addressed in these paragraphs are: (1) the percentage of wife's share of husband's annuity upon his retirement or earlier separation from the foreign service; (2) wife's entitlement to a separate "survivor annuity,"; (3) husband's duty to perfect wife's entitlement by filing the required paperwork. Neither paragraph includes any reference to 22 U.S.C. 4054(a)(2) or the issue of whether wife's entitlement to a share of husband's retirement annuity is contingent upon her remaining unmarried. Although each paragraph states that wife "shall receive" the enumerated benefits, the intent of the parties to extend wife's statutory entitlement beyond the subsequent occurrence of her remarriage before the age of sixty can only, at most, be implied from this language. Because the intent of the parties to abrogate the effect of 22 U.S.C. 4054(a)(2) is not manifest from the terms of their agreement, that code section applies to wife. Id. at 422, 499 S.E.2d at 565.