Shirley P. Morgan, in her capacity as the Administratrix for the Estate of Lisa A. Bicknell v. Richard C. Bicknell

Syllabus

The defendant, Richard C. Bicknell, appealed from a final judgment entered in favor of the plaintiff, Shirley P. Morgan, in her capacity as Administratrix for the Estate of Lisa A. Bicknell, following the grant of summary judgment in accordance with Rule 56 of the Superior Court Rules of Civil Procedure. The defendant argued that the trial justice erred in granting summary judgment because a genuine issue of material fact remained as to whether the decedent's failure to change the beneficiary on her retirement plan constituted a waiver of the defendant's waiver of his interest in the retirement account under a Property Settlement Agreement (PSA) entered into in the Family Court in a divorce matter. The Supreme Court concluded that the decedent's failure to remove the defendant as the beneficiary of the retirement plan was of no moment because this would not affect the defendant's waiver contained in the PSA. Therefore, the Court held that this was a matter of contract interpretation and, thus, the PSA controlled the merits of this appeal. The Supreme Court held that the PSA clearly and unambiguously stated that the defendant waived \any and all interest\ in the retirement plan and that there was no evidence of any modification or waiver of the PSA in writing as required by the PSA. Accordingly, the Court held that no genuine issue of material fact remained in dispute and that the trial justice properly granted summary judgment in favor of the plaintiff. Therefore, the Court affirmed the judgment of the Superior Court.