Facts
Y. and X. were married on 11 April 1972. With a judgment dated 1 October 2002, which became enforceable on 1 November 2002 after the expiry of the appeal period, the Superior Court of the District of A. (United States) pronounced the divorce of the parties and ordered the equal division of the husband's pension assets with the pension fund of the Confederation (now PUBLICA). As PUBLICA refused to transfer half of the pension assets to Y. until the divorce judgment had been recognized and declared enforceable by a Swiss court, X. filed a request for exequatur of the American judgment with the Court of Appeal of the Canton of Berne on 12 June 2003. By decision of 25 July 2003, the Court of Appeal rejected this request. Seized by appeals from Y. and X., the Federal Tribunal annulled the decision of the Court of Appeal of 25 July 2003 by judgment of 11 March 2004. The Court of Appeal then recognized the American divorce judgment of 1 October 2002 by decision of 1 June 2004, declared it enforceable, and referred the file to the Administrative Tribunal of the Canton of Berne for the division of the termination benefit amount.Considerations
According to established case law, the decisive moment for the division of pension assets in the event of divorce is the entry into force of the divorce judgment, and not the date of the pronouncement of the judgment. This applies not only to Art. 122 CC, but also in other areas of law, such as the loss of the legal succession rights of the spouses or Art. 24a para. 1 let. a OASIA. The doctrine is unanimous on this point.
Since the…