US:HE IS A 59-year-old luxury car salesman who won divorce from his wife of 38 years in May 2007. She is the same age, a high school graduate with few skills whose health problems prevent her from working.
Because people are living longer, into their 80s and 90s, he should not be expected to pay lifetime support to his former wife, according to a ruling by State Supreme Court Justice Anthony Falanga of Nassau County, New York.
Courts must begin to recognise that requiring lifetime support payments "may require a payor spouse in his or her 90s and older to continue to support a dependent spouse in his or her 90s or older," Justice Falanga wrote in a decision last month.
His 16-page ruling awards the wife in the case 10 years of support payments of $3,000 a month.
The wife had sought lifetime support because of her poor health and inability to work, according to court records.
While each case is unique, a court opinion that acknowledges people were living longer without earned income would get noticed in the legal community, said Mitchell Greebel, the husband's attorney.While lifetime spousal support would not disappear, judges and litigants might give it more scrutiny, Mr Greebel said.
Jay Davis represented the wife, a breast cancer survivor who told the court she suffered from, among other conditions, chronic fatigue syndrome and spinal disc herniation. Her income was $592 a month in social security disability benefits.
"I'm not happy that she didn't get lifetime maintenance, but it was a well-reasoned decision," Mr Davis said, calling it "fair." He said: "This guy is not going to work 20 or 30 more years."
A Jaguar salesman, the husband was projected to earn $80,000 in 2007. The couple's home in Massapequa was valued at $675,000 in 2006.
Considered generally to be in good health, the husband has had heart and back problems. He testified in court that he did not plan to work beyond 65.
To support his ruling, Justice Falanga cited the most recent data published by the National Center for Health Statistics, that this husband had a work life expectancy of four more years and a life expectancy of 20. The wife had a work life expectancy of three more years and a life expectancy of 24, he said.
"In considering a demand by a dependent spouse for lifetime maintenance, a court must consider whether the payor spouse will have sufficient assets to pay the court-ordered maintenance upon his or her retirement," the opinion states.