Wife Deemed Not Entitled to Maintenance

In reversing Supreme Court and determining the wife was not entitled to maintenance, the Third Department wrote:

While “[t]he amount and duration of [a maintenance] award are addressed to the sound  discretion of the trial court” (…see Domestic  Relations Law  §  236  [B] [6] [a]), “this Court’s authority is as broad as Supreme  Court’s in resolving questions of maintenance”….  Accordingly, we  find that under  the circumstances of this case – where  the marriage was not of particularly long duration, the parties had no  children, the wife has stable employment  that provides her a significant salary, the  wife  is not  losing  retirement  or  health benefits and  the parties’ predivorce standard of living was falsely inflated by  overextended lines of credit – the statutory factors do  not support an  award  of maintenance  (see Domestic Relations Law  §  236  [B] [6] [a] [1]-[20]…).  McCaffrey v McCaffrey, 515718, 3rd Dept, 6-6-13