Permanent Alimony

1. As stated in Cox v. Cox, 335 N.J. Super. 465 (App. Div. 2000), the most commonly expressed rationale for permanent alimony is:

   1. To compensate for benefits conferred on the other spouse by being responsible for homemaking and child rearing. The primary benefit is increased earning capacity of the other spouse who, while enjoying family life, was free to devote all productive time to income production.

   2. To compensate for the opportunity costs of homemaking. This is primarily lost earning capacity through the years of major responsibility for the home, either not being employed or holding employment subject to the needs of the family. Courts recognize this opportunity cost when they refer to the fact that the claimant for alimony had remained in the home in the traditional role of full-time homemaker. There is, also, a cost in lessened opportunity for remarriage which is greater for women than men and which increases the longer the marriage lasts.

   In short, a transfer of earning power occurs during a traditional marriage in which the homemaker spouse’s efforts increased the other’s earning capacity at the expense of her own. Alimony is an award formulated to compensate for that transfer by sufficiently (fairly) meeting reasonable needs for support not otherwise met by property division and personal income.

   On any application for permanent alimony, it is incumbent upon the trial judge to first consider and make specific findings on the evidence as to the statutory factors set forth in N.J.S.A. 2A:34-23b. If the judge determines that permanent alimony is not warranted, further specific findings setting forth the judge's reasons for that determination must be made. N.J.S.A. 2A:34-23c. Consideration of any other form of alimony, including limited duration alimony, may follow only after those determinations and findings have been made.

    

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