Defendant appeals by right from the judgment entered in a divorce action between defendant and plaintiff, spouses for fifty-nine years. Awarding alimony is in the court's discretion. Alimony determinations must be based on what is just and reasonable under the circumstances of the case. Defendant argues that the trial court erred in awarding alimony to plaintiff when she demonstrated no particularized need for it.
Defendant also emphasizes that plaintiff received an equal division of the marital property.
However, assuming that the trial court equally divided the marital property, that still left unsettled the question of whether the parties' incomes would be roughly equal. The main objective of alimony is to balance the income. . Ackerman , supra at 302. Sparks , supra at 141, 151-152. In doing so, the trial court took into consideration defendant's and plaintiff's monthly Social Security benefits as well as defendant's federal pension.