MINEOLA (AP) - Longer life expectancies should be a factor as courts consider divorced couples' future financial obligations to each other, a judge wrote in deciding one couple's case.

As people live longer, courts must acknowledge that requiring spousal support payments for life "may require a payor spouse in his or her 90s and older to support a dependent spouse in his or her 90s or older," state Supreme Court Judge Hon. Anthony Falanga wrote in a decision last month.

He was ruling on a 59-year-old woman's request for lifetime support from her ex-husband, also 59. The former couple, who divorced in May 2007 after 38 years of marriage, was not named in court records.

The ex-wife told the court that medical problems prevented her from working, and that her disability benefits total $592 per month. The former husband, a luxury-car salesman, made about $80,000 last year.

Falanga awarded the wife $3,000 per month in support for 10 years, saying courts must consider whether support payments are feasible after the paying spouse retires.

The ruling may spur judges and couples to give more scrutiny to the concept of lifetime support, said the husband's lawyer, Mitchell Greebel.

The wife's attorney, Jay Davis, called the decision fair, if not what he had wanted.

"This guy is not going to work 20 or 30 more years," he said.

The life expectancy for an average American hit a record high of 77.9 years in 2005, the most recent year for which statistics are available from the federal Centers for Disease Control. The figure was up from 75.8 years in 1995, and 69.6 years in 1955.