Appeal from a judgment of the Supreme Court (Relihan, Jr., J.) ordering, inter alia, equitable distribution of the parties’ marital property, entered December 29, 1999 in Tioga County, upon a decision of the court.
The parties were married in 1971 and separated in 1996. They have no children. Plaintiff commenced this action for a divorce in 1998 and the parties stipulated to the entry of a judgment of divorce in favor of plaintiff and an essentially equal division of their real property, tangible personal property, bank accounts and investments. The parties sought Supreme Court’s determination of the disputed issues of, as here relevant, defendant’s obligation to pay plaintiff maintenance and provide her with postdivorce health insurance benefits and the equitable distribution of defendant’s Federal pension. Based upon the parties’ 28-year marriage and disparate earnings capacity — plaintiff earned $18,500 as parts manager at an automobile dealership and defendant earned over $70,000 as an accountant for a Federal agency — Supreme
We affirm. Initially, we are not persuaded that Supreme Court abused its discretion in refusing to factor into its Majauskas analysis that defendant, as a Federal pensioner, would not be entitled to receive Social Security benefits, whereas plaintiff would be entitled to receive such benefits. In its written decision, Supreme Court expressly recognized that defendant would not be entitled to receive Social Security benefits and indicated that the resulting disparity woxdd be taken into account in its award of maintenance. In view of the interrelationship between awards of maintenance and awards of equitable distribution (see, Domestic Relations Law § 236 [B] [5] [d] [5]; [6] [a] [1]), and Supreme Court’s substantial discretion in determining what distribution of marital property will be equitable under all the circumstances (see, Arvantides v Arvantides,
We are similarly unpersuaded that Supreme Court abused its substantial discretion to establish the amount and duration of maintenance (see, Pratt v Pratt,
Peters, Spain, Carpinello and Rose, JJ., concur. Ordered that the judgment is affirmed, without costs.
