Uhhhhhhhhh.......
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -- A jilted husband's lawsuit against a doctor accused of stealing his wife's love can proceed, thanks to an appeals court ruling in North Carolina that lets people sue their spouse's lover and collect damages.The state Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday that a trial court was wrong to throw out Marc Malecek's lawsuit due to concerns about constitutional protections of free speech and free expression. The decision resurrects the case he filed over what he said was his wife's affair with a physician at the hospital where she works as a nurse.North Carolina is one of about a half-dozen states that allow lawsuits accusing a cheating spouse's lover of alienation of affection and criminal conversation. Most other states have stopped allowing such disputes to go to court.
It does sound like property law.
ReplyDeleteVisiting a common vexing issue?
ReplyDeleteAs olcharlie' post implies, how one handles the cheating spouse reveals underlying assumptions. The assumptions cover many things from self esteem to the nature of marriage.
Personally, I don't see this as a property based law but an attempt to create a deterrent to cheating. I can see the ability to sue the spouse's lover as a variant of being able to sue the spouse for divorce with the resulting hopefully in settling things like child visitation rights, child support, division of property, alimony, etc. I' tend to think that the ability to sue the lover can help the divorce case. It may have a remote effect on getting involved with a married person. In the "proximate" situation "the heart wants what the heart wants," but if one risks financial loss if one gets involved with a married person one might avoid or at least hesitate before getting involved. But yes, there will always be risk takers and other personality issues where such laws don't have much of an effect,
Here's Hank William's POV