RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) – A North Carolina appeals court says a law allowing people to sue their spouse’s lover and collect damages is constitutional, so a jilted husband’s lawsuit against a doctor who stole his wife’s love can proceed.
The state Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday a trial court was wrong to throw out the lawsuit because the law violates constitutional protections of free speech and free expression. The decision resurrects the Forsyth County case that Marc Malecek filed after his wife’s 2015 affair with a physician at the hospital where she works as a nurse.
North Carolina is one of only about a half-dozen states that still 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.
