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Can You Sue an Inlaw for Alienation of Affection

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  • 08-09-2014, 08:33 AM
    wonderingoutload
    Can You Sue an Inlaw for Alienation of Affection
    My question involves a marriage in the state of: North Carolina

    My brother in law is in the middle of an ugly divorce. Can he sue his sister in law for alienation of affection, for having a hand in breaking up his marriage?

    My brother in law has been married approximately 42 years. About 6 years ago his wife's sister (Single and never married) convinced them to move in with her, and rent out their house. The mental abuse got so bad, he finally had to ask for a separation, and move out. The abuse was constant, by the sister in law, and constantly pushing his wife, to mentally abuse him. He was dealing with diabetes, and was doing dialysis at home all night long. Then getting up and going to work all day. Was told he couldn't take a day off when he didn't feel well, just suck it up. He was told he was not allowed to retire. Unless he had someplace else to go, at least 3 days a week, because he wasn't allowed to just sit around my house doing nothing. But it was OK for his 35 year old son (going thru dialysis also) to do just that, (sit around doing nothing all day). Not having to find even a part time job.
    They would never cook anything he wanted to eat, only what they deemed he should eat. They forced him to sit in the backseat of his own car, because the sister in law refused to sit in back, and wouldn't ride with him driving. She even helped turn the 2 sons against him by supporting them financially, and letting them know who controlled the purse strings, and letting them know how fast it could stop.
    The sister in law constantly drove a wedge between them, until my brother in law could not take the mental abuse anymore.
  • 08-09-2014, 09:11 AM
    Disagreeable
    Re: Can You Sue an Inlaw for Alienation of Affection
    Nope, they should have moved out earlier. Though NC has a law where you can sue a spouses lover, it has become increasingly considered a violation of free speech and free expression, serving no legitimate state interest.
  • 08-10-2014, 06:14 AM
    aaron
    Re: Can You Sue an Inlaw for Alienation of Affection
    Although most states have abolished alienation of action as a cause of action, that has absolutely nothing to do with freedom of speech or expression.

    When you live with people you don't like, you can move. When you don't like what other people cook for you, you can pull yourself off of your posterior and cook something you like. If you don't like the fact that only two people can sit in the front of your car when you have a passenger, don't transport a passenger. If you don't want somebody else to support your family and children, support them yourself.
  • 08-10-2014, 11:18 AM
    Disagreeable
    Re: Can You Sue an Inlaw for Alienation of Affection
    I respectfully disagree Aaron and will cite the source.

    http://myfox8.com/2014/06/13/alienat...y-judge-rules/
  • 08-10-2014, 12:17 PM
    Mr. Knowitall
    Re: Can You Sue an Inlaw for Alienation of Affection
    I ask rhetorically, because the answer is obviously no: Do you know how much precedential value a trial court opinion has? If we started to cite news stories about off-the-wall trial court opinions as authority, while ignoring actual legal authority that exists on a given subject, we would be offering little service here.
  • 08-10-2014, 12:30 PM
    Dogmatique
    Re: Can You Sue an Inlaw for Alienation of Affection
    Humor me someone, please.

    Since when has AoA involved someone other than a lover?

    Or are we playing the usual game of "whose cheerios look the most yellow"?

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote:

    Quoting Mr. Knowitall
    View Post
    I ask rhetorically, because the answer is obviously no: Do you know how much precedential value a trial court opinion has? If we started to cite news stories about off-the-wall trial court opinions as authority, while ignoring actual legal authority that exists on a given subject, we would be offering little service here.

    Well there IS that... :D
  • 08-11-2014, 01:46 PM
    Mr. Knowitall
    Re: Can You Sue an Inlaw for Alienation of Affection
    Quote:

    Quoting Dogmatique
    View Post
    Since when has AoA involved someone other than a lover?

    North Carolina recognizes two different causes of action in the breakdown of a marital relationship: alienation of affection and criminal conversation. The former does not necessarily involve sexual intercourse and, at least in theory, it would be possible to prove an action against a non-lover. Various NC websites refer to the possibility alienation of affection statutes involving in-laws or other relatives (what one website I saw called the "mother-in-lawsuit"), although I've not searched for any actual cases involving such claims.

    What I did look for is any actual appellate authority in which an appellate court, reviewing an alienation of affection statute, found a First Amendment violation. I came up empty. I found a couple of cases that mentioned First Amendment claims that they disregarded as irrelevant to the outcome of the case, but came no closer than that. I have no way of knowing if the trial court that Disagreeable found was concerned that alienation of affection laws might limit somebody's right to talk to a married person as a supposed violation of their right to assembly, or if they viewed the third party as having the right to attempt to break up somebody else's marriage as a matter of constitutionally protected speech, but I don't find either argument to be compelling. I'll qualify that: if the case involved a third party telling a husband that his wife had an affair, leading to a divorce and the wife suing the third party for "alienation of affection", I can see how a court might allow a First Amendment defense -- but I somehow doubt that was the case.
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