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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
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    1

    Question Alienation And Criminal Conversation In North Carolina

    Married Friend. We went out for drinks/talking after work on 3 occasions. The first occasion and the third, the wife was invited along, but refused. The second occasion my friend got hammered and slept on my couch because he couldn't drive home (over an hour away). 2 months after 3rd occasion, wife uses his email account to tell me she found out that he had stayed the night and for me to never talk to or see him again. I tell her nothing happened, ask her to call me if she wants to discuss anything further and then resolve to never be seen outside of work or in private/closeted conversation with this person again. They go into marriage therapy (not first time for marital problems).

    Flash forward one year. Marriage therapy fails. She asks for a divorce, he says ok and moves permanently into a new apartment. (Later she said that she was just bluffing.) He and I get involved romantically. She begins emailing and threatening me with alienation of affection and criminal conversation lawsuits while trying to reestablish the marriage. She threatened to get us both fired and called our place of work. I lost a bonus and was threatened with my job and he was simply threatened with his job from the management. After insisting that we tell no one that they are separated and divorcing, she wages a campaign with other colleagues, by approaching them in public places and telling them how he and I have had an ongoing affair at work for the last two years.

    Given her behavior and that she has borderline personality disorder, I'm pretty sure that she will launch a suit. My questions are:

    1.) What precisely is the burden of proof required to substantiate claims for these lawsuits in North Carolina?

    2.) What are the possible defenses to these claims...especially a claim of criminal conversation?

    3.) When does the clock start running on the statute of limitations?

    Thanks for any help in advance.....

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Mar 2005
    Location
    Michigan
    Posts
    28,906

    Default Re: Alienation And Criminal Conversation In North Carolina

    Both actions are subject to a three year statute of limitations. See N.C.G.S. § 1-52(5). The statute of limitations appears to start running when the extramarital relationship is discovered.

    The elements of alienation of affections in North Carolina are:
    (1) a marriage;

    (2) a genuine love and affection existed between the spouses;

    (3) the love and affection existing between the spouses was alienated and destroyed; and

    (4) the wrongful and malicious acts of the defendant caused the loss and alienation of such love and affection.
    Litchfield v. Cox, 266 N.C. 622, 623, 146 S.E.2d 641 (1966).

    While the second element can be met in marriages that are less than stable, the fourth element cannot be met unless the third party's acts are malicious. (Even when you know the other person is married it can be a defense to argue that there was no intent to alienate affections within the marriage, although that's probably a risky defense.)

    It is my understanding that to prevail in a criminal conversation lawsuit you would have to prove the following three elements:
    1. You, the innocent spouse, are legally married to the adulterous spouse;

    2. One or more acts of sexual intercourse occured between your spouse and a third party; and

    3. That the adulterous act (or acts) occurred within the three-year statute of limitations.
    The only defense to a criminal conversation suit, once those elements are satisfied, is that the innocent spouse consented to or encouraged the adultery before it took place.

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