http://cbs2.com/watercooler/mistress.lawsuit.affection.2.1584907.html -I tried to find a direct AP news link but just found a ton from different outlets =/
Saw a segment about this and wanted to hear comments. Apparently the jury ruled that the mistress was the reason for the breakup of the marriage(she was awarded $5000 a month alimony from the divorce, although he’s apparently not paying?) and was ordered to pay $9M in damages. The law broken is an antique that was in place because wives were considered property that could be “stolen” by other men, and is apparently active in some form in 7 states.
Now I’m not condoning cheating/adultery, but this seems pretty extreme. Not only was the marriage apparently on the rocks(multiple bouts with marriage counseling before this mistress was in the picture) but she already divorced him, and as I mentioned above, is being paid monthly as part of the divorce. Plus it seems like a horrible thing to have resurface as a precedent, the judicial system doesn’t need to be getting involved in love triangles any more than they already do(which is, as a final word on whether the infidelity is breaking of prenups and allows larger awards to the victimized party).
Even just quickly browsing around trying to find the best link I could for the story(none have the details that were in the video piece I saw =/) I saw tons of comments of “yay bitch got what she deserved, that’ll teach women to take husbands” and “good to see the judicial system upholding moral code.” I guess that could be a way to take this, but I got the impression that this was some scorned woman looking for extra cash any way she could get it, and had her divorce lawyer find this law buried in the North Carolina code. Divorce alimony(and probably child support since she got both kids, forgot that earlier) isn’t enough, she needs more cash from the mistress.