“A spurned wife in North Carolina has made her husband’s mistress pay for ruining their marriage — literally — by suing her successfully for $9 million.”
In most states, including New York, the adulterous lovers of married people are safe; they can not be sued for alienation of affection. The cause of action has been abolished in all but a handful of states: Hawaii, Illinois, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Carolina, South Dakota, and Utah.
The New York Civil Rights Law provides that:
The rights of action to recover sums of money as damages for alienation of
affections, criminal conversation, seduction, or breach of contract to
marry are abolished.
In the North Carolina case, according to the TimesOnline, a jury awarded Cynthia Shackelford five million dollars in compensatory damages and four million dollars in punitive damages against Anne Lundquist, whom she accused of deliberately seducing her husband
