Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Should Mistresses Be Sued?

I'm sure most of you have heard of the North Carlina woman that sued her husband's mistress awhile ago and WON. She won $9 million dollars. Apparently there are about nine states that recognize an old law called Alienation of Affection that gives a wife the right to sue a mistress involved in an affair with her husband.

Since this ruling there has been a lot of going back and forth on whether this law should even still be valid or whether or not suing this woman would even be worth it. I don't have all the answers but I will say this, I think there should be some sort of penalty for the mistress.

Sure many of you feel that the mistress doesn't owe the wife anything but there should be some decency code that we should all live by and violating that should come with consequence. The Mistress might not owe the wife anything technically but what ever happened to respect and decency?

Sure the husband gets his "just deserts" by losing his wife and family structure and in many cases sever financial obligations but the mistress who knowingly goes after a married man should not get off scott free in my opinion.

Maybe more rulings like the one in North Carolina would curtail such behavior in the long run.

Hmmmm...a decency clause? Hmmm...... I don't know, what do you guys think? Am I way off base in my thinking?


16 People saying stuff:

Moooooog35 said...

The mistress doesn't get off scott free.

Unless the guy's name is Scott.

True story.

Julie D said...

In a word....yes. I'd sue that whore that broke up my marriage in a heartbeat. LOL

However, she didn't do it alone. She's 50% responsible for it, my cheating husband was responsible for the other half.

Unfortunately neither of them have a pot to piss in, so we're all still broke.

Karen said...

A mistress has no fiduciary or legal obligation to the marriage or the wife. We don't sue for poor morals in this country - even in divorce and family courts. As a divorce lawyer this is an issue I follow closely.

A mistress doesn't break up a marriage. The husband who cheated did.

★Starrla said...

I agree with Karen....sometimes husbands lie and the mistress technically may not have known that he was married. I feel like the beef should never be with the woman....this man is YOUR husband so take up your feelings of outrage with him.

ByHisGraceOnly said...

Husbands lie. Some ladies don't know the are the other woman. My focus would be on the husband. He knew he was married and he is the only one obligated to me, not the mistress. I wasn't in a relationship with her.

Just telling it like it is said...

Yes!!Yes shame on the mistress...I am tiring of women that let men get away with cheating

Diva (in Demand) said...

I agree with Karen. When you consider the fact that only the person in a relationship is CHEATING then the mistress can't really be at fault. I know that's not the popular answer but she didn't have any responsibilities when it came to their marriage. HE does.

Freckle Face Girl said...

I don't think that cheating men suffer more consequences. Lots of states have no fault divorces meaning that it doesn't matter whose fault it is, the divorce is handled the same. Cheating men still has the same right to the kids and assets are divided equally.

While getting awarded $9 mil from a mistress sounds good, I am guessing that she probably will not see even half of that. Those kinds of lawsuits just pile on the pain & drag out the anger.

I think that it is the man who has an obligation to behave. If he doesn't have the will power to resist a tramp, then it is good riddance.

The Dish said...

This may be a gross over simplification and stereotype, but I would think that if you are the mistress and not the wife, you don't have anything worth sueing for. But, there should be a get out of jail for free clause for cutting the cheating bastards pecker off.

Senorita said...

I agree with Karen 100%.

I don't ever think cheating is okay. The reason I don't do it is not because I am thinking of other women. I am doing it out of respect for myself.

I don't think highly of women that sleep with married men. But I really do believe that the mistress doesn't owe anyone anything. All the husband had to do was say no and it would have been all over. Ultimately he calls the shots in whether he will be faithful or not.

I don't believe the mistress should ever be sued. But then again, I wouldn't feel sorry for her if she did get sued and lost. No sympathy for people that get involved with marrieds.

Jeni said...

While it is true the husband in these circumstances is the main party guilty with respect to his wife, I don't have a problem with some kind of penalty to the other party involved too. Yes, husbands lie and cheat -virtually all the time or a lot anyway. In many of those instances, alimony is the "punishment" per se for them. But there are also women who do target men of means -married or single -and if they are hitting on a married man and it destroys a marriage in the process, then why shouldn't they face some consequences?

Anonymous said...

I agree with everything said.

Kelley @ magnetoboldtoo said...

Heh, I think the mistress should be punished by making her wash his damn dirty socks and underpants.

Tonya said...

Two thoughts. I think mistresses should get sued husband have to pay alimony. But I think it should go both ways if a wife cheats her "lover" she have to pay too.
Second thought. In all reality doesn't the mistress loose out anyway because HELLO he is a CHEATER?! Pretty stupid on her part in my opinion :)

Red Shoes said...

There was a couple who used to live here... she was a RN... he was a pharmacist... they moved away, and several months later, I was shocked to see an article in a news paper where the RN was suing the mistress of the hubby for alienation of affection... I don't recall how it ended...

~shoes~

imbeingheldhostage said...

I agree with everybody. I'm such a pushover. Which is why they should never ask me to do jury duty. That reason and that it's a very long (and wet) drive.