Document Type
Article
Publication Title
Verdict
Publication Date
6-24-2014
Abstract
Angela Rothrock was an angry woman. On February 12, 2014, she filed a lawsuit in Forsyth County, North Carolina, against Sherry Cooke of Winston-Salem; she claimed that Cooke had had an “adulterous affair” with Angela’s husband, Timothy Gray Rothrock.
Historically, there were two causes of action that might allow a man to sue his wife’s lover, or a woman to sue her husband’s mistress: criminal “conversation” and alienation of affection (collectively known, along with some others, as “heartbalm” actions). Most states have long since thrown these claims into the ashbin of history, but North Carolina, along with only a small number of other states, has up to now stubbornly preserved them. In a recent ruling, Rothrock v. Cooke, a lower court judge in North Carolina has decided that enough is enough. He ruled that these causes of action were no longer valid in North Carolina, although for somewhat strange reasons. Just days later, the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia reached a similar conclusion, eliminating the tort of criminal conversation, but for more sensible reasons.
Recommended Citation
Joanna L. Grossman and Lawrence M. Friedman,
The Legal Price of Adultery Goes Down: North Carolina and West Virginia Abandon Heartbalm Actions Verdict
(2014)
Available at: https://scholarlycommons.law.hofstra.edu/faculty_scholarship/353