Where it still exists, an action is brought by a spouse against a third party alleged to be responsible for damaging the marriage, most often resulting in divorce.
[2] In the new system, outlined by the statute, there exists a fault-less ground of divorce, and that is irretrievable breakdown of a marriage, which is evidenced by 12 months of separation.
As of 2016[update], alienation of affections was recognized in six United States jurisdictions: Hawaii, North Carolina, Mississippi, New Mexico, South Dakota, and Utah.
[4][5] The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to consider the constitutionality of such torts by writ of certiorari, notwithstanding academic commentary suggesting that these torts are unconstitutional under the United States Constitution and relevant modern precedents decided based upon it, including Obergefell v. Hodges, that struck down laws prohibiting same sex marriage in the United States.
[6] The U.S. Supreme Court has addressed the tort in several cases that did not question its constitutionality, including U.S. v. Kaiser, 363 U.S. 299, 310 (1960) (dissenting opinion) (tax treatment of damages awards); Lykes v. U.S., 343 U.S. 118, 126 (1952) (tax deductions for litigation costs); Sherrer v. Sherrer, 334 U.S. 343, 373 (1948) (dissenting opinion) (full faith and credit afforded to divorce judgments); Shepard v. United States, 290 U.S. 96, 105 (1933) (admissibility of evidence); Tinker v. Colwell, 193 U.S. 473, 474 (1904) (availability of discharge of damages awards in bankruptcy); Waldron v. Waldron, 156 U.S. 361, 362–64 (1895) (preservation of objections to evidence when transcripts from a related proceeding are introduced).
See also South Carolina case Russo v. Sutton, 422 SE 2d 750 (1992), abolishing the heart balm action for alienation of affection.
A year 2000 verdict of $86,250 for alienation of affections and $15,000 for criminal conversation in the case of Pharr v. Beck, from Burke county was upheld on appeal.
In 1997, in the case of Hutelmyer v. Cox, the Plaintiff wife was awarded $1 million against her husband's secretary who "dressed sexy at work" and had an affair with him destroying their marriage.
[23] The bill was signed into law by Governor Bev Perdue on August 3, 2009, and is codified under Chapter 52 of the North Carolina General Statutes:[24] § 52-13.
In 2014, Resident Superior Court Judge John O. Craig dismissed the case of Rothrock v. Cooke, ruling that the state's criminal conversion and alienation of affection laws were unconstitutional, infringing up on 1st and 14th amendment rights in the U.S.
In 2017, the North Carolina Court of Appeals, in a different case, ruled that the common law cause of action of alienation of affection was not facially invalid under the First and Fourteenth Amendments.
[9] Both in 1983 and eight years later in 1991, the Utah Supreme Court confirmed the legality of such claims, although Justice Christine M. Durham dissented in both cases, describing alienation of affection as "an anachronistic holdover from a bygone era, which modern rationalizations have failed to justify."
However, in the 1991 ruling, they disallowed criminal conversation claims[31] The same court confirmed alienation of affections as a cause of action in 2002.
[32] Among the notables cases were Jason Miles Williams, who attempted several times to sue the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints leadership for causing his divorce by saying his wife would be damned if she did not divorce[33] and Janice Peck suing the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources after her husband left her for his new wife he met while posing as a couple to track poachers.