US has given this option to a wife to sue husband's lover.why cant we have similar thing?after all we ape every law from the west.
Wife's $9m victory in adultery case warns mistresses to 'lay off'
A US woman who won $9 million (£6 million) in damages from her husband's alleged mistress said her legal victory sent a clear message to potential home-wreckers to "lay off".
Cynthia Shackelford, 60, a former teacher from North Carolina, was awarded the unprecedented sum by a jury in the United States for damages to her feelings under an obscure 19th century adultery law.
"My main message is to all those women out there who might have their eyes on some guy that is married to not come between anybody," she told "Good Morning America", the daily news programme.
"It's not good to go in there. It hurts the children. My children are devastated. I'm devastated. Allan and I joked about sitting in rocking chairs and having a glass of wine or whatever and talking about what our children did when they were little. That's never going to happen now.
"I wanted other people to understand, before they do it, how much it hurts."
The award was made against Anne Lundquist, 49, an administrator at a private school, who was accused of having an affair with Allan Schackelford, a 62-year-old lawyer who had been married to Mrs Shackelford for 33 years.
Mrs Shackelford took Miss Lundquist to court in Greensboro in North Carolina, one of seven states in America where the so-called "alienation of affection" law is still in force.
It evolved from common law under which women were classed as property of their husbands. As property, they were something that could be stolen. Both men and women are now able to sue under the law in North Carolina, Hawaii, Illinois, Mississippi, New Mexico, South Dakota and Utah.
The size of the award to Mrs Shackelford, after a two-day hearing last week, was unprecedented.
The former teacher is now separated from her husband and works in a shop in Raleigh, North Carolina. She has two adult children from the marriage.
The jury awarded her $5 million (£3.3 million) compensation and also awarded $4 million (£2.7 million) in punitive damages to be paid by Miss Lundquist.
Mrs Shackelford said: "I was surprised. It was totally up to the jury to come up with that number."
Miss Lundquist had been dean of campus at Guilford College, a private school in North Carolina. According to Mrs Shackelford, her husband provided legal services for the school.
Miss Lundquist, who is now dean of students at Wells College, in Aurora, New York, did not attend the court hearing and said she had not even been told it was happening. She is appealing.
She said: "I'm so caught off guard by everything. I don't have a lot of money, so where this $9 million comes from is kind of hysterical."
In a message on the website of the Greensboro News and Record newspaper, Mr Shackelford said Miss Lundquist was not the cause of his marriage breakdown.
He said there had been "significant problems" in the marriage for years, and three attempts at counselling had failed.
Lee Rosen, of the Rosen Law Firm in North Carolina, said the state has around 200 "alienation of affection" claims a year.
He said: "If your spouse is going to cheat, you really would like them to cheat with somebody who has a lot of money."
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/7506789/Wifes-9m-victory-in-adultery-case-warns-mistresses-to-lay-off.html