Planet Money #1717 (9 Feb 2024): A Lawsuit for your broken heart
Keith met woman, fell in love, got married, had kids. She helped with his BMX company and she’d post sickeningly cute things on facebook about how she had the best family.
Then Keith saw some very messages she was exchanging with some other guy (from him: «do you like how tall I am», «show me a bikini pic», that kind of thing). He got mad, called him, said «never fucking talk to my wife again» and thought that would be the end of it.
It was not the end of it. She had affair, they got divorced. A bit later he was catching up with an old school friend who’d been in a similar situation, and she told him she was suing the woman her husband had cheated with. You can do that?
These are heartbalm laws and they’re kind of archaic. In the past if a woman got engaged and the man broke things off, she could be ruined, so she got to sue him for breach of promise. There’s also seduction, where she could sue someone for lying her into bed. And criminal conversation, which is adultery. And the one relevant to the show, alienation of affections, where you can sue someone for damaging your marriage.
Most states have abolished these, partly because public perception moved towards women using these in ways that were unpopular, this is where the term “gold digger” took off. There were also a bunch of famous people who got sued.
But a few states still have alienation of affections, including North Carolina, which is where most of the suits are. Possibly because that’s where most of the legal experts in them are.
Keith presents evidence that his marriage would otherwise have been happy: the sickeningly cute facebook posts, messages between him and his ex, messages from her to her girlfriends saying the marriage would have been fine if not for this other guy. (She subsequently married him.)
And because marriage is in part an economic arrangement, his lawyer also talks about the work that the ex had been doing for the company, and all the unpaid labor she was doing like childcare and washing dishes. The hosts point out it’s kinda weird that Keith is suing some other guy for the unpaid labor his ex wife used to do. But that’s what’s happening, and Keith wins the suit and is awarded $8 million.
Other guy files for bankruptcy. Keith probably won’t get anything from him, and still owes his lawyers thousands of dollars in fees. But he says it was worth it.
Planet Money #1717 (9 Feb 2024): A Lawsuit for your broken heart
Keith met woman, fell in love, got married, had kids. She helped with his BMX company and she’d post sickeningly cute things on facebook about how she had the best family.
Then Keith saw some very messages she was exchanging with some other guy (from him: «do you like how tall I am», «show me a bikini pic», that kind of thing). He got mad, called him, said «never fucking talk to my wife again» and thought that would be the end of it.
It was not the end of it. She had affair, they got divorced. A bit later he was catching up with an old school friend who’d been in a similar situation, and she told him she was suing the woman her husband had cheated with. You can do that?
These are heartbalm laws and they’re kind of archaic. In the past if a woman got engaged and the man broke things off, she could be ruined, so she got to sue him for breach of promise. There’s also seduction, where she could sue someone for lying her into bed. And criminal conversation, which is adultery. And the one relevant to the show, alienation of affections, where you can sue someone for damaging your marriage.
Most states have abolished these, partly because public perception moved towards women using these in ways that were unpopular, this is where the term “gold digger” took off. There were also a bunch of famous people who got sued.
But a few states still have alienation of affections, including North Carolina, which is where most of the suits are. Possibly because that’s where most of the legal experts in them are.
Keith presents evidence that his marriage would otherwise have been happy: the sickeningly cute facebook posts, messages between him and his ex, messages from her to her girlfriends saying the marriage would have been fine if not for this other guy. (She subsequently married him.)
And because marriage is in part an economic arrangement, his lawyer also talks about the work that the ex had been doing for the company, and all the unpaid labor she was doing like childcare and washing dishes. The hosts point out it’s kinda weird that Keith is suing some other guy for the unpaid labor his ex wife used to do. But that’s what’s happening, and Keith wins the suit and is awarded $8 million.
Other guy files for bankruptcy. Keith probably won’t get anything from him, and still owes his lawyers thousands of dollars in fees. But he says it was worth it.