Court restores man’s lawsuit against cheating wife’s lover

A jilted husband’s lawsuit against a doctor accused of stealing his wife’s love can proceed, thanks to an appeals court ruling in North Carolina that lets people sue their spouse’s lover and collect damages.

The state Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday that a trial court was wrong to throw out Marc Malecek’s lawsuit due to concerns about constitutional protections of free speech and free expression. The decision resurrects the case he filed over what he said was his wife’s affair with a physician at the hospital where she works as a nurse.

North Carolina is one of about a half-dozen states that allow lawsuits accusing a cheating spouse’s lover of alienation of affection and criminal conversation. Most other states have stopped allowing such disputes to go to court.