NC’s ‘alienation of affection’ law is rare, but here are 7 previous cases in the state
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Tim Moore lawsuit
A lawsuit against North Carolina House Speaker Tim Moore claims he had a years-long affair with a married woman, using his power in return for sexual favors. Here is coverage of the lawsuit.
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In most states, the biggest risk for hanky-panky with someone’s spouse is a sock on the jaw and society’s disapproving eye.
But North Carolina, along with five other states nationwide, still has laws on the books allowing a jilted partner to sue. The allegation of “alienation of affection” now faces NC House Speaker Tim Moore in a recent lawsuit. Moore has denied the accusation.
Though such cases are rare and often called archaic, the state still passes high-dollar judgments against those who lure husbands and wives into extramarital affairs.
Here are several examples from recent years:
Trouble in Rural Hall
Last year, the ex-wife of the former fire chief in Rural Hall filed suit accusing the town’s former manager accusing her of seducing and having sex with her husband while they both held their government jobs.
The ex-wife, Stacy Marshall, alleged that onetime Town Manager Megan Garner had enticed her husband for several years before their separation. That seduction, she claims, included giving Andy Marshall an unexpected raise, bringing gifts to their house and texting him repeatedly, according to the Winston-Salem Journal.
The lawsuit accuses Garner of pursuing ex-Fire Chief Andy Marshall even while his wife was pregnant.
Garner has denied the allegations and sought to dismiss the lawsuit. Andy Marshall has since been fired, partially because of the affair, the Journal reported.
District Attorney accused
Jon David, the district attorney for Bladen, Brunswick and Columbus counties, has been facing a lawsuit filed in 2020 by a Bladen County commissioner who alleges the prosecutor seduced and had sex with his wife.
The 2020 complaint accuses David of starting a relationship with Tracey Trivette, wife of Commissioner Ashley Trivette, after her 2017 charge for driving while impaired, according to NC Lawyers Weekly.
The suit alleges David then sent “numerous enticing texts, calls, and communications,” leading to a sexual relationship and the Trivettes 2018 separation.
Ashley Trivette later filed for divorce, and a judge held off proceedings in the lawsuit until the divorce had been finalized.
The final status of the suit could not be learned Tuesday.
$1.3 million verdict
In April, a jury in Catawba County awarded this seven-figure judgment to a plaintiff whose spouse had formed a long-distance relationship outside their 19-year marriage, according to NC Lawyers Weekly.
The plaintiff’s spouse spent hundreds of hours on the phone and arranged two trips to meet the soon-to-be-sued defendant, who left his own wife. After the defendant’s divorce, he and the plaintiff’s spouse took more trips and started a formal romantic relationship.
Phone number at a funeral
In what is thought to be the biggest financial award in this category, a judge in Raleigh awarded $30 million in 2011 to Carol Puryear, the former wife of a trucking company owner.
Puryear and her husband had been married 13 years until 2007, when at his father’s funeral, Donald Puryear met his ex-fiancee, who gave him her telephone number at the service, according to court records.
Soon after, records said, Donald Puryear started an affair with then-Betty Devlin, leading to separation, divorce and his ex-wife’s lawsuit.
“For my client, it was not about the money,” Stephanie Jenkins, Carol Puryear’s lawyer, told the News & Observer in 2011. “It was about sending a message that people should be held accountable for their actions.”
Boyfriend from college
In 1999, court records said, Debra Tyson grew unhappy in her marriage to Tom Oddo, a wrestling coach at Davidson College.
She called Jeff Presser, her boyfriend from college and high school who was a doctor in Florida. Soon, they started a string of sexual liaisons in a Charlotte hotel, court records said.
“Life seemed so marvelously full of possibilities this past weekend,” Presser wrote to Tyson in an email, according to a 2001 News & Observer story.
Tyson and her husband separated then divorced, but Oddo sued Tyson in 2000, winning what was then a record judgment of $1.4 million.
In 2003, an appeals court dropped the decision down to $500,000 in punitive damages, calling the original excessive.
Veronica Filipowski vs. Melissa Oliver
Veronica Filipowski first sought $20 million in her alienation of affection lawsuit, arguing that her marriage to former Winston-Salem Dash baseball team owner Andrew “Flip” Filipowski had been ruined by an affair.
In her complaint, Filipowski said she and her husband were friends with Melissa Oliver and her husband for 10 years, and they lent them money to open the former Xia Asian Fusion Cuisine Restaurant on Spruce Street in Winston-Salem, according to the Winston-Salem Journal. They traveled together, and Oliver sometimes looked after the Filipowskis’ daughter.
She said she discovered the affair with Oliver, according to The Associated Press, after hearing a voicemail left for her husband, who also owned an investment firm.
But her case against Oliver was settled out of court in 2012 for considerably less: $107,500.
The Hutelmyer case
In 1997, a jury in Alamance County awarded $1 million to Dorothy Hutelmyer, who argued in court that a secretary in her husband’s insurance office had intentionally wooed him away.
Dorothy Hutelmyer touted the judgment as a victory for family values, and applauded the jury’s decision to punish Margie Cox Hutelmyer for maliciously breaking up a good marriage, the News & Record of Greensboro reported.
At trial over the civil suit, witnesses reported seeing the defendant on business trips with Joseph Hutelmyer, and noted his car parked outside her apartment at late hours.
The two later married, and their case became the basis for the Lifetime TV movie “The Price of a Broken Heart.”
This story was originally published June 20, 2023 at 3:23 PM with the headline "NC’s ‘alienation of affection’ law is rare, but here are 7 previous cases in the state."
