Court Opinion

ID: 9633712
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 11:57:35.310397+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:08:40.466271
License: Public Domain

CARDINE, Justice,
concurring.
I concur in the opinion of Justice Thomas. I have no doubt that the legislature can create or eliminate' causes of action. I am reminded of the “Heart Balm” statutes passed to abolish the common law cause of action for breach of promise to marry. The original version of the current “Heart Balm” statutes, W.S. 1-23-101 through -104, was enacted in 1941. In passing the session law eliminating causes of action for alienation of affection, criminal conversation, seduction, etc., the legislature gave the following reason for their enactment:
“The remedies heretofore provided by law for the enforcement of actions based upon alleged alienation of affection, criminal conversation, seduction and breach of contract to marry, having been subjected to grave abuses, causing extreme annoyance, embarrassment, humiliation and pecuniary damage to many persons wholly innocent and free of any wrongdoing, who were merely the victims of circumstances, and such remedies having been exercised by unscrupulous persons for their unjust enrichment, and such remedies having furnished vehicles for the commission or attempted commission of crime and in many cases having resulted in the perpetration of frauds, it is hereby declared as the public policy of the State that the best interests of the people of the State will be served by the abolition of such remedies. Consequently, in the public interest, the necessity for the enactment of this article is hereby declared as a matter of legislative determination.” 1941 Wyo.Sess.Laws ch. 36 § 1.
One case presenting this cause of action was heard by the Wyoming Supreme Court before enactment of W.S. 1-23-101 through -104. In that case, Worth v. Worth, 48 Wyo. 441, 49 P.2d 649, 103 A.L.R. 107 (1935), this court, based upon the trial court’s failure to give instructions concerning a presumption of the good faith of parents and proof necessary to rebut it, reversed a $10,000 judgment in favor of the plaintiff against her in-laws. The constitutional power of the legislature to abolish this cause of action is so clear, it has never been questioned.