Court Opinion

ID: 9623608
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 06:37:49.860072+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:05:31.739590
License: Public Domain

Judge Braswell
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent and would vote to affirm the order of the trial judge.
At the willing risk of being called an old fogy, I cannot accept that it is either equity or law to place the stamp of approval of public policy upon the undisputed facts in this case. Adultery is still against the law in North Carolina. Living in adultery is the consideration that formed the basis of this real estate transaction. Each party knew that the plaintiff was married to another at all the times involved. The man, the plaintiff, has, in legal effect, given a gift to his paramour. The illegal relationship bars the plaintiffs right to any recovery.
Here, the parties did not live together under color of marriage in a good faith belief of a legal marriage. In such a situation equity would come to the aid of the parties in a division of property acquired during the relationship.
*594It strains the public policy of the law against adultery to contrive to aid nonmarital cohabitation by engrafting any form of resulting trust or unjust enrichment theory on the illicit conduct in this record. The court should not lend its hand to aid either party. See Annot., 3 A.L.R. 4th, 13, 49 (1981).