Court Opinion

ID: 9586124
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 23:07:30.04565+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:24:20.977777
License: Public Domain

Judge Hunter
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
I disagree with the majority opinion which states that “plaintiff presented sufficient additional circumstances of aggravation to warrant submission of the punitive damages issue to the jury on plaintiff’s claim for alienation of affections” and, therefore, respectfully dissent from that narrow portion of the majority opinion. I concur with the balance of the majority opinion since we are bound by prior decisions of the North Carolina Supreme Court and this Court as to the other issues raised in this appeal. I note further that our General Assembly has recently rejected an effort to abolish the common law cause of action for alienation of affections.
“Punitive damages may be awarded [to plaintiff] in an action of alienation of affections .. . for the wilful, wanton, aggravated or malicious conduct of defendant towards her.” Heist v. Heist, 46 N.C. App. 521, 526-27, 265 S.E.2d 434, 438 (1980) (emphasis added); see also *377Powell v. Strickland, 163 N.C. 393, 79 S.E. 872 (1913). “It is incumbent on the plaintiff to show circumstances of aggravation in addition to the malice implied by law from the conduct of defendant in causing the separation of plaintiff and her husband which was necessary to sustain a recovery of compensatory damages.” Heist, 46 N.C. App. at 527, 265 S.E.2d at 438.
In the present case, I believe plaintiffs wrongful conduct, as set forth in the majority-opinion, was sufficient to establish the tort but I do not believe plaintiff has shown sufficient additional circumstances of aggravation directed to her to justify submitting the issue of punitive damages to the jury. See Jennings v. Jessen, 103 N.C. App. 739, 407 S.E.2d 264 (1991) (punitives upheld because defendant’s known cohabitation with plaintiffs spouse in property owned by plaintiff and her husband was a sufficient additional circumstance of aggravation beyond the acts substantiating the claim of alienation of affections); Shaw v. Stringer, 101 N.C. App. 513, 400 S.E.2d 101 (1991) (punitives upheld because defendant’s repeated sexual relations with plaintiff’s wife in the marital home and callous laughter when told plaintiff had learned of the affair constituted sufficient additional acts in aggravation to support the claim for punitive damages); Chappell v. Redding, 67 N.C. App. 397, 403, 313 S.E.2d 239, 243, disc. review denied, 311 N.C. 399, 319 S.E.2d 268 (1984) (punitives set aside because Court found “while plaintiff’s evidence of the problems caused in his marriage by defendant’s actions and the increasing amounts of time spent with plaintiff’s wife was enough to permit the alienation of affections issue to go to the jury, plaintiff has not shown additional circumstances of aggravation to justify the submission of the punitive damages issue”); Heist, 46 N.C. App. 521, 265 S.E.2d 438 (punitives set aside for lack of showing of additional aggravating circumstances sufficient to justify submitting the issue of punitive damages to the jury).
The cases upholding punitive damages awards are characterized by some offensive contact between plaintiff and defendant which flaunted the relationship between the defendant and plaintiff’s spouse. Here, other than the one telephone call on Thanksgiving Day in 1995 where defendant merely left a message for Mr. Hutelmyer to call her, there is no evidence that defendant flaunted the relationship in plaintiff’s face. In fact, the uncontradicted evidence established by plaintiff’s own testimony is that she never knew .about the relationship between her husband and defendant until her husband left her in January of 1996.
*378For the foregoing reasons, I believe the punitive damages award with respect to the alienation of affections claim should be set aside as a matter of law. Since the punitive damages award in this case was in one lump sum for both the alienation of affections and criminal conversation claims, this matter should be remanded for a determination of that amount to which plaintiff is entitled.