Wright v. Lester

123 S.E.2d 672, 105 Ga. App. 107
CourtCourt of Appeals of Georgia
DecidedDecember 13, 1961
Docket38971
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 123 S.E.2d 672 (Wright v. Lester) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Wright v. Lester, 123 S.E.2d 672, 105 Ga. App. 107 (Ga. Ct. App. 1961).

Opinions

Bell, Judge.

The tort of alienation of affections has long been recognized in Georgia. “The gist of an action for alienation of affections is loss of consortium, that is ‘the right of the husband or wife to the conjugal fellowship, company, cooperation, and aid of the other in every conjugal way.’ ” Hosford v. Hosford, 58 Ga. App. 188 (1) (198 SE 289); Kidd v. Holtzendorf, 88 Ga. App. 360 (76 SE2d 656); Gross v. Lipton, 92 Ga. App. 38 (87 SE2d 438). In the latter case allegations that the defendant wilfully, wantonly and maliciously by wrongful acts detailed in the petition caused the wife to deny her husband her fellowship, consortium, and his conjugal rights, and finally to separate from the plaintiff was held to state a cause of action against the parents of the wife for alienation of affections. It is essential to the right of action when the recovery is not sought on the ground of adultery, that the party complained against acted with the intent to produce the wrong to the [112]*112husband, “or that the party’s acts were inherently wrong and so seductive in their nature as to authorize the inference that the wrong was intended, and furthermore that such party’s conduct was a proximately contributing cause of the husband’s injury.” Martin v. Ball, 30 Ga. App. 729 (1) (119 SE 222).

The petition here alleges the requisite intent on the part of the defendant, in that it charges that the defendant by the acts detailed, by artful means and deceitful practices—consisting of secret embraces, giving of gifts, secret meetings, and persuasions— alienated the affections of the plaintiff’s wife; that he did so wilfully and maliciously; that he succeeded in utter disregard of the marital relationship which was known to him; and that his acts were the sole and proximate cause of the depriving of the plaintiff of the society, affection, assistance, conjugal fellowship and consortium of the plaintiff’s wife. The petition as amended was sufficient to state a cause of action against the defendant for alienation of the affections of the plaintiff’s wife. See McMillan v. Smith, 47 Ga. App. 646 (171 SE 169).

“Criminal conversation, enticement and alienation of affections still are often treated as separate torts, but there is no good reason for distinguishing them. They represent three forms of interference with aspects of the same relational interest, and of course all three may be present in the same case. When the action is for criminal conversation, proof of enticement or alienation will go to increase the damages, and the converse is likewise true. There is now a decided tendency to confuse the three, or to lump them together, usually under the general name of 'alienation of affections,’ without any attempt to distinguish the possible elements of the tort.” Prosser on Torts, 2d Ed. § 103, p. 686. See also 42 C.J.S. 315, Husband and Wife, § 660, and pp. 318-9, §§ 664-665.

Counsel strenuously urges that prior to May 14, 1784, there existed in England no cause of action for alienation of affections per se, nor a cause of action for loss of or injury to “consortium” per se, and that the gist of the common-law action in those cases in which the loss of consortium as then defined might constitute an element of damage was either (1) the affirmative act or acts of abducting, harboring, or enticing the wife from the hus[113]*113band, and (2) adultery or criminal conversation, and (3) beating or abusing the wife. Using this premise as the basis for his views, counsel contends that alienation of affections was not a substantive cause of action at the common law, and thus that there is in Georgia no cause of action for alienation of affections arising from loss or injury to the right of consortium except upon a showing of adultery, abduction, harboring, or enticement. With this contention we do not agree.

The case of Martin v. Ball, 30 Ga. App. 729, supra, recognized that the right of action in the husband for alienation of affections lies for the privation of the consortium of his wife even when a recovery is not sought upon the ground of adultery. In Hosford v. Hosford, 58 Ga. App. 188, supra, this court reiterated that the gist of an action for alienation of affections is the loss of consortium, and held that the cause of action brought by the wife against the mother of the plaintiff’s husband arose when the wife was deprived of her conjugal right, i. e., the alienated affections, loss of comfort, fellowship, society, aid and assistance in domestic affairs. In the McMillan case, 47 Ga. App. 646, supra, there was no allegation of adultery or beating of the wife, but instead the allegations found by the court to be sufficient to state a cause of action for loss of consortium are strikingly similar to those of the present petition.

The Martin v. Ball case, supra, was decided in 1923, McMillan v. Smith, supra, was decided in 1933, and Hosford v. Hosford, supra, in 1938. None of these cases has been overruled. In 1945 this State adopted and ratified a new Constitution which, in Art. XII, Sec. I, declares the laws of general operation in this State. Par. V of this Article (Code Ann. § 2-8005) provides, “All judgments, decrees, orders, and other proceedings, of the several courts of this State, heretofore made within the limits of their several jurisdictions, are hereby ratified and affirmed. . .” Clearly, this provision of the Constitution approved these prior decisions and gave to them the force of law in this State, whatever the rule in Blackstone’s day might have been. Since the Constitution of 1945 was adopted, other decisions, particularly Gross v. Lipton, 92 Ga. App. 38, supra, have held that the gist of the action for alienation of affections is the [114]*114loss of consortium, and this where adultery was not alleged. In summation, we conclude that allegations of wrongful conduct, done wilfully, maliciously, in utter disregard of the marital relationship known to the defendant, which were allegedly the sole and proximate cause of depriving the plaintiff of the society, affection, assistance, conjugal fellowship, and consortium of the plaintiff’s wife, and intended to produce this result, are sufficient to state a cause of action for alienation of affections. See also Sessions v. Parker, 45 Ga. App. 101 (163 SE 297). And see Brown v. Ga.-Tenn. Coaches, Inc., 88 Ga. App. 519 (77 SE2d 24), which recognizes a cause of action unknown to the common law.

The coincidence that Code § 105-1202 sets forth liability for abducting or harboring the wife, and Code § 105-1203 codifies the common-law liability for adultery or criminal conversation, does not mean that there is in Georgia no right of action for alienation, of affections, nor do these sections require proof of harboring or adultery in order for the husband to maintain an action for alienation of affections.

The trial court did not err in overruling the general demurrer to the petition.

Defendant’s special demurrers 2 and 3 of the original demurrers attack allegations in paragraph 7 of the petition on the ground that the time or times when the alleged secret embraces, giving of gifts, secret meetings, and persuasions, and the intervals and periods of time when the plaintiff’s wife absented herself from the plaintiff and their home, were not clearly and distinctly set forth.

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123 S.E.2d 672, 105 Ga. App. 107, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wright-v-lester-gactapp-1961.