I am in love with a married man who lives in North Carolina. He has never loved his wife but cares for her. He wants to get divorced but is terribly afraid of the repercussions. I currently live in England. But plan to one day move and live in North Carolina. Can his wife sue me while I live in England. Does the law of criminal conversation and alienation of affection have the capacity to be internationally applied?
For NC to have jurisdiction in a criminal conversation, the act has to occur in NC. A recent case stated that when someone outside of the state corresponds and talks with someone in NC, that is sufficient for NC to have jurisdiction in an alienation of affection claim.
What if the act did occur in North Carolina but I continue to live in England? Could the spouse still sue me internationally… ie. while I remain in England?
Or can the spouse sue me only if I move to NC and then sue me only if I live in NC. I guess what I am asking is, can this NC law apply internationally.
Yes, the state can have jurisdiction over you. As I stated before, a recent case stated that when someone outside of the state corresponds and talks with someone in NC, that is sufficient for NC to have jurisdiction in an alienation of affection claim.
More appropriate questions would be (1) how would she get service of you in England; (2) how would she perfect a judgment against you in England and (3) if both of those are difficult, would it really be worthwhile for her to do so?
I am a little confused about your second point. How could she 'perfect a judgement against me"? Can you please clarify? What about criminal conversation. If I have been sexually intimate with him, could she actually sue me while I still live here in England, overseas? Would I be subpoenaed to go to North Carolina to testify? How does that work? and how could the court enforce the judgement? Would they subpoena my financial records/bank statements/assets etc??
If she sues you in NC and she gets a judgment against you, she would have to collect on that judgment. If you live in England, she would have to collect in England. In my opinion, that would difficult.
As stated in my first response, for NC to have jurisdiction over you for criminal conversation, the act had to occur within NC. If an act occurred in NC, then NC would also have jurisdiction over you for an action for criminal conversation.
Similar to collecting a judgment, getting you served (as well as getting information) would also be difficult since you reside in a different country. These would be concerns that she would need to address if she chose to institute an action against you.