There is an extraordinary case out of North Carolina where Superior Court Judge Orlando Hudson awarded Keith King $8.8 million in compensatory and punitive damages against Francisco Huizar III. Huizar had an affair with King’s wife and was sued for criminal conversation and the relatively rare claim of “alienation of affection.” Only six states currently have alienation of affection laws still on the books. We previously discussed an award of $9 million to a woman in North Carolina.
King owns BMX Stunt Shows and employed his wife, Danielle. They married in 2010 and have a 5-year-old daughter, according to the Durham Herald-Sun reported. Danielle admitted that she was unhappy after a year of marriage and pursued marketing tour manager Huizar III of San Antonio, at a BMX show in New York in August 2015. They were discovered by King from a mysterious phone number on their telephone bill. King confronted Huizar, who continued to see Danielle and even rented an apartment nearby to continue their affair. He even allegedly showed up at family vacations and, in 2017, Danielle rented an apartment with Huizar’s name on the lease. A video recording showed a struggle at the apartment between the men with King in a headlock by Huizar and King asking his wife “You’re picking him over me?”
This type of claim has long been denounced as archaic and the product of a period where women were considered chattel of their husbands. However, this is now a roughly $9 million affair.
The question is whether the Kings are divorced or whether Danielle could receive half of the proceeds from her affair with Huizar. That would make an intriguing idea for a mystery novel of a couple who intended to divorce but found a way to divide millions from a man in a manufactured alienation tort conspiracy.
Huizar plans to appeal.
Kudos: Professor Roger E. Schechter