Marital Torts

A recent article in the February 11, 2009 New York Times by Joshua Robinson and Jack Curry entitled "Legal Dispute Hinges on Whether Alomar Has H.I.V." reminded me that we often include in our divorce agreements language stating whether the couple waives a post judgement claim for a marital tort. You can read the article at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/12/sports/baseball/12alomar.html. I use marital tort as a euphemism for "did one of them give the other AIDS or a STD." It is not a type of dessert. It is an important issue but an awkward issue to bring up. It raises an issue of infidelity that might not have otherwise come up. I started raising the issue after I heard of a case in which a party discovered that their former spouse gave them AIDS. In that case a party made a claim against the former spouse for giving the party AIDS. The former spouse successfully raised the defense that the party who got AIDS had released the claim in the general release paragraph of the divorce agreement. Divorced spouses also bring tort claims against each other for misconduct that occurred during the marriage As always, you can post any comment about this blog, Divorce Mediation, or Tucson Arizona by following the directions at the right in the green column or at the bottom of this website. Learn more about mediation at http://www.center-divorce-mediation.com/ WM 2/27/09