High Court Ruling Reinstates Marriage Wrecking

Last year, Justice Lot Moroka delivered a judgement in which he was of the view that “in light of the changing mores of our society, the delictual actio iniuriarum (an action for delict, which not only seeks to protect an individual’s dignity and reputation but also his or her physical integrity) claim based on adultery pertaining to a civil marriage lacks constitutional and common law validity”.

“Therefore, the act of adultery by a third party, lacks wrongfulness for the purposes of delictual claim of contumelia (injury or humiliation, etc) and loss of consortium and that the public dictates that it is no longer reasonable to attach delictual liability to it and thus the action is no longer sustainable,” Moroka ruled then.