You cannot bring an alienation of affection claim in PA. Pennsylvania abolished the lawsuit by statute decades ago, and the Pennsylvania Supreme Court separately wiped out the related tort of criminal conversation, so there is no civil path to money damages against the person who had an affair with your spouse. Adultery still matters — but inside your divorce, not as a standalone lawsuit against the third party.
The Statute That Closed the Door
Title 23, Section 1901 of the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes is direct: all civil causes of action for alienation of a spouse’s affections are abolished.1Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code 23-1901 – Actions for Alienation of Affections Abolished It does not matter whether the third party is a romantic partner, a friend, a coworker, or anyone else outside the marriage. You cannot sue them for luring your spouse away or destroying the marriage.
The statute carries one narrow carve-out. The abolition does not apply when the defendant is a parent, sibling, or person who formerly stood in a parental role to the plaintiff’s spouse.1Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code 23-1901 – Actions for Alienation of Affections Abolished The exception is rarely invoked and does nothing for a spouse who wants to sue a paramour.
Criminal Conversation Is Also Abolished
Alienation of affection had a companion claim called criminal conversation. Despite the name, it was a civil lawsuit, not a criminal charge, and it did not require proof that the defendant ruined the marriage. A plaintiff only had to prove a valid marriage and that the defendant had sex with the plaintiff’s spouse.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court abolished criminal conversation in 1976 in Fadgen v. Lenkner, calling the tort an “anachronism” and reasoning that it was unreasonable to impose harsh liability without allowing meaningful defenses, such as evidence about the state of the marriage before the affair.2Justia. Fadgen v. Lenkner Between Section 1901 and Fadgen, no surviving legal theory in Pennsylvania lets you collect damages from the person your spouse slept with.
You Cannot Repackage the Claim as Emotional Distress
Some betrayed spouses have tried to work around the abolition by filing claims for intentional infliction of emotional distress, fraud, or interference with a contractual relationship against the third party. Pennsylvania courts have shut that down.
In Laidlaw v. Converge MidAtlantic, a Philadelphia court granted summary judgment against a husband who brought exactly that mix of tort claims against the man who had an affair with his wife and the man’s employer. The court held that these claims were “vestiges of abolished heart balm torts” and that a plaintiff cannot get around the prohibition by relabeling an alienation of affection claim.3First Judicial District of Pennsylvania. Timothy Laidlaw v. Converge MidAtlantic et al. Opinion
An intentional infliction of emotional distress claim in Pennsylvania requires conduct that is extreme and outrageous, beyond all bounds of decency. Participating in an affair, standing alone, does not clear that bar. Something more would need to be present, such as sustained harassment, threats, or deliberate public humiliation, before a court would let the claim proceed. For nearly every betrayed spouse, this route is a dead end.
What About Suing in a State That Still Allows It?
Most states have abolished alienation of affection. Roughly half a dozen still recognize it, with North Carolina and Utah being the most notable. North Carolina juries have returned striking verdicts, including one case that produced $2.2 million in compensatory damages and $6.6 million in punitive damages against a third party.
Filing in one of those states is not a simple workaround. You generally need to show that the court there has jurisdiction over the defendant, which usually requires the affair or the defendant’s residence to have a real connection to that state. A Pennsylvania resident whose spouse had an affair entirely within Pennsylvania cannot just file in North Carolina to borrow its law. A family law attorney familiar with multistate practice can assess whether the facts give you any jurisdictional hook, but for most Pennsylvania residents the answer is no.
Where Adultery Still Matters: Inside the Divorce
You cannot sue the third party, but the affair itself is not legally irrelevant. Pennsylvania allows fault-based divorce, and adultery can shape alimony, property division, and in narrow circumstances, custody.
Fault Grounds and Timing
Adultery is one of six grounds for a fault-based divorce in Pennsylvania. The statute lets the “innocent and injured spouse” file on that basis.4Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code 23-3301 – Grounds for Divorce The strategic value is timing. A mutual-consent no-fault divorce requires a 90-day waiting period plus affidavits from both spouses, and a contested no-fault divorce requires living separately for at least a year. A fault-based adultery filing has no comparable waiting period, though you still have to prove the affair.
Alimony
Alimony is where an affair usually leaves the biggest mark. Pennsylvania courts weigh 17 statutory factors when deciding alimony. Factor 14 is marital misconduct, which includes adultery.5Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code 23-3701 – Alimony A judge can reduce or deny alimony to a spouse who cheated, weighed against the rest of the list: length of the marriage, earning capacity, health, age, financial resources, and standard of living.
Timing matters. Misconduct during the marriage counts. Misconduct after the date of final separation generally does not, with one exception: abuse of one spouse by the other is always relevant regardless of when it happened.5Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code 23-3701 – Alimony An affair proven to predate the separation carries far more weight than one that started after.
Property Division
Pennsylvania divides marital property under an equitable distribution model, meaning a fair split, not automatically 50/50. The statute directs courts to divide property “without regard to marital misconduct.”6Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code 23-3502 – Equitable Division of Marital Property The affair alone will not shift the split of the house or retirement accounts.
Dissipation is the exception. Among the property-division factors is each spouse’s contribution to or dissipation of marital wealth.6Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code 23-3502 – Equitable Division of Marital Property If your spouse spent significant marital funds on the affair — think gifts, hotels, trips — a court can adjust distribution to account for that waste. You have to prove the money moved, not just the relationship.
Custody
Adultery alone rarely changes custody in Pennsylvania. Courts decide custody on the best interests of the child, not a parent’s moral failings. An affair matters only if it exposed the child to harm: the child witnessed inappropriate behavior, was asked to keep secrets, or the new partner mistreated the child. In those situations, the conduct can feed into the court’s evaluation of each parent’s fitness.
Gathering Proof Without Creating Your Own Legal Problem
Spouses who suspect an affair sometimes go looking through phones, email, or recordings. Federal and Pennsylvania law both create real exposure here.
The federal Stored Communications Act makes it illegal to intentionally access an electronic communication service without authorization. Logging into your spouse’s email without permission can carry civil liability for damages and attorney’s fees, plus criminal penalties of up to five years in prison. The federal wiretap statute requires at least one party to a conversation to consent to recording. Pennsylvania goes further as a two-party consent state, meaning every participant must agree. Secretly recording your spouse’s calls or conversations can expose you to criminal charges and make the recordings unusable in court.
If you need proof for a fault-based filing, a licensed private investigator who understands Pennsylvania surveillance rules is the safer route. Investigators can document public behavior, photograph meetings, and establish patterns without crossing lines that could hurt your divorce case or land you in criminal court.