Court orders mistress to pay RM200,000 in damages to wife after almost 50-year marriage ends over adultery

 

Court orders mistress to pay RM200,000 in damages to wife after almost 50-year marriage ends over adultery



A 38-year-old woman must pay RM200,000 in damages to a housewife after the High Court found her responsible for the breakdown of a marriage that lasted five decades. — Reuters pic

Sunday, 16 Feb 2025 9:52 AM MYT


KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 15 — A 38-year-old woman must pay RM200,000 in damages to a housewife after the High Court found her responsible for the breakdown of a marriage that lasted five decades.

Justice Evrol Mariette Peters ruled that the 74-year-old husband had committed adultery and ordered him to pay RM205,000 in a lump sum as spousal maintenance to his 72-year-old wife. She also directed the couple’s matrimonial assets to be divided equally.

“The evidence, though circumstantial, painted a compelling and coherent narrative of an adulterous relationship between the husband and his mistress,” she said in her 72-page judgment, as reported by Free Malaysia Today.

Peters rejected the husband's defence that his erectile dysfunction (ED) made adultery impossible.

“Throughout the trial, he claimed that his ED had caused a complete cessation of sexual relations with the wife and he could not possibly have engaged in an adulterous affair with his mistress,” she said.

She said the husband failed to support his claim with medical reports, expert testimony, or any corroborating documentation.

The judge also found that the mistress was fully aware of the husband’s family commitments but continued the relationship regardless.

“By continuing the adulterous relationship, the mistress exposed her complete indifference to the wife’s emotional well-being,” she said.

Peters said email exchanges between the mistress and the husband showed she had urged him to divorce his wife and even attempted to conceive a child with him through in vitro fertilisation (IVF).

She said there was no automatic correlation between the ability to father a child and the ability to engage in sexual intercourse.

“The mere fact that a man is unable to father a child does not necessarily imply that he is incapable of sexual intercourse,” she said.

The judge also ordered the husband and mistress to pay RM100,000 in costs to the wife.

In distributing the couple’s matrimonial assets, Peters said she considered the wife’s sacrifices.

The wife, who holds a diploma in business studies, gave up her career to become a housewife while the husband built his businesses. She also raised six children and supported three grandchildren.

“Raising six children and supporting three grandchildren over the years required immense time, energy, and commitment,” Peters said.

She noted that the wife had also been the husband’s caregiver during periods when he was unwell.

The couple married in 1977, and the wife claimed that in September 2022, the husband admitted to an affair with the mistress.

A month later, she filed for judicial separation and sought spousal maintenance, half of all assets acquired during the marriage, and damages from the mistress for her role in the marriage’s breakdown.