Abstract
By increasing the plaintiff's burden of proof on causation, the Utah Supreme Court in Nelson recognizes the unusual difficulties in determining causation in alienation of affection cases. That difficulty has been a factor in motivating the majority of jurisdictions in the United States to either abolish or restrict the action for alienation of affection. The unique aggregate approach adopted by the Utah Supreme Court will not eliminate the problem of assessing relative fault inherent in a balancing approach to causation. The aggregate approach will improve the chances of achieving an equitable result in alienation of affection actions, however, by requiring significantly more contributory conduct on the defendant's part in comparison to the conduct of the spouses. Consequently, many situations in which the affections of a spouse are alienated will no longer be actionable. Recovery is preserved, however, where a defendant's conduct is so significant as to outweigh the combined effect of all other causes.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.63140/kr7za-qg6b
Recommended Citation
Steffensen, David W.
(1984)
"Nelson v. Jacobsen: A New CausationStandard for Alienation ofAffection Actions,"
Utah Law Review: Vol. 1984:
No.
4, Article 7.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.63140/kr7za-qg6b
Available at:
https://dc.law.utah.edu/ulr/vol1984/iss4/7