A White, Bald Man Of Medium Height

The North Carolina Court of Appeals has held that summary judgment was improperly granted on claims of criminal conversation and alienation of affections

In the light most favorable to Plaintiff, a reasonable mind may infer from the evidence that Defendant was Ms. Chagaris’s paramour, even if that evidence is circumstantial. By his own admission, Defendant and Ms. Chagaris met in Fall of 2017, a time period during which Ms. Chagaris began engaging in an extramarital affair. According to Ms. Chagaris, her paramour in this affair was a white, bald man of medium height. By his own admission, Defendant fits this description. Ms. Chagaris confirmed that she slept with the same white, bald man of medium height at four different hotels on four different occasions, including 19 October 2017 and 3 November 2017, the dates on or around which Plaintiff provides evidence of contact between Defendant and Ms. Chagaris. Ms. Chagaris stated that she met her paramour on Ashley Madison and met him at a coffee shop. Ms. Chagaris also stated in an interrogatory that she and Defendant “had coffee once.” In his response to Plaintiff’s interrogatories in the present case, Defendant confirmed that he met with Ms. Chagaris “for coffee,” though he maintained this was a business meeting to discuss potential job opportunities at her company.

The timeline during which Ms. Chagaris and Defendant met, conversed, and ceased contact, together with her admission to having sexual intercourse with a paramour matching Defendant’s description and Defendant and Ms. Chagaris’s contact within hours of Ms. Chagaris’s hotel stays on 19 October 2017 and 3 November 2017, provide sufficient evidence that Defendant was Ms. Chagaris’s paramour to raise a genuine issue of material fact. Accordingly, the jury is the best judge of credibility and the weight of all the evidence. Summary judgment was improper on this claim.

(Mike Frisch)