Spurned US wife wins #3.7m compensation from hubby's mistress

London, Sept 9 (ANI): A woman in the US has won 3.7million pounds as compensation from her husband's mistress for breaking up their marriage.

Dr Lynn Arcara used a centuries-old "alienation of affection" law to sue one of her closest friends after the woman betrayed her by stealing her husband of six years.

Dr Arcara, who was several months pregnant with her first child, had invited her friend Susan Pecoraro to stay at her home in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, so that she could help decorate the nursery.

However, Pecoraro, 45, embarked upon an affair with Dr Arcara's husband, Russell, a retired US army officer.

When Dr Aracara discovered the affair, after giving birth to a daughter, the marriage ended and the couple divorced.

The 45-year-old radiologist launched a legal case to reclaim 5.8million pounds, a sum based on the amount of money she would have earned if she had remained married to her husband.

Cynthia Mills, the lawyer who represented Dr Arcara in the court action, said her client had been betrayed by her closest friend.

"She came down and helped my client paint her nursery and in the process she helped herself to my client's husband," the BBC quoted Mills as saying.

Mills said she was able to present documents to the court to show that Dr Arcara and her husband were happy before the affair began.

She said the couple, who married in July 2000, often shared activities together with the husband cooking for his wife and preparing for the birth of their first child.

"She was a great wife, she's a great mother, a great person and she was a very sympathetic witness," Mills stated.

Since the break-up of the marriage Dr Arcara has moved to Florida while her husband lives in the neighbouring state of Georgia.

Pecoraro still lives in the town of Hebron, Maryland, and may never have to pay the money, as the judgement can't be enforced in another state. (ANI)