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French Judge Orders Man Pay $14,000 to Wife for Lack of Sex

By Cynthia Hsu, Esq. on September 06, 2011 | Last updated on March 21, 2019

Here's a warning to all you husbands out there: if you don't "perform" enough during your marriage, you may have to pay your wife damages over a lack of sex.

Put another way, French husbands may be legally obligated to satisfy their wives - or else face legal sanctions.

A 51-year-old Frenchman has been ordered to pay his ex-wife about $14,000 in damages over a lack of sex in their 21-year marriage. Was the wife not found to be liable at all, here?

The husband, identified only as Jean-Louis B, says that he suffered from "tiredness and health problems" throughout their marriage which led to him not performing as often, according to the New York Daily News.

Let this be a warning to husbands everywhere. Satisfy your wives or risk a financial judgement like Jean-Louis'.

When couples undertake a "shared communal life" by getting married, they are agreeing to have sexual relations, according to the French judge.

Basically, Jean-Louis was not living up to his end of the marriage bargain.

And, for those thinking that this was some renegade French judge out to punish non-performing husbands, think again.

An appeals court in Aix-en-Provence also ruled in the sex-deprived wife's favor, according to the New York Daily News.

American husbands shouldn't be too concerned about facing a Jean-Louis-like financial scorn. This case won't exactly be a part of U.S. common law.

But, sex is an important component to marriage in America as well. Inability to have sex or incurable impotency can be grounds to get a marriage annulled.

Annulments are different than divorces. If you get divorced, you were still married at one point in your life. But, if your marriage is annulled, your marriage is considered to never have legally existed.

So, what can spouses everywhere glean from Jean-Louis' misfortune? One, if you're married, you should probably have sex a few times (at least). And second, if you're in France, you might end up paying your wife damages over a lack of sex in your marriage if you don't step up and perform.

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