Also known as: sexual relation · sexual intercourse
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
Physical sexual activity between persons that encompasses sexual intercourse and other intimate contact involving sexual organs.
Seth Shapiro returns home early and finds his spouse in the bedroom engaged in sexual relations with another person. Overcome by sudden rage, Seth immediately grabs a nearby object and strikes the other person, causing death. The discovery supplies the adequate provocation that reduces the charge from murder to voluntary manslaughter under common-law homicide rules.
Stephen Shaw and an accomplice break into a residence to commit robbery. During the crime Stephen forces the occupant to submit to sexual intercourse by threat of force. The sexual act during the enumerated felony triggers the statutory presumption of extreme indifference to human life, elevating the resulting homicide to murder.
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Simon Stern negligently injures his neighbor Samantha Stone in an automobile collision. Samantha's injuries permanently impair her capacity for sexual intercourse with her spouse. The spouse may recover damages from Simon for the resulting loss of society and services, including the impairment of sexual relations.
Sydney Santos and Sarah Sullivan live together for several years, share a bedroom, and maintain sexual relations while operating a joint business. They execute a written agreement to pool earnings and divide assets equally upon separation. The agreement remains enforceable even though the parties engaged in sexual relations throughout the relationship.
Two adults engage in consensual sexual relations in the privacy of their home. State officers arrest them under a statute criminalizing the conduct. The constitutional protection of liberty under the Due Process Clause invalidates the statute as applied to private, consensual adult activity.
Two adults engage in private sexual relations prohibited by a state sodomy statute. Police enter the home and make arrests under the law. The statute is upheld against a due-process challenge, allowing criminal liability for the conduct.
Yes. Common-law homicide doctrine treats the sudden discovery of a spouse in the act of sexual relations with another person as a classic category of adequate provocation that can reduce murder to voluntary manslaughter when the remaining elements of heat of passion and no cooling off are also satisfied.
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Yes. Model Rule 1.8(j) prohibits a lawyer from having sexual relations with a client unless the consensual relationship already existed when the client-lawyer relationship began.
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Yes. Under Restatement (Second) of Torts § 693(1), a defendant liable for bodily harm to one spouse is also subject to liability to the other spouse for the resulting loss of society and services, expressly including impairment of capacity for sexual intercourse.
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Yes. Adults who live together and engage in sexual relations remain competent to contract about earnings and property rights, provided the agreement is not an exchange for sexual services.
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…an alleged "detrimental effect upon [their] marital happiness" because they are forced to "the choice of refraining from normal sexual relations or of endangering Mary Doe's health through a possible pregnancy." Their claim is that sometime in the future Mrs. Doe might become pregnant because of possible failure of contraceptive…