A Sicilian man has been ordered to pay damages to his ex-wife for not telling her before they were married that he was impotent.
Striking a cruel blow to the island’s fiercely macho culture, Italy’s top appeals court, the court of cassation, ruled that a man could not conceal his sexual shortcomings from the woman he was going to marry without paying the consequence.
Four separate articles of the Constitution enshrined, directly or indirectly, a woman’s expectation of ”a harmonious sex life” and her ”plans for motherhood”, the court decreed.
The couple, identified only by their first names, Stefano and Cristina, were married in church without ever having had sex.
It was only on the night of their wedding that the bride discovered that her new husband suffered from a ”sexual malformation”.
The result was what was variously described in court as a ”debacle” and a ”catastrophe”.
Not only had Stefano failed to tell Cristina about his sexual problem, but he had refused to have his ”malformation” treated by a doctor, saying he did not want other people to learn about it.
She turned to the ecclesiastical courts and obtained an annulment on the grounds of impotence.
Cristina then sought alimony through the civil courts and damages from Stefano for his refusal either to inform her or to seek treatment.
The alimony was awarded, but two lower courts threw out her suit for damages.
The latest ruling reversed the most recent of these earlier judgments, handed down in 2001.
It will now be up to the Palermo appeals court to fix the level of damages Stefano will have to pay.
A string of recent judgements has enshrined in Italian law the principle of a ”right to sex” in marriage.
Earlier this year, the court of cassation ruled that a husband was not within his rights to deny sexual relations as a way of punishing his wife. – Guardian Unlimited Â