Warren Pegram is suing his church because he says the pastor stole his wife, leaving him financially unstable after the dissolution of his 28 year marriage.
Warren J. Pegram, of Snow Camp, filed the suit Nov. 8 against the Cane Creek Meeting of the Society of Friends. In the suit, he claims the Quaker congregation knowingly allowed its pastor to develop a relationship with his wife, Shyrlynn Pate Pegram, and encouraged her to leave him in early 2012.
The suit asks for a jury trial and judgment of $180,000 in actual damages and $10 million in punitive damages.
The church is denying any wrong doing.
The congregation intentionally or negligently acted to interfere with the Pegrams’ marriage, in the end depriving Warren Pegram of his wife’s companionship and support. Some church members helped her move out. In March 2012, the church council allegedly defended the actions of congregants who helped her move out.
The church’s actions “in defending the destruction” of the marriage deprived Warren Pegram “of much of his support in his declining years” and caused “emotional and physical distress … to the extent that he has not been able to properly perform in a customary manner and his professional practice as a retired engineer has suffered …,” the suit says.
A trial is set for February 25.
