STD Lawsuits

Embarking on a new relationship, there are so many doubts and questions to face; coupled with all the excitement and hope, it can make anybody anxious. One of those unspoken fears couples face when embarking on a new relationship is the fear of their partner’s past, both emotional and sexual. Now, an added fear for many couples across the nation is whether or not they might contract or give a sexually transmitted disease from/to their partner and if they/you could be liable for that.

One case that is currently taking place in a California courtroom has a woman suing her ex-husband for allegedly infecting her with HIV. This case, along with others, is capable of setting the precedent for future cases that may ask the same questions of being liable of transmitting a disease even though the defendant did not know he/she was infected. As the law stands, those people who know they are infected with a disease and yet act recklessly with others and transmit the disease are liable both civilly and, oftentimes, criminally.

More recently, there have been a growing number of lawsuits where the judicial system is faced with the question of whether or not people are liable if they had a sexually transmitted disease and passed it on but did not realize their STD status at the time. A decade ago a wife sued her husband, a notorious cheater, for allegedly infecting her with HPV (human papillomavirus); the Maine Supreme Judicial Court decided that she did not have a case since there was no proof that he could have known he was infected with HPV at the time. After all, it is very difficult to prove an HPV infection because it is a virus that often displays no symptoms in the patient. In fact, most people get exposed to the virus without ever knowing it. However, in more recent years, the precedent is changing. This year in Iowa, a woman won $1.5 million in a case against her ex-boyfriend dentist where she claims she contracted HPV from him. Her lawyer, Jeff Tronvold, states, “If 75 percent of people are exposed to HPV, then everybody should know they had it at one point.” But, if you tell a sexual partner that you have not been exposed, “you have already met, in my opinion, the civil burden [of proof] because you just lied. You should say, ‘I have no signs, but I cannot tell you I never had it.’ This could change the way we all date.” In this case, Tronvold was able to convince the jury that her ex-boyfriend was sexually promiscuous, was having an affair while dating his client and that the lesions his client had on her cervix did not show up until she began her relationship with her dentist boyfriend. On these facts alone, the jury felt the evidence was compelling enough to rule in his client’s favor.

In the earlier case of the woman suing her ex-husband for giving her HIV, the story goes that after the fairy-tale wedding and during the honeymoon, both husband and wife began feeling ill. When the wife went to the doctor, she was told she had HIV and that she was responsible for bringing it into the relationship and inflicting her husband with it. The wife was heartbroken and guilt-ridden until she found e-mails in her husband’s account that pointed to his other life: one where he would solicit unprotected homosexual sex online. After finding this out, the couple divorced and the wife sued.  While her attorneys may not be able to prove that her husband was aware he had HIV, they have made an impact on the law in California whereby one may be liable for transmitting an STD if they “reasonably should have known” they had one.