An Oregon woman sued her date after he gave her genital herpes. He didn’t tell her he had it, but claims he didn’t think he was contagious. She agreed to have sex without a condom. You weighed in on the case here.
The jury agreed with the plaintiff that the defendant was guilty of negligence and battery (for engaging in an activity that harmed her), held that he was 75% responsible and she was 25% responsible, and ordered him to pay her $900,000.
© 2012 by Bill Bickel unless otherwise noted.
If he was asymptomatic, would the verdict be the same? About 80% of herpes-infected individuals are asymptomatic but still capable of transmitting it.
There would still be negligence in not being tested, and battery for doing harm… Get tested every time you kiss someone to avoid lawsuits worth $900k?
Reading on it, handshakes can transmit it just fine.
This is an unfortunate precedent.
No, it isn’t.
If you have an STD, the time to inform your partner is before you have sex. YOU might not think you can spread it, but the decision about what to do to ensure not contracting it belongs to the other party(s) involved.
If you have a communicable disease (any of them, sexually transmitted or not), you do the best you can to tell other people about it before they do something that could cause them to catch it. If you don’t, and they have pain and suffering as a result, you should pay.
If you know. That’s my question here. Most carriers are asymptomatic and quite capable of spreading the disease. Are you still liable?
For $900,000 he can give me herpes.