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Court: Man Can Sue Over Surprise Pregnancy
CHICAGO - An appeals court said a man can press a claim for emotional distress after learning a former lover had used his sperm to have a baby. But he can't claim theft, the ruling said, because the sperm were hers to keep.
The ruling Wednesday by the Illinois Appellate Court sends Dr. Richard O. Phillips' distress case back to trial court.
Phillips accuses Dr. Sharon Irons of a "calculated, profound personal betrayal" after their affair six years ago, saying she secretly kept semen after they had oral sex, then used it to get pregnant.
He said he didn't find out about the child for nearly two years, when Irons filed a paternity lawsuit. DNA tests confirmed Phillips was the father, the court papers state.
Phillips was ordered to pay about $800 a month in child support, said Irons' attorney, Enrico Mirabelli.
Phillips sued Irons, claiming he has had trouble sleeping and eating and has been haunted by "feelings of being trapped in a nightmare," court papers state.
Irons responded that her alleged actions weren't "truly extreme and outrageous" and that Phillips' pain wasn't bad enough to merit a lawsuit. The circuit court agreed and dismissed Phillips' lawsuit in 2003.
But the higher court ruled that, if Phillips' story is true, Irons "deceitfully engaged in sexual acts, which no reasonable person would expect could result in pregnancy, to use plaintiff's sperm in an unorthodox, unanticipated manner yielding extreme consequences."
The judges backed the lower court decision to dismiss the fraud and theft claims, agreeing with Irons that she didn't steal the sperm.
"She asserts that when plaintiff 'delivered' his sperm, it was a gift — an absolute and irrevocable transfer of title to property from a donor to a donee," the decision said. "There was no agreement that the original deposit would be returned upon request."
Phillips is representing himself in the case. He could not be reached for comment Thursday.
"There's a 5-year-old child here," Mirabelli said. "Imagine how a child feels when your father says he feels emotionally damaged by your birth."
Originally Posted by badgirl: :-) OK HE SHOULDN'T PAY A DAMN DIME, as a matter of fact I was in a heated argument a few months back in the DC forum about this, kinda like this, my nephew is 16 and he knocked up a 15 year old, my sister offered to pay for the abortion and counceling for the girl, she refused to have the abortion, my nephew didn't want her to have the baby either, but what can he do? I dont think he should have to pay child support if he offered to pay to let it go and she refused.
yeah.....Just murder that baby, so your family doesn't have to deal with yet another illegitimate child.
If you can't see the difference here, then I can't help you. Sounds like your nephew ACTUALLY EFFED the girl.
Someone should tell you people how this pregnancy thing really happens.
This thread really needs to go into the hall of classics.... I've never seen a case of someone going forward, backwards and then doing a 180 following a pirouette so damn fast in my life.
I think MY neck hurts from watching the gyrations on here... [Reply]
The lesson learned from this is that that if you want to maintain your fraud and theft case, you must make it clear after you ejaculate that you have a reasonable expectation that your jizz be returned upon request. [Reply]
