We have been following a series of paternity cases (here and here and here and here) where courts have rejected claims of lack of consent or knowledge by a parent in forcing child support payments. I just ran over a case that, while now a bit dated, is remarkable. The case involves a Chicago doctor who was forced to pay child support after his girlfriend, without his knowledge, saved sperm from oral sex and arranged to be impregnated with it. The case came to public attention after an appellate court ruled that Dr. Richard O. Phillips could sue Dr. Sharon Irons for emotional distress in the case.
Here are the facts:
During their relationship, the parties discussed the possibility of having children only after they married. Plaintiff informed defendant he did not wish to have children prior to marriage, and intended to use a condom if and when they engaged in sexual intercourse. Defendant understood and agreed. During the entire course of their relationship, the parties engaged in intimate sexual acts three times, with two of those times occurring on the same date. Vaginal penetration never occurred; the parties engaged only in acts of oral sex. Defendant told plaintiff she did not want to have sexual intercourse due to her menses. On or around February 19, 1999, and March 19, 1999, defendant “intentionally engaged in oral sex with [plaintiff] so that she could harvest [his] semen and artificially inseminate herself,” and “did artificially inseminate herself.”
Plaintiff’s complaint alleged further that in May of 1999, defendant confessed to plaintiff that she still was married to her former husband, Dr. Adebowale Adeleye. She told plaintiff she planned to get a divorce, and showed him a “Petition for Dissolution of Marriage,” which was filed on May 20, 1999. In the petition, defendant swore she was not pregnant. The parties’ relationship terminated in May of 1999, upon plaintiff learning defendant was not divorced.
On November 21, 2000, defendant filed a “Petition to Establish Paternity and Other Relief” against plaintiff, claiming she and plaintiff had a sexual relationship eight to ten months before the birth of defendant’s daughter, Serena, on December 1, 1999. DNA tests have confirmed plaintiff is Serena’s biological father.
In the circuit court below, Kathy M. Flanagan ruled that Irons conduct was not so extreme and outrageous to sustain a legal action by Phillips. That court was reversed after the appellate court ruled that 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.”
While ruling that the emotional distress claim could go forward, the court ruled that he could not allege theft because the sperm technically belonged to Dr. Irons. Phillips alleged that Irons committed “calculated, profound personal betrayal” when she used the sperm to produce offspring. He found out about the deception two years after the child was born and tests confirmed that he was the father after paternity tests. He was ordered to pay $800 a month in child support.
What is interesting is that it is intentional infliction of emotional distress as opposed to negligent infliction. To meet that standard, he must show (1) extreme and outrageous conduct; (2) intention to inflict severe emotional distress, or know that there is at least a high probability that it will cause severe emotional distress; and (3) severe emotional distress. The court found:
Under these circumstances, even if defendant intended to accomplish only conception and procreation, she knew there was at least a high probability that her manner of so doing would inflict severe emotional distress on plaintiff. According to plaintiff, defendant was aware of his desire to have children only after marriage. Further, plaintiff believed defendant could not become pregnant, not only due to the nature of the sexual acts, but because he believed she was infertile at the time as a result of her menstrual cycle. Months later, however, defendant informed plaintiff he fathered her child. From these facts, if proved, it may be inferred reasonably that defendant knew manipulating plaintiff into unwittingly conceiving a child out of wedlock would inflict severe emotional distress. Further, contrary to defendant’s assertion, plaintiff is not claiming the act of filing the paternity suit itself caused him severe emotional distress; it was the result of defendant’s actions in their entirety.
The court agreed with Irons that she could not be charged with conversion since “there was no agreement that the original deposit would be returned upon request, or where the transaction did not create a bailment, a claim for conversion cannot be sustained.”
I also found the court’s holding on fraudulent misrepresentation to be interesting. It rejected the claim because ‘[]the tort of fraudulent misrepresentation historically has been limited to cases involving business or financial transactions where plaintiff has suffered a pecuniary harm . . . it is an economic tort under which one may recover only monetary damages. Neurosurgery, 339 Ill. App. 3d at 186. Therefore, plaintiff may not recover on allegations of physical and emotional distress.” However, this fraud did cause financial harm given the paternity award against Phillips.
I also do not understand the basis for child support when the pregnancy was achieved artificially and without his consent or knowledge.
I have not been able to locate the current status of this case after the remand. The last published opinion was Phillips v. Irons, 354 Ill. App. 3d 1164, 2005 Ill. App. LEXIS 1807 (Ill. App. Ct. 1st Dist. 2005)
Jonathan Turley
@Cdub: And then you want me to show you facts and statistics. Right, jerk, I’m so going to google and check my web history to find the case of the women being arrested for reporting marital rape. Cause you’re such a reasonable person.
It’s a shame rape victims don’t have half the credibility you seem to think they have, cause then I could hope for some woman you ticked off to make a false accusation against you, and you could go to a place where maybe you’d learn some humiity.
“THERE ARE PLACES WHO WANT TO DECRIMINALIZE DOMESTIC VIOLENCE or anything.”
Yeah apparantly even for states going bankrupt it costs money to process all those made up domestic violence claims as well as the real ones.
@Cdub: You will not paint me into a corner by comparing forcing a woman who has suffered a terrible violation of her body and mind being forced to live with the consequence of that violation, and a man paying suport for a child he brought into this world, even when he was taking precautions for not doing so. First of all, every sexual relationship between man and woman brings the risk of pregnancy, unless one of the two is infertile (and I know two women who were said to be infertile, then ended up pregant, so not even that is 100%) Since the pregnancy doesn’t happen in the man’s body, he takes the risk of supporting the child if the woman gets pregnant and decides to carry the pregnancy to term. He KNOWS this.
Don’t even try to tell me how she tricked him (yes, she did, it was a horrible thing, and I think he has every right to sue for punitive damages). But he knew there was a risk of pregnancy when he engaged in sexual relations with her. Guess what; pregnancy happened, now he’s responsible for the child who was born because HE chose to engage in a sexual act! If he had been RAPED, then of course I would say he has no obligation to care for a child who resulted of a traumatic experience for him. I wouldn’t be so cruel as to say he has to live with this reminder for the rest of his life. The point is he WASN’T raped.
I can say, that using your point of view a woman who got pregnant because of a defective condom or IUD can demand only the father support the child, after all she thought she was taking precautions, right? Or she could not abort and not give the child to adoption, but she could just change her mind
after like 03 months and dumping the kid in an orphanage would be a completely moral thing to do. She thought she wasn’t going to get pregnant, right?
What women have been arrested for accusing their husbands of rape? Maybe they were those elusive false accusers that don’t seem to exist? That does seem odd because usually when a woman is found out to be lying about rape prosecuters just turn the other cheek like nothing happened. Who cares about the guy that has to reassemble his life.
You really believe that so many men are out there raping their wives and girlfriends? That’s fucked up.
And which states are you talking about where it is legal to rape your wife? That is certainly news to me, especially in this rape-hysteria, women = good men = bad culture. Please by all means enlighten me.
In regards to the original story here. You need to sincerely re-read “Roger’s” response @ 1, August 15, 2011 at 5:08 pm
If you believe this man needs to be financially responsible for the child. Then do you believe that a woman who was raped and had a child as a result should have to raise and support that child? After all a child is born that needs food, clothing, education, medicine, etc. Or should she be forced to take care of the child, or can she have the option of giving it up for adoption?
You will not paint me into a corner saying that I do not believe rape happens. I believe it does but it is greatly exaggerated, and at the same time, false accusations are ignored. I am for prosecuting rapists, as well as false accusers, but believe accused people should have the same rights in a court law as accusers.
@Cdub: And it’s not like women have been arrested for saying their husband was raping or anything.
@Cdub: Yeah, you obviously didn’t read how THERE ARE STATES WHERE IT’S LEGAL TO RAPE YOUR WIFE. But, hey, all she has to do is to say she feels threatened, it’s not like THERE ARE PLACES WHO WANT TO DECRIMINALIZE DOMESTIC VIOLENCE or anything.
@Cdub: Yeah, talking abt marital rape is saying ALL husbands rape. Did you know that, when ppl talk abt the problem of poverty, it means everyone is poor?
And when a man talks about misandry most of your sisters look dumbfounded, what’s that? Exactly, it’s so prevelant and excepted in society that people just see at as normal. There’s no such term for hating men. LOL.
Um you are the one overly concerned with the mythical rape that happens within marriage. Okay even if some of this is true, it is not widespread problem and happens in such small quanitities it’s no reason to sound the alarm against all husbands, and on top of that there are plenty of options a woman has to put an end to this. She can call the police and have the man arrested immidetaley, she does not even have to say he was abusive, just that she feels threatened. Or media and feminists favorite, kill first, then claim abuse later. That always works out great. Tv show appearances, magazine writeups, book deals, the possiblities are endless.
@Yeah, I was sure he was guilt. Your crystal ball wins again. Your anti-feminist guys are very paranoid. When a woman talks abt the misoginy of some men or of a specific men, you imediately feel ”hated”. When a woman talks abt a man accused of smth, you immeditaly think we have 100% sure he’s guilty. That’s smth that would probably better be solved by ways of a good mental health profesional
And his personal details were all-over as well, so false rape disbelievers like yourself could project all your anger on a man you never knew, but was sure he was guilty, all because another one of Team Woman said so. Rape Shield Laws do exist and discriminate against the accused, and you damn well know that’s true. Oh but all these strong, independent females, who are better at everything then men, for some reason need extra protection from the state from these lowly men.
@Cdub: Funny how you ignored all the FACTS I brought to you (the personal details of Assange accusers were all over the internet so rape apologists like you could project all their anger on women they never knew, but were sure were lying) and go on abt rape shield laws.
Um no it’s called Rape Shield laws. More often than not a woman’s name is not released while a man’s name is dragged thru the mud. Why not name both names, or neither at all, why is the accuser assumed to be not guilty and the accused automatically guilty? Why do the rights of the accuser supersede the rights of the accused in this matter? You don’t recall the media jumping the gun and ready to lynch these men at Duke and Hofstra before they gathered all the facts? But in your warped mind all those men are guilty anyway. These turds that accused Assange wrote papers on how to falsely accuse a man and get away with it. Are you kidding guys get thrown out of colleges just on mere accusations because the so-called ‘victim’ would feel uncomfortable. Therefore, his life needs to be ruined until we find out if anything even really happened.
And yes the reasons to lie about rape…spite or revenge, to compensate for feelings of guilt or shame, to conceal an affair, test partner’s love, to avoid personal responsibility, attention/sympathy…..
All and all women who claim they are raped are automatically by and large in society viewed as victims, and men and women alike can’t wait to find a man to blame for it. Men get feel like rescuers of women in doing so, and women get the instant victim status they crave. Who cares if actually happened.
@contraoestatutodonascituro
1.) My ego and self-confidence is to big for me to do a victory dance over making you quit because I knew it was going to happen anyway. You hope that I will because it would be validation that you’re someone to be reckoned with. If I was, in fact, not worth your time then you wouldn’t have responded to me in the first place, would you? So, please, don’t project on me.
2.) If you’re finished with me, you don’t do a “p.s,” you just stop talking.
3.) My interpretation to “Fight Club” is my own, like all forms of artistry, the interpretation of the artist’s meaning is left up to the beholder. I’m sure what I got from Fight Club is a lot different from what you got from it.
4.) Yes, women can take measures to prevent themselves from being raped, you can’t control who receives the signals but you can control the signals you send. The rapist should not rape, that much is true, but what about the personal responsibility of a woman dressing in such a provocative manner? Why do you think that women who dressed that way were frowned upon? Because we knew what she was about and what she was looking for. Women fought for the right to wear what they wanted and, like all rights, it comes with some responsibility. A woman’s feelings would matter to a reasonable man and we all know how much women love reasonable men but a rapist wouldn’t care about a woman’s feelings because the only thing on his mind is rape. Not dressing in a lewd manner isn’t going to prevent all rape, if it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen but you’d be better served not making yourself a target. You still haven’t told me what your feelings on men that are raped. In fact, you just cherry picked from what I said to respond to.
@Jack: 1) You have poor reading skills. I said you’re not worth the time of trying to talk to you as if you were a reasonable person with more than two brain cells. You’re worth the time I take to reply to you with snide remarks. I like telling ppl how much they suck.
3) An interpretation that’s absolutely contrary to what the artist intended is not an ”interpretation”, it’s a lack of ability to understand what the work was portraying.
4) The idea that women have to take ”personal responsibility” for being the victims of a crime is ridiculous! If you admit that reasonable men don’t rape, no matter how their victim is dressed, then you have to admit that a man who sees a woman’s clothes as an excuse for rape is someone who’s acting in a way that goes against reason. Then, guess what? Don’t suport a rapist’s mindframe! And I’m sorry to tell you, but the ”only” thing in A LOT of rapist’s minds is not rape. Not all rapists are monsters lurking in shadows in order to prey upon strangers, a lot of them are men who will rape a woman who’s passed out, rape their dates, rape their girlfriends, rape the girls who live in their dorm and not even consider that rape.
And my ”feelings” on men that are raped? Are there any possible feelings abt rape survivors besides it’s a horrible thing to happen to someone and I hope they can recover?! (well, there’s victim-blaming and trying to see how much ”personal responsibility” they had in being violated, of course, but I don’t do that) Sorry if my reply wasn’t ”man-hating” enough.
Hah don’t you mean your rally cry Women never lie about rape, LOL. Couldn’t have nothing to do with all the incentives women can get out of lying about rape now could it????
I know how the fembot mind works, a man merely accused of rape is guilty regardless if the court proves him innocent. Shame on me for giving you real cases of real men who were in-fact falsely accused, because an accusation alone is all the evidence one needs. So much for due process, that’s patriarchal anyway, LOL.
@Cdub: Oh, the benefits of accusing a man of rape. Having your life, face and personal details put on the internet so angry fanboys of the guy you’re acusing can say all the horrible things they want abt you without even knowing you…cough Assange acusers…having papers calling you a liar without any actual proof…cough Strauss-Kahn accuser…having a judge throw you in jail cause you accused another man of rape 3 years before (apparently, due process is necessay when accusing a man of rape, but not so necessary when ”proving” a woman lied to justice abt rape.) Being asked to not go to your school cafeteria because you’re making the guy you accused of rape uncomfortable…cough cheerleader who was ordered to cheer for her rapist or quit the cheerleading team. Yes, it’s just an endless parade of joy to lie you were the victim of a crime society will try to find any way they can to say you were ”asking for it”
You who’ve ignored virtually everything I’ve said, lol. I gave you paragraph after paragraph about the stupid shit you said. So I may have projected some, for the most part I”m not far off, and you do the same damn thing. Again a woman wanting separate rules, imagine that.
Without the reproduction and grooming of future generations all those things you speak of are for not and lost.
She want’s to throw shit, she’ll get a faceful that’s all AY.
@Cdub: I’m not saying ppl shouldn’t reproduce, I’m just saying claiming that having functional reproductive organs is ”the highest achievement” someone can make is diminishing all our potential. And of course I ignored the shit you say, you don’t seriously think I’m gonna read all the bullshit you spew when you showed you’re so out of touch with reality you think you know what I’m for and what I’m against, what ppl I admire (I’m still not over the Oprah thing. Seriously, dude, get a fucking clue) based on less than 5 comments I made on the internet. Ppl like you already think they know it all. You think you know how feminists think, you’re obviously so in touch with our motivations (of course we’re not angry abt not being treated with respect, we just envy your dicks…that’s groundbreaking, ever thought of going in the field of Psychology?) I save my words for ppl who matter. Ppl like you? I just laugh and try to poke your little bubble.
Cdub,
You could say the same thing without being offensive…. don’t you think?
Dear Dangler envier,
Motherhood is the greatest achievement a woman can make, much like Fatherhood is the greatest achievement a man can make. But that’s all over now that the Femtwats decided to destroy the Nuclear Family.
Um by the way kuntie I’m not out of a job, try again. I was just making a point that the more men are out of work, the more it hurts women as well, I know hard for your little hamster wheel to process.
And about job discrimination, since you are a whackjob fembot, you obviously agree with affirmative action. You believe women were oppressed, so now you think it is right to use state sponsored legislation to keep current men out of jobs. How does this make you any different than any of those evil men you so despise that supposedly oppressed your mother and grandmother? Looks to me like we would be going in a circle with this bullshit if the beginning actually held any truth. As it stands it’s just a bunch of lunatic femtwats looking for free shit and bashing men in the process. You wouldn’t even be able to get your word out and protest any of this shit we are talking about if men were as oppressive as you claim, because there would be a gag order on your speech dipshit.
My attitude is appropriate when dealing with idiots like you. Now when it comes to applying for big industry and especially government jobs I know there isn’t much sense in me applying, knowing that I WILL be discriminated against based on my dangler and color. There is a reason why Western economies are coming to a halt and a lot it has to do with political correct busllshit like no longer hiring the best person for the job, instead only certain ‘victim groups’ are given real consideration. But hey that’s okay productive people will win out in the end. They will just leave the sinking ship behind and laugh while all you clowns try and run your social experiment nightmare right into the fucking ground.
I have no problem with state funded contraception access to someone that was legimately raped. But there needs to be factual evidence not just an accuser’s word alone against the accused. There you go again with “husbands raping their wives”, lol. This happens next to never. Now a real issue to be concerned about if you were truly egalitarian which feminism is anything but, is the amount of men that are thrown in jail every year based off a woman’s word alone, and a lying one’s at that. I know that never happens, cough Duke fake rape case, cough Hofstra fake rape case, cough Dominic Staruss Kahn false rape case, cough Julian Assange false rape case, cough Kobe Bryant false rape case, cough, and the millions of other men falsely accused of rape and sexual assault all over the West, while their false accusers more often then not never serve a fucking day in jail. Can you spell Pussy Pass??????????
God you hate being a woman don’t you. Trust me putting up with women’s bullshit all day isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
@Cdub: I’m not pro-afirmative action, but I know you can’t make an argument against what I’m ACTUALLY saying, so you just fish things out of a ”deluded things I can regurgitate against women who say men are not poor opressed creatures”.
And fatherhood is the greatest achievement a man can make? How abt advancing Medicine, science, making a diference for the better in the world, creating a work of art that will be reminded for centuries? All this is less of an achievement than sucessfully impregnating a woman? You have low expectations for life.
@Cdub: Yes, Cdub. All those rape cases are obviously false. Men never, never lie. If they say they didn’t rape then they obviously didn’t rape. Did you ever see a criminal lie abt having commited a crime? That would be a shock, wouldn’t it?
amen to cdub