Posted on 07/03/2006 9:08:16 PM PDT by garbageseeker
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A person who has reason to believe he or she has HIV may be sued by sexual partners if they become infected, the California Supreme Court ruled on Monday, broadening the state's view of when liability arises from the disease.
Knowingly passing along HIV, which leads to AIDS, is already illegal in California and people who do so may be sued for damages in state court.
The California Supreme Court's decision widens the scope for law suits against sexual partners over negligent transmission.
In their decision, a majority of the court's justices held that they "cannot agree that persons who have reason to know they are infected with HIV, a gravely serious disease with no known cure, should be subject to a lesser duty of care than persons who have reason to know they are infected with other sexually transmitted diseases."
"In sum, we are not persuaded that California should be the first jurisdiction in the country to limit liability for the negligent transmission of HIV only to those who have actual knowledge they are HIV positive," the majority held.
Their decision addressed a lawsuit involving a married couple in which the wife and husband were both infected with HIV. Each charged the other with transmitting the disease.
The wife is seeking evidence from her husband's sexual history to establish he had reason to know of infection.
California did something right??
Did hell indeed freeze over, sir?
Is that odd?
Its about time.
Well, normally the offended party would be allowed to sue the geographically nearest person with an income over $120,000 per year. (Or the nearest large corporation with too many donations to the GOP.)
"A person who has reason to believe he or she has HIV may be sued by sexual partners if they become infected, the California Supreme Court ruled on Monday, broadening the state's view of when liability arises from the disease."
Is this one of those stories that is much, much bigger than it seems?
That might start altering behavior in the homosexual community, as fortunes and estates are transferred to young "dates" and their lawyers.
This story was very hard to find.
It has never been proven that HIV leads to AIDS. This is a bald faced lie.
What a bunch of namsy pamsies. For sure they made the right decision, but this is a very lame quote. If MA was the first jurisdiction would they have made a different decision? Sounds like they are playing politics.
Come on.
Say that to the estimated 32 million people have died from AIDS since the beginning of the pandemic.
I cant answer that. That a question for a judge to answer
Stories like this always seem to come out of San Fransicko.
The California Supreme Court is in San Francisco. The Federal Ninth Circuit Court is in San Francisco also
This is true.
What's more, in this case both the complainant and cross-complainant should be required to prove that he or she was NOT HIV positive prior to entering their relationship.
Thousands or millions of perfectly healthy people were walking around in blissful ignorance of their "HIV positive" condition prior to our ability to test for this virus. For decades. The epidemiology of HIV indicates that the virus has been riding human beings for decades, centuries or even millenia. The epidemiological curve is so flat it's hard to tell how old this common infection actually is.
It is possible, even likely, that one or the other of these people has had the HIV viral passenger since birth, since historically in utero infection was the most common means of transmission.
EXACTLY where they belong.
If you will introduce me to one of them, I'd be happy to say so myself, if I first can be told what he or she ACTUALLY died of.
You have no complaints from me
Really? I think I read somewhere that the correlation between HIV and AIDS is greater than the correlation between cigarettes and lung cancer. I know correlation does not equal causation, but come on....
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