Woman in AIDS case awarded $2m

IN what may be the first verdict of its kind, a Cook County jury awarded $2 million (€1.6m) on Tuesday to a woman who sued her fiance’s parents for allegedly covering up that he was dying of AIDS.

The woman, known only as “Jane Doe,” was infected through unprotected sex with her fiance, Albert Dilling, in August 1996, according to Hall Adams III, the woman’s attorney. The woman’s lawsuit contended that Dilling, who died of AIDS in November 1999, did not tell her he was infected with HIV.

The suit alleged Dilling’s parents knew of his infection and lied to her when she asked about his deteriorating health.

The suit contended the parents’ misrepresentations prevented the woman from learning she may have been infected for almost three years, in which time she could have received anti- retroviral medicine to help prevent the HIV infection from developing into AIDS.

“Our claim wasn’t that Albert’s parents had any duty to volunteer information about their son’s medical care,” Mr Adams said on Wednesday. “But when they took it upon themselves to offer information about their son’s condition, they had an obligation to give accurate information.”

Dilling’s mother, Elizabeth Dilling, 81, said she plans to appeal the ruling. Elizabeth Dilling contends she and her late husband, Kirkpatrick Dilling, didn’t know their son had been infected with HIV until November 2, 1999, weeks before his death. She said doctors told them their son’s deteriorating health was due to heavy-metal poisoning and Lyme disease.

Mr Hall sought $4.5m (€3.7m) in damages for his client, a Chicago-area businesswoman in her 50s who has never been married.

The case was tried a first time in April but was declared a mistrial after the jury deadlocked.