Legal News

Jury Socks Husband With $2.4M Award in Herpes Case

By Matthew Heller, Editor

A Beverly Hills real estate investor who allegedly contracted genital herpes while cheating on his wife with several other women has been ordered to pay her $2.4 million in damages for infecting her with the sexually transmitted disease.

A jury awarded the damages after a trial in which George Saadian's wife argued that he at the very least had reason to know he was infected with herpes because he engaged in the ?high-risk behavior? of having unprotected sex with escorts. Such ?constructive knowledge? is sufficient to establish liability in a case of transmission of an STD.

?[H]e created a substantial and foreseeable risk that he would contract a sexually-transmitted disease and communicate that disease to his wife,? Kathrin Saadian, who also is in the process of divorcing her husband, said in a court brief.

The award included $250,000 for future medical expenses, $500,000 for past pain and suffering, $1.63 million for future pain and suffering, and $62,000 in punitive damages. In a similar case, another California jury last year awarded $6.7 million to a woman who claimed a wealthy businessman infected her with herpes.

?The jury fully understood the stigma that Mrs. Saadian will have to live with for the rest of her life solely as a result of her husband's actions,? her attorney, Shaun M. Murphy (Slovak Baron & Empey, Palm Springs), said.

George Saadian, whose net worth has been estimated at $23 million, testified he had only a three-week affair while he and his wife were briefly separated. ?The only evidence in this case is that Defendant had sexual relations with a single female during the separation,? he argued. ?No prostitutes. No escorts. No multiple sex partners.?

But the trial judge admitted evidence that George Saadian subscribed to online dating services including SugarDaddy.com and paid for gifts to other women even before he separated from his wife. The evidence, Kathrin said, showed he ?knowingly engaged in conduct creating an unjustifiably high risk of harm.?

The Saadians separated in August 2007 but George moved back in with his wife the following month. After she was diagnosed with genital herpes in December 2007, she sued him for divorce and later filed the STD transmission lawsuit against him.

George ?had unprotected sexual intercourse with many other individuals throughout the entirety of the marriage,? the complaint said, and ?sought and obtained sexual partners on escort websites.?

Defense attorney William M. Samoska argued that evidence of George's online dating activities was not admissible because ?there is no legal or scientific basis for finding that if a person engages in sex, even with multiple partners, paid or not, that person should infer that they have a disease.?

George had a blood test Dec. 26, 2007 ? less than two weeks after Kathrin's diagnosis ? that came back positive for herpes. Murphy said there was evidence George knew he had herpes before he got the test results since, among other things, he admitted during a marital counseling session with his wife on Dec. 7, 2007 that he had infected her.

By Matthew Heller
On Point

Full post as published by On Point News on November 13, 2010 (boomark / email).