Alice D. v. William M.

113 Misc. 2d 940, 450 N.Y.S.2d 350, 1982 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 3405
CourtCivil Court of the City of New York
DecidedApril 27, 1982
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 113 Misc. 2d 940 (Alice D. v. William M.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Civil Court of the City of New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Alice D. v. William M., 113 Misc. 2d 940, 450 N.Y.S.2d 350, 1982 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 3405 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1982).

Opinion

OPINION OF THE COURT

David B. Saxe, J.

INTRODUCTION

This Small Claims Court case involves the following novel issue: If a man tells a woman, prior to having sexual intercourse with her, that he is sterile but in fact is.not, may she successfully sue him after becoming pregnant by him, to recover the costs of an abortion incurred by her and other related expenses?

FACTS

The essential facts are these: The claimant, a 35-year-old divorced woman resides with her 10-year-old son. The defendant is 58 years old, a postal worker, married, and has three grown children. The parties met in 1979. The relationship, initially one of friendship and casual dating, grew progessively more intimate and they became lovers sometime in the autumn of 1981.

Prior to having sexual intercourse, the parties discussed the use of contraception since, it is presumed, neither party desired that the claimant become pregnant. The claimant, who had originally planned to use a diaphragm or the rhythm method, was told “not to worry” by the defendant, since he said that he was sterile as a result of a medical [941]*941condition. He explained to the court that his sterility was caused by a medical condition known as hydrocele. A hydrocele is a collection of fluid which usually forms a mass around the testes. (Sherins and Howards, Male Infertility, in 1 Harrison et al., Campbell’s Urology [4th ed], pp 749-751.) It appears that the defendant’s statement regarding his sterility took place shortly before the parties performed their first assignation. Given their presumed passions, there was perhaps insufficient time for the claimant either to consult a medical expert in the field of infertility or a leading textbook on urology, to ascertain the veracity of his statements although this court eschews the imposition of such a duty. In short, she believed him and in reliance on his statement, she did not use any contraceptive method when having sexual intercourse with him. Her pregnant condition was confirmed in December. She had an abortion on January 23, 1982.

The defendant testified that since he is sterile, the claimant’s pregnancy must have resulted from sexual intercourse with some other man. The claimant vigorously denied this accusation stating that she had not had sexual relations with any man, other than the defendant, during the time period when conception occurred. I find the claimant’s testimony to be credible; the defendant’s uncorroborated accusations of infidelity are not entitled to much weight. (See Family Ct Act, § 531; Matter of Jane L. v Rodney B., lll Misc 2d 761.) Moreover, the defendant’s testimony and responses to the court’s questions were in general, evasive.

As is often the case in a Small Claims Court proceeding, the trier of the facts is required to decide sensitive and difficult issues on a record that contains no expert testimony. Beyond his testimony that he suffered from hydrocele which caused his claimed sterility, the defendant offered no other evidence regarding his alleged condition.

Even if I accept the fact that the defendant has a hydrocele, this condition does not mean that the defendant was sterile. A hydrocele does not generally cause sterility in men. (Sherins and Howards, Male Infertility, op. cit.) Research indicates that hydrocele and afflictions similar to it may, in some cases, be a secondary symptom of other [942]*942medical conditions which could potentially affect a man’s fertility. (Id.) However, there is nothing in the record to indicate that the defendant was suffering from any other medical disorder which might affect his fertility. His silence on this point permits me to infer that he knew that he suffered from no other disorder for if he did, I would have expected him to testify as to it. (Orange & Rockland Utilities v Amerada Hess Corp., 59 AD2d 110, 119; Richardson, Evidence [Prince, 10th ed], § 222.)

Therefore, I find that the defendant was not sterile, that he engaged in sexual intercourse with the plaintiff, that she had not been intimate with other men during this crucial time period, that hydrocele is not known generally to cause sterility or of itself to affect fertility and, further, that he is the father of three grown children, thus certainly evidencing fertility at some previous points in time. (Cf. EPTL 9-1.3, which abrogates the common-law presumption of fertility and declares that where the validity of a testamentary disposition depends upon the ability of a person to have a child at some future time, it shall be presumed that a male can have a child at 14 years of age or over, but not under.)

jurisdiction: civil court or family court?

Does the Small Claims Court have jurisdiction to hear this case? As a prerequisite to granting the relief requested by the claimant, I am required to find that her pregnancy resulted from a sexual encounter with the defendant. In a filiation proceeding to establish a father’s liability for the support of a child born out of wedlock, a similar finding must be made. Section 511 of the Family Court Act states that: “the family court has exclusive original jurisdiction in proceedings to establish paternity”. Does it follow that this court lacks jurisdiction to hear this case because the Family Court has jurisdiction? I think not. This case revolves predominantly around common-law issues of tort liability and it differs vastly from a filiation proceeding because here the pregnancy was terminated.

In a case similar to this one, a woman sued a man in Family Court for the cost of her abortion. The court noting the mandate of section 514 of the Family Court Act (“The [943]*943father is liable to pay the reasonable expenses of the mother’s confinement and recovery and such reasonable expenses in connection with her pregnancy as the court in its discretion may deem proper”), denied the plaintiff standing to sue and dismissed the action. That court reasoned that since there would be no “mother” or “father” of an aborted fetus, as contemplated by the statute, the action could not be maintained. (Matter of Genevieve L. v Pierre T., 108 Misc 2d 149; see, also, Matter of Barbara B. v Glen S., 70 Misc 2d 728; contra Matter of Gladys C. v Robert L., 61 Misc 2d 381.) Since the primary focus of article 5 of the Family Court Act is the protection of the welfare of the illegitimate child (Matter of Geraldine K. v Elliot D.B., 99 Misc 2d 720), the decision mandating an actual birth as a predicate for relief in the Famiy Court is sound.

Matter of Genevieve L. v Pierre T. (supra) also held that it was too late for the petitioner to start a filiation proceeding under subdivision (a) of section 517 of the Family Court Act since that action must be commenced either while the mother is pregnant or after the birth of the child, but not after the termination of the pregnancy.

Although Matter of Genevieve L. v Pierre T. (supra) established that a woman who undergoes an abortion has no right to sue the putative father in Family Court for her out-of-pocket expenses in connection with the abortion, it never addressed the issue of whether other courts may exercise jurisdiction in a similar case. Since that case stated that article 5 was not intended to cover the situation where a pregnancy was voluntarily terminated by abortion, it is reasonable to assume that the enactment of article 5 never removed, by way of pre-emption, the claimant’s right to seek relief in other courts.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Williams v. Manchester
864 N.E.2d 963 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 2007)
Wallis v. Smith
2001 NMCA 017 (New Mexico Court of Appeals, 2001)
Allen v. Westpoint-Pepperell, Inc.
11 F. Supp. 2d 277 (S.D. New York, 1997)
Aeropulse, Inc. v. Armstrong & Brooks, Ltd.
740 F. Supp. 938 (E.D. New York, 1990)
Cam v. Raw
568 A.2d 556 (New Jersey Superior Court App Division, 1990)
Long v. Adams
333 S.E.2d 852 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1985)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
113 Misc. 2d 940, 450 N.Y.S.2d 350, 1982 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 3405, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/alice-d-v-william-m-nycivct-1982.