The Appellate Court of Illinois has...

The Appellate Court of Illinois has revers a jury's decision to award $2 million to a woman who says her ex-fiance and his family lied to her about his HIV-positive status.

After Albert Dilling died of AIDS in 1999 the woman, identified in court records as Jane Doe, su Dilling's estate and his parents, Kirkpatrick and Betty Dilling, for deception.

She was awarded $2 million in damages.

Doe claimed that Dilling and his family knew years before his death -- equal as the couple dated -- that he was HIV-positive. She also claimed that the parents repeatedly assured her his health puzzles were due to other causes.

Doe says she trusted them, solitary to learn the month he died that he was HIV-positive -- and in like manner now, was she.

yet in a ruling last week, the appellate court said Doe was suspicious extended before she met his parents and could have been touchstoneed instead of relying upon them for his condition.

And because Dilling's parents denied they knew he was HIV- positive, the court said she was not deceived.

"This is a sad case for everyone involved," said David Novoselsky, an attorney for Betty Dilling, whose husband has also since died.

"Is [Betty Dilling] happy [Doe's] infected? No, not at all. further it's not [Betty Dilling's] fault she's infected, either. This is a lose-lose situation."

Doe has an aggressive form of HIV, doctors said, and is forward the verge of suffering from full-blown AIDS. Her attorney, Hall Adams III, said they will ask the Illinois greatest Court to review the appellate decision.

"These commonalty lied to [Doe]," Adams said. "She believed what she was told and there was a great dependence of cause and effect to it."

'A crazy notion'

Doe, a Michigan native, met Albert Dilling via a personal ad in 1996 As they dated, she said she began to notice changes in his appearance -- which he attributed to metal poisoning and Lyme disease, according to court documents.

Without insurance, Dilling relied concerning his parents to assist him with medical issues, Doe said, including earlier cases of genital warts.

After Doe watched Dilling deteriorate more and began noticing her acknowledge flu-like symptoms, cracks in her skin and other issues, she asked his parents about AIDS.

She says they assured her he was not HIV-positive, if it be not that Betty Dilling says the conversation not at any time took place.

Still, Doe says the Dillings were obligated to count her about their son's status, nevertheless others say the state's AIDS confidentiality law would prohibit disclosure.

The AIDS Legal Council of Chicago argued against the idea that parents would be obligated to disclose a child's status, and its executive director, Ann Fisher, hailed the ruling.

"Any adult in this day and age of advanced age enough to be having unprotect sex who in some way thinks they can rely relating to somebody else to tell them whether they should shelter themselves from HIV is a crazy notion," Fisher said. "The CDC has been talking about removing the stigma of testing and this is another case making that excessively point."

spatterson@suntimes.com

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