Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1998. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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United Press International - Thursday, October 1, 1998
The state's high court today upheld appellate court rulings that dismissed complaints filed by a Homewood doctor's office aide and six patients of the Northwestern University dental clinic.
Office aide Eileen Majca was emptying a trash can on March 5, 1991 when she cut her hand on a scalpel that had dried blood and other material on it.
The six dental clinic patients in 1990 received treatment from a dental student who was later determined to be HIV-positive. Northwestern officials notified all the people on July 22, 1991 to have themselves tested for HIV and AIDS.
Neither Majca nor the six patients contracted the deadly virus. But they all filed lawsuits in Cook County Circuit Court claiming mental anguish from the thought they could have acquired the disease.
Their lawsuits were dismissed in court, and the dismissal was upheld in an Illinois appellate court. Supreme Court Justice Benjamin Miller wrote an opinion supporting those actions.
He wrote that the people failed to prove they were actually exposed to the disease. "Without proof of actual exposure to HIV, a claim for fear of contracting AIDS is too speculative to be legally cognizable."
Miller said, "We believe that a requirement of actual exposure to HIV distinguishes claims based on conjecture and speculation from those that are based on a genuine fear of contracting AIDS."
In other cases, the court:
--ordered an evidentiary hearing for death row inmate Dedrick Coleman, who claims the person who identified him in a police lineup for a 1989 double killing in a Chicago drug house provided false testimony.
--upheld the conviction and sentence of death row inmate Peter Burton, who killed a Calumet City couple in their home after being hired by the couple's son.
--upheld the validity of the state wildlife code, which had been challenged by Jack Russell, who lost his hunting license after being caught in 1994 by then-Illinois Department of Conservation officials hunting deer with bait.
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