Phillips v. Irons

Richard Phillips (plaintiff) and Sharon Irons (defendant) were physicians who had a brief romantic relationship. Irons told Phillips that she was divorced. Phillips firmly told Irons that he did not want to conceive children outside of marriage, and Irons agreed. Irons and Phillips never engaged in vaginal penetration, but they engaged in oral sex three times between February and March 1999 on days when Irons claimed she was menstruating and could not conceive. The relationship ended in May 1999 when Irons revealed that she was still married. Irons continued to live with her husband and gave birth to a child, Serena, in December 1999, acting as if her husband were Serena’s father. In November 2000, Irons filed a petition to establish Phillips’s paternity, claiming that Phillips was Serena’s father, which testing confirmed. Phillips subsequently suffered from nausea, insomnia, difficulty performing his professional and personal responsibilities, and negative feelings resulting from Irons’s betrayal. Phillips sued Irons for several causes of action in tort, including intentional infliction of emotional distress (IIED). Phillips’s suit alleged that Irons’s conduct was extreme and outrageous because she claimed she could not conceive because of menstruation, agreed to avoid conception before marriage, and then used Phillips’s semen to impregnate herself. The trial court dismissed Phillips’s complaint, and he appealed.