A retired Vermont fertility doctor has agreed to a $100,000 judgment against him in a second lawsuit accusing him of using his own sperm to impregnate a woman, despite telling her that the donor was an unnamed medical student who resembled her husband.
The first case was decided in a jury trial last year and resulted in a $2.2 million judgment against Dr. John Boyd Coates III of Shelburne. The second lawsuit made virtually the same claims as the first.
The jury in that first case initially awarded the woman $5.25 million in total damages, but Judge William K. Sessions III reduced that amount by more than half.
Now, a proposed order in the second lawsuit seeks the judge’s approval on a judgment in that case without the need for a trial. A one-sentence document filed Monday in federal court in Vermont stated that Coates “hereby stipulates and agrees that judgment may be taken against him in this matter in the amount of $100,000 inclusive of all costs and interest.”
The lawsuit accused Coates of medical negligence, failing to obtain informed consent, fraud, battery, negligent infliction of emotional distress and breach of contract.
According to the filing, the woman’s procedure took place in May 1978 at Central Vermont Hospital, which is now called Central Vermont Medical Center in Berlin. Coates had told the woman that he would obtain the sperm from an unnamed medical student who resembled her husband, according to her lawsuit.
She alleged that Coates’ use of his own genetic material to inseminate her remained secret until November 2020. At that time, the woman’s daughter, now in her 40s, used DNA testing to learn more information about her biological father. According to the lawsuit, the research determined that Coates was her genetic father.
Had the woman known that Coates would use his own genetic material, she would not have agreed to the procedure, according to her lawsuit.
The woman is named in the lawsuit. VTDigger is not naming her because she has alleged she is the victim of sexual assault.
Neither Susan J. Flynn, an attorney representing Coates, nor Gary M. Burt, an attorney representing the woman who sued, could immediately be reached Tuesday for comment.
Attorneys Celeste E. Laramie and Jerry O’Neill represented the woman in the first lawsuit. O’Neill said Tuesday that the legal team is still working to collect money from Coates.
While he is not a party to the second lawsuit, he noted that the filing in that case stopped short of an actual settlement.
“The fact that he has stipulated to a judgment does not mean he’s paid $100,000,” O’Neill said. “It means that he has agreed to judgment and the plaintiff in that case can seek to collect it.”