THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, February 18, 1995 TAG: 9502180422
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Short : 39 lines
An insurance company may be held liable in civil lawsuits filed against a fertility doctor who used his own sperm to impregnate patients, an appeals court ruled Friday.
The three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals dis missed the appeal filed by St. Paul Fire & Marine Insurance Co. of Minnesota. The ruling was unanimous.
Dr. Cecil B. Jacobson Jr., who practiced in Vienna, Va., was convicted in 1992 of 52 felony counts. At least six civil suits have been filed against Jacobson by the parents of the children he allegedly fathered.
The 4th Circuit dismissed the insurance company's claim that Jacobson's fraudulent activities were not part of a professional service.
Judge H. Emory Widener Jr., who wrote the opinion, said Jacobson's activities ``necessarily included the medical act of inseminating the patient - as the mere production of sperm with nefarious intent was not the basis of the underlying claims against him.''
The insurance company also argued that Jacobson failed to volunteer information about fraudulent conduct on his insurance application. But the 4th Circuit agreed with a ruling by the U.S. District Court in Alexandria that Jacobson provided adequate information.
Jacobson is serving a 5-year sentence at a federal prison in Colorado. He also was ordered to pay $116,805 in fines and restitution.
He may have fathered as many as 75 children by inseminating patients with his own sperm, prosecutors said.
KEYWORDS: APPEALS COURT RULING by CNB