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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowA child of Zionsville fertility doctor Donald Cline has prevailed in a lawsuit against Netflix and an associated production company after the defendants used her name in a Netflix documentary without her consent.
A federal court jury in Indianapolis decided the companies should pay $385,000 to the woman as compensation for invasion of privacy by disclosure of a private fact.
The verdict settles more than a two-year battle with the streaming service over its documentary “Our Father.”
The documentary recounts the discovery of dozens of half-siblings who all share the same father, fertility specialist Cline, who inseminated several of his patients with his own semen without their knowing. Through his fertility fraud, Cline fathered at least 94 children, according to the lawsuit.
The jury didn’t award any damages to another plaintiff. The claims of a third woman were dismissed before trial.
In May and June 2022, the three plaintiffs filed separate state court actions against Netflix LLC, Netflix Worldwide Entertainment LLC and RealHouse Productions LLC. Those lawsuits were moved to federal court, where they were consolidated.
In 2017, Cline was criminally charged with obstruction of justice and handed a one-year suspended sentence after pleading guilty to charges that he lied to investigators when he denied wrongdoing for inseminating the women.
After his expired license was eventually surrendered to the Indiana Medical Licensing Board, the panel voted to bar Cline from ever applying for a license in Indiana again.
An earlier version of this story named the plaintiff who won the $385,000 verdict, but editors later decided to remove her name because she is a victim who was trying to protect her identity. She initially filed suit anonymously, but a change in court rules later made it impossible for her to remain anonymous in court documents.
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