A lab that performs DNA paternity testing argues that the services it provided more than 20 years ago were standard at the time in response to a lawsuit alleging a man was issued the wrong results.
Philipio Green, his daughter Persephone Green, and her mother Denise Bradley filed the lawsuit against the UK-based Cellmark Forensics, successor to Michigan-based National Legal Laboratories. The original suit was filed in Madison County Circuit Court. It was removed to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois on Aug. 27, 2019.
National Legal Laboratories, which had a contract with the State of Illinois to carry out paternity tests, performed the test involving the plaintiffs in 1998. It found there was zero percent chance that Philipio Green was Persephone Green’s father.
At the urging of Persephone Green, a new test was performed in March 2019. The new test revealed a 99.9 percent change that Philipio Green was her biological father.
The plaintiffs allege the defendants had a duty of care to supply accurate DNA testing.
As a result of the original test, Philipio Green claims he was denied a parent-child relationship with his daughter. He also claims his relationship with Bradley was ‘terminated due to the belief that he was not the father’ of Persephone Green.
Philipio Green further alleges that since learning he is Persephone Green’s father, he was suffered “great mental anguish and guilt in feeling that he should have been there for his daughter.”
Persephone Green claims she has endured emotional pain and suffering because she did not have a father in her life. She also claims she never received child support for “essential” items and other expenses.
Bradley alleges that because of the false test results, she never received child support and was “humiliated in the presence of her family and friends, and was made to look like a liar.”
She also claims her relationship with Philipio Green was so “emotionally painful that it became non-existent.”
The defendants answered the complaint the Sept. 3, denying liability.
In their affirmative defenses, the defendants argue that they were not negligent.
“The services provided by defendants met or exceeded the applicable standard of care for their industry at the time they were rendered,” the answer states.
The defendants also argue that they did not have exclusive possession or control over the blood samples submitted by Green.
The defendants also filed objections to Green’s first set of “requests to admit facts” and requests to admit the genuineness of documents on Oct. 15 through attorney Thomas Caradonna of Lewis Rice LLC in St. Louis.
“Defendants object to plaintiffs’ first set of ‘Requests to Admit Facts’ to the extent they seek to impose obligations on Defendants beyond those imposed by the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, particularly insofar as they purport to require Defendants to ‘set forth in detail the reason’ for each denial, and direct that defendants answer the requests ‘under oath,’” the objection states.
The plaintiffs seek $1 million per count in the 12-count lawsuit, which includes allegations of negligence, breach of contract, and violations of the Illinois Consumer Fraud Act.
They are represented by Bob Perica of the Perica Law Firm in Wood River.
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois case number 3:19-cv-938