Facing a potential payout in the tens of millions at the very least from an invasion of privacy lawsuit over some sloppy editing on a 2022 Blumhouse documentary about a sociopathic fertility doctor, Netflix has emerged having to write a relatively small check thanks to a Midwest jury.
Having already seen one plaintiff removed from the Indianapolis Indiana based Our Father case because of podcast oversharing, remaining plaintiffs Lori Kennard and Sarah Bowling received very different verdicts late on December 5.
“Judgment is entered against Plaintiff Sarah Bowling and in favor of Defendants on Count One invasion of privacy by public disclosure of private facts of Plaintiff Sarah Bowling’s Complaint,” declares an order Friday from US District Court Judge Tanya Walton Platt. Judgment is entered against Defendants and in favor of Plaintiff Lori Kennard in the amount of $385,000.00. Judgment is entered accordingly, and this action is TERMINATED.”
Originally seeking $1 for every one of the around 18 million subscribers to the streamer who watched the Lucie Jourdan directed Our Father over the two weeks after its very successful May 11, 2022 launch, Kennard and Bowling’s names appeared for on-screen for just over the blink of an eye on-screen. The women were identified in the film as two of the nearly 100 children that were born from convicted felon Dr. Donald Cline injecting his own sperm into unsuspecting or duped female fertility patients between 1974 and 1987.
It turned out that while Bowling was not one of the unfortunate and unknowing Cline offspring featured heavily in the 23ndMe and DNA enabled 97-minute film, she had made her knowledge of Cline as her father known to others and on social media before Our Father came out – essentially invalidating any invasion of privacy
Truth be told, Netflix’s opening First Amendment defense was a dead letter office pretty quickly with Judge as neither woman has a high enough public profile to be what one could reasonably consider newsworthy, even in this sordid context. As was made obvious over the four-day trial and in documents and correspondence produced in the discovery process, the possibly high stakes infusion into the legal landscape of “the tort of invasion of privacy by public “public disclosure of a private fact,” the names of Bowling and Kennard appearing momentarily in Our Father was mainly a dumb act of human error.
In fact, Netflix, who blurred the names with a couple of weeks of Our Father coming out were under the impression that Jason Blum’s Realhouse division had “ensured that the required clearance work had been completed.”
“The trial record, unlike the summary judgment record, shows that Netflix did more than simply pass the buck to Realhouse,” said Judge Platt to the court on December 4. “In light of this additional trial evidence, even considering the evidence in the light most favorable to the plaintiffs, there is no evidence that Netflix acted with gross negligence or reckless disregard for either plaintiffs’ privacy rights.”
Netflix had no comment on the Our Father verdict when contacted by Deadline today. However, having dodged what could have been devastating creative as well as financial bullet this week, it is clear the Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters-led streamer will not be appealing the judgment for Kennard.
As for the 85-year-old Cline, who has several children in his marriage, the much-accused doctor has escaped incarceration since his crimes became known in 2015 in no small part because up until recently states such as Indiana had no laws governing what has been termed “fertility fraud.” There is still not national law on the issue.
Having said that, with the vast majority of the now middle aged and for decades unaware offspring of Cline living in fairly close proximity to each other, the one good doctor has found himself having paid out nearly $1.5 million in a trio of civil suits from his insemination children and their families.
All of which, with this week’s verdict, may see Blumhouse and Netflix pondering a follow-up film to Our Father, or not.
