A woman who allegedly assumed multiple identities as part of a “massive charade” can be sued for making false representations, a divided Illinois appeals court has ruled in expanding the reach of a tort that is normally reserved for business disputes.

Janna St. James in a photo from blogger.com

The lawsuit against Janna St. James of Batavia, Ill., says she conned a Los Angeles woman into buying gifts worth more than $10,000 for her by posing as a Colorado volunteer firefighter named “Jesse James,” his young son, and about 20 other friends and family members. Paula Bonhomme became so enamored of “Jesse” that she planned at one time to move to Colorado to live with him.

“Plaintiff was enmeshed in a web created by defendant and deceived on all sides and in numerous manners by defendant,” a 2-1 majority of the 2nd District Appellate Court said. The decision reversed a trial judge who dismissed Bonhomme's claim for fraudulent misrepresentation.

The tort has “generally been confined to remedying losses of a commercial or financial character.” But Justice Robert D. McLaren, writing for the majority, took his cue from a case in which the Illinois Supreme Court “recognized decisions rendered in several other states that recognized a cause of action for fraudulent misrepresentation for the transmission of sexually transmitted diseases.” Doe v. Dilling, 888 N.E.2d 24 (2008).

“[W]hile the 'typical case' of fraudulent misrepresentation arises in a commercial context, our supreme court has acknowledged that this tort may, in the appropriate circumstances, be expanded to cover areas outside of the commercial context,” McLaren said.

In a dissent, Justice Mary S. Schostok said public health policy was at stake in imposing liability for failing to disclose an STD infection to a sexual partner. “This case does not involve a duty to prevent the spread of disease or any duty of disclosure,” she noted.

Bonhomme met St. James, who sells handmade pendants online, in an Internet chatroom dedicated to the HBO series “Deadwood.” After St. James adopted the “Jesse” persona, they began a romantic relationship during which St. James disguised her female voice when they spoke on the phone and, as the appeals court put it, “created a universe of approximately 20 fictional on-line characters involved with 'Jesse.'”

Under her own name, St. James became Bonhomme's confidante and communicated with her even after “Jesse” died of liver cancer. Bonhomme's friends discovered the alleged charade when St. James visited her in Los Angeles in February 2007.

Bonhomme has alleged damages not only for the gifts she sent to St. James, “Jesse” and other characters but also for “great emotional distress.” “My daddy really died,” Jesse's 6-year-old son wrote in one e-mail to Bonhomme. “I still cry every day and you will … it's okay to do that.”

Justice Schostok said that even if fraudulent misrepresentation applies to noncommercial disputes, Bonhomme

cannot show that she justifiably relied on the defendant’s alleged misrepresentations. The reality of the Internet age is that an online individual may not always be — and indeed frequently is not — who or what he or she purports to be. The plaintiff’s reliance on the defendant’s alleged misrepresentations, in deciding to spend $10,000 on Christmas gifts for people who allegedly lived in another state and whom she had never met, was not justifiable.

In McLaren's view, “The allegations show an extensive masquerade to deceive, and reliance on the many-faceted and corroborative characters and misrepresentations can be found to be justified.” But the dissent may sway the Supreme Court to review the case based on the public policy argument.

Illinois has also allowed adoptive parents to sue adoption agencies for misrepresenting the health of children but the Supreme Court noted in Dilling that “the state has a valid public policy interest in adoption proceedings, which are highly regulated.”

By Matthew Heller
5/10/11