The Author Of His Own MisFortune

Report post · November 5, 2013

TORONTO - A Toronto bar patron who married a Thai stripper and contracted HIV from the woman, can blame no one but himself, a Superior Court judge has ruled.

Justice Carole Brown tossed out Percy Whiteman's $33-million lawsuit that alleged the Zanzibar Tavern, the province and federal government failed to protect him from his HIV-infected wife.

"It is extremely unfortunate, indeed tragic, that Mr. Percy Whiteman contracted HIV from his wife, Suwalee "Ricky" Iamkhong ... who he sponsored for permanent residency in Canada," wrote Brown.

She ruled "there are no genuine issues requiring a trial" against the defendants, the Attorney General of Canada, or the Zanzibar.

"I have concluded none of the defendants are responsible for Whiteman's contraction of HIV. Mr. Whiteman was the author of his own misfortune," Brown wrote in her judgment, which was obtained by QMI Agency Monday.

Iamkhong arrived in Canada in 1995 from Hong Kong, where she had worked as an exotic dancer and briefly as a prostitute. Two weeks before she left Hong Kong, she tested positive for HIV. She worked as a stripper at the Zanzibar Tavern on Yonge St. until 2004.

Whiteman's lawsuit alleged the Zanzibar was liable for the stripper's actions, which exposed the public to her disease.

Zanzibar owner Allen Cooper said the "case was quite distressing because it seemed meritless and totally ridiculous from the beginning.

"He married her and chose to have unprotected sex with her while he knew she was from Thailand and had been a prostitute," said Cooper. "It wasn't our fault.

"This would have set a terrible precedent for strip bars as they have to check their strippers for any diseases," said Cooper.

Iamkhong was sentenced in August 2007 to two years in jail after being convicted of criminal negligence causing bodily harm for infecting Whiteman. She was deported in 2010.

Whiteman and Iamkhong were married from 1997 to 2004, when she told him that she had HIV. She was ill, brought to hospital in February 2004 and was diagnosed as HIV positive. She revealed the devastating news to Whiteman, who discovered he, too, was HIV positive.

Court heard that Iamkhong never told Whiteman that her previous husband had died of HIV.

Whiteman's lawyer Maurice Benzaquen said he's considering an appeal.

http://www.sunnewsnetwork.ca/sunnews/canada/archives/2013/11/20131104-185048.html