Woman Sues Hotel to Find Out Who Got Her Pregnant

A woman who had a 3 night tryst with a man named Michael sued a hotel to find out the man’s identity.

The encounter took plance in Halle, Germany in 2010. By forcing the hotel to disclose the identity of the man she claimed would have been the father of her child, she’d then be able to pursue the man for child support.

It turns out she only knew his first name. There were four people named Michael registered at the hotel at the time.


Halle, Germany, Copyright: anweber / 123RF Stock Photo

And to show just how seriously (and sometimes bizarrely) European rules treat data privacy, the court said “the father’s right to self-determination of his own information took precedence over the woman’s right to child support.”

Furthermore,

the four possible Michaels had a right to privacy, which protects them from having to reveal sexual relations. They should therefore be able to determine for themselves how and to whom this information is divulged.

And since the woman didn’t have enough information to identify with certainty the one guest that would have fathered her child, releasing the requested information “could also breach the privacy of four men named ‘Michael’ who were registered at the hotel at the time.”

(HT: Alan H.)

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. LOL, thanks for the morning chuckle Gary … that’s what taking personal responsibility for own action looks like!

  2. I assume you don’t mean the “name’s identity”. Maybe the “man’s identity”?

  3. I read something like this and I just feel so sorry for the child. Hopefully she gave the baby up for adoption to good parents!

  4. @Daniel Gary did not miswrite. It was the additional surname that was missing as the identifier.

  5. Interesting, doubt this would come out the same way in USA where child support obligations are vigorously enforced by the courts. Our privacy protections are also weaker

  6. Lying hotel patron, trolling for naive young waifs, plying them with drinks and seducing them into one-night stands? Not this “Michael”

    As a number of other stories report, this 3-night tryst was with a male escort. She was paying for the privilege of anonymous “uncomplicated” sex with a stranger.

    Her paid encounter came with an unexpected STD, a baby she no doubt wants him to pay for. Crazy!

  7. The continuing downward spiral of this womans life continues unabated……..

  8. This would be a totally different outcome in the United States. In the U.S. I’d subpoena the entire hotel registry for every guest (in case a fake name was given to the lady). I’d also subpoena reservation data and credit card transactions that occurred at the hotel during the time period in question. And for good measure subpoena all security video footage taken anywhere in the hotel.
    By the way, for those posters that are blaming the woman, child support is for the child who is the innocent party in this whole mess.
    Now that I know what they do in Europe all I can say is thank god for the American legal system

  9. She sleeps with this guy for days and doesn’t even get the last name? I agree with above poster. How do we even know his name was Michael? Apparently she doesn’t remember the room number? That would have been a big help. She doesn’t have his phone number or any other identifying information likre facebook accounts etc? Did she meet this man via online dating? Does she know his nationality? Race? City/town of residence? These things could help narrow down which michael. Not to mention if he did use his real name there are still three other innocent men who would get dragged into this and potentially forced to give dna samples etc. Sorry but maybe she should have paid a little more attention to who she was sleeping with. This happened in 2010 why wait all the time to do something about it? The courts cant be that slow.

  10. HAH! I think I like the fact that the hotel protects the ‘Michael’s’ – It would scare the crap out of all of them to be talk they ‘might’ be the father, never mind possibly hurt current relationships!

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