Calif. lawsuit written in human blood

Calif. Lawsuit Focuses on Blood Contract

SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) - The lawsuit that Jinsoo Kim filed against Stephen Son is ordinary in every respect - except that it centers on a contract written in human blood.

Kim's lawsuit claims that Son used his own blood to write out a promise to repay money that Kim lent him. Kim sued in Orange County Superior Court to enforce the promise.

"I've been reading contract cases for about 40 years, and I've never seen one" written in blood, said Joseph M. Perillo, a professor at Fordham University School of Law who has co-authored and edited contracts textbooks.

According to the lawsuit, Kim invested about $170,000 in Son's Korean corporation but never received the returns he was promised.

Son's attorney, Vladimir Khiterer, acknowledges his client wrote out a repayment promise in blood after the pair went to a bar in October 2004 and drank alcohol while discussing their dispute. But Khiterer said Son wrote that he would repay to "the best of my ability," and the defense has argued in court papers that the document is not a valid contract.

Kim's attorney, Richard J. Radcliffe, said his client agrees with the translation but said Son wrote it on his own and not at Kim's request. He suggested that a jury could give greater weight to a document written in blood.

"It just seems ironic that when they go beyond the usual ink and laser printer" the defense would "turn around and say, 'I didn't really mean it,'" Radcliffe said.

Legal experts said the fact that the contract was written in blood does not give it extra legal power.

"You can write (a contract) in stone; you can make it orally," Perillo said.