HIV positive lovebirds had best kiss and tell—or risk getting smacked with a lawsuit for sexual battery. In the latest case of costly secrets, San Francisco resident Mychael Robinson won $25,000 in damages from ex-hubby Alan Louie, charging that his beau failed to disclose he had HIV before repeatedly engaging with Robinson in unprotected anal sex (always as the bottom).

Though Robinson has tested negative for HIV, U.S. bankruptcy judge Dennis Montali ruled that he deserved the dough “for the pain and suffering he experienced during the six-month period after exposure and before conclusive testing.” California law requires those with sexually transmitted diseases to alert sex partners before hitting the sheets.
 
The love spat, which started in a San Francisco superior court in October 1996, ended up in bankruptcy court after Louie filed a Chapter 7 petition to avoid paying his lover. Robinson said he learned his hubby was HIV positive only after discovering a bottle of AZT hidden in the pantry.

While tongue-tied cases may have originated on the Qué será será Coast—most notably with Rock Hudson, whose former partner, Marc Christian, copped $5.5 million for emotional distress even though he tested negative 19 times—similar rulings are popping up across the nation. At presstime, 28 states had enacted laws making it a crime for people who know they have HIV to expose others to the virus.