A Manhattan judge ruled in favor of a model whose face appeared in an HIV campaign without her permission, reports the New York Post. Court of Claims Justice Thomas Scuccimarra reached his decision on the grounds that society considers HIV a “loathsome” disease and therefore the model, Avril Nolan, could sue the state agency that created the campaign for defamation purposes.

The photo in question appeared in a 2013 ad campaign from a state agency promoting the rights of HIV-positive New Yorkers. According to the Post, Nolan said that a photographer friend had taken the photos for an online music publication and later sold the images to Getty. The New York State Division of Human Rights then purchased the images for its campaign.

Nolan reached a private settlement with Getty in January.

The judge will hold a hearing in April 2016 to determine how much money the state agency—the Division of Human Rights—will pay Nolan for defamation.

Lawyers for the state agency had argued that HIV is not a “loathsome disease” worthy of defamation. The judge disagreed, stating that the disease can arouse “some intense disgust in society, in part because it is viewed as incurable or chronic.”

Sometimes, he ruled, people living with HIV are subject to “public contempt, ridicule, aversion or disgrace.”