An Indiana attorney who has brokered nearly 300 surrogate births is being sued by an Ohio couple after a surrogate mother in Pennsylvania refused to give up her triplets.
James Flynn, 63, and Eileen Donich, 60, contend that attorney Steven Litz failed to file documents that would have given Flynn sole legal custody of the children, who were conceived with his sperm and eggs from a donor.
In the suit filed recently in a Morgan County court, south of Indianapolis, Flynn and his girlfriend accuse Litz and his firm, Surrogate Mothers Inc., of negligence and breach of contract.
The suit does not specify a damage amount. The contract required the couple to pay $17,000 in legal fees, and surrogate mother Danielle Bimber received $24,000.
The suit also contends that Litz failed to tell the couple that the surrogacy contract could not be enforced in Pennsylvania, which has no surrogacy law.
Litz said Thursday that the lawsuit was “meritless” and that he always warns clients that some states do not recognize surrogacy agreements.
A judge in Erie County, Pa., last year awarded custody of the triplets to Bimber, 30. The judge ordered Flynn, a college department head, to pay $1,750 a month in child support and gave him weekend visitation rights. Flynn has said he intends to appeal.
