Gina Vivinetto reports in Today and Wilborn Nobles reports in the Times-Picayune:
Vergara is being sued by a Louisiana pro-life group representing the frozen fertilized eggs, which are stored in an Los Angeles facility. A trust was created for the embryos in Louisiana, which has laws that allows an embryo to sue a person.
Today: The Emmy-nominated actress is being sued by two frozen "pre-embryos," or fertilized eggs that have not been implanted, she created via IVF with her former fiancé, businessman Nick Loeb.
Vergara is being sued by a Louisiana pro-life group representing the frozen fertilized eggs, which are stored in an Los Angeles facility. The pre-embryos have been the center of a long legal battle, resulting in this week's lawsuit.
The bizarre lawsuit demands that Loeb, whom Vergara split from in 2014 amid abuse allegations, be given sole custody of the pre-embryos, which he's named "Emma" and "Isabella." The suit says a trust was created for the embryos in Louisiana, which has laws that allows an embryo to sue a person.
The Times-Picayune: "Modern Family" actress Sofia Vergara faces a lawsuit from her own embryos after two New Orleans attorneys filed the petition in the 24th Judicial District Court in Gretna on Wednesday (Dec. 7). The right to life suit claims Vergara is preventing the embryos -- referred to as "Emma" and "Isabella" -- from receiving "their expected inheritance."
The embryos were conceived Nov. 16, 2013 via in vitro fertilization by Vergara and Nick Loeb, the suit said. Although both embryos are currently frozen in Beverly Hills, Calif., the suit said the aforementioned inheritance -- Emma and Isabella Louisiana Trust No. 1 -- was created in Louisiana. It added that the couple "ended their relationship" at the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport in Kenner "in significant part due to" delays in allowing the embryos to be transferred to be developed and born.
The suit said Vergara refused to continue their development May 13, 2014, and now the suit aims to have Judge Ellen Kovach prohibit Vergara from destroying the embryos "in their best interests." The suit also wants Vergara to give Loeb full custody of the embryos, as well as grant uterine transfer of the embryos for their "continued development, and live birth."
Vergara would be deemed an egg donor and stripped of her parental rights, unless she "decides that she does want to take an interest and have some level of involvement in the lives of her children," the suit added."Emma and Isabella seek that they be entrusted to their natural father Loeb, who is willing and desirous that they be born and become eligible to receive their inheritance," the suit said.
Loeb is a Florida resident who serves as a volunteer police officer in Plaquemines Parish, the suit said. The Tulane University graduate also owns a business in the state, and the suit said he possesses "a strong emotional attachment" to the embryos, "and is concerned for their welfare." His relationship with Vergara began after they met in West Hollywood after the 2010 Golden Globe Awards.
The suit asserts Loeb and Vergara agreed to get married and have children. In 2013 and 2014, they lived in Louisiana for months at a time while Vergara worked in the state, the suit said. It added that Loeb said the embryos would be transferred to a surrogate "due to his deeply held religious and moral beliefs and objection to abandoning existing children to a frozen limbo state."
New Orleans attorneys James Charbonnet and James Arruebarrena are listed as the attorneys for the embryos. Their suit comes after Loeb sued Vergara in Los Angeles in 2014 to "preserve his parent rights," the suit said. That suit was dropped Tuesday (Dec. 6).
Vergara has not filed a response to the suit, records show.
0 comments:
Post a Comment