Father fails in £1m claim after IVF clinic let ex-partner use his sperm

A FATHER whose ex-girlfriend forged his signature to have a baby via IVF with his sperm lost his legal battle for £ 1million in damages from the clinic yesterday.

However, he secured a ‘ moral victory’ after a judge agreed that he did not give consent for an egg fertilised with his sperm to be used.

The woman, who was identified in court only as R, forged her former partner’s signature on documents at a Harley Street clinic to secure the release of fertilised eggs.

She was impregnated in October 2010, five months after her ‘volatile and rancorous’ relationship with the father ‘irretrievably broke down’, and gave birth to a daughter in 2011.

Yesterday, the father, who con- demned the private IVF industry as being ‘like the Wild West’, lost his High Court bid for £1 million in damages from IVF Hammersmith Limited on an ‘issue of legal policy’. His unprecedented claim for breach of contract covered the cost of raising his daughter, now six, plus fees for a custody battle with her mother.

The claim included ‘hundreds of thousands of pounds’ for the girl’s private education, plus funding for a nanny, skiing holidays in Canada and a Land Rover Discovery.

Despite the claim being unsuccessful, the judge agreed with the man’s assertion he did not consent to his former partner’s pregnancy and she had forged his signature.

Describing it as an ‘extraordinary case’, Mr Justice Lay said his judgment ‘must be seen as a complete personal and moral vindication’ for the father. Welcoming the judgement, the man insisted his case had ‘never been about money; it is about justice’. He described the experience as an ‘immensely painful journey’, adding: ‘It is imperative that nobody should have to experience what we have lived through.’

As part of his claim, the father accused his ex-partner – who was described in court as ‘a teacher at a very good school’ – of tricking doctors into impregnating her.

They had previously had a son together via IVF and more of their eggs and sperm were being held in cold storage at the Hammersmith Hospital clinic in West London, run by IVF Hammersmith Limited of Harley Street, Central London.

The woman was in the final months of her pregnancy when she sent him an email on Valentine’s Day in 2011 informing him what she had done. He said he was ‘in a terrible state’ following the revelation.

The court heard he ‘understandably loves’ his daughter, but blames the clinic for implanting the embryo without his knowledge.

Yesterday, Mr Justice Lay concluded the father, known as ARB, did not sign the ‘consent to thaw’ form and his signature was forged by the mother. ‘I am also completely satisfied that ARB had no intention of having another child with R after May 2010,’ he said. ‘R well knew that, which explains why she resorted to desperate, dishonest measures.

‘I have held that the clinic owed a strict contractual obligation to ARB to obtain his written consent to the procedure, and that the clinic is in breach of that obligation because it did not obtain it. I have also held that the clinic was not negligent. The claim fails owing to public policy.’

ARB said he may now appeal over ‘the isolated point of principle’.

‘Desperate and dishonest measures’