Lawsuit filed over lost eggs at S.F. fertility clinic

SAN FRANCISCO — When “S.M.” sought to save her eggs for future motherhood, the San Francisco woman was assured that they would be safely frozen until she needed them.

But those precious eggs, along with the eggs and embryos of hundreds of other patients, were stored in malfunctioning Tank No. 4 at Pacific Fertility Center’s lab on Francisco Street — and are now presumed damaged.

In this first suit to be filed after a rare malfunction that remains under investigation, the woman, who remains anonymous for privacy, is seeking compensation for negligence and breach of contract from Prelude Fertility, where she received treatment in 2016, and Pacific Fertility Center, which stored her eggs.

The law firm, Sauder & Schelkopf of Berwyn, PA, is asking the court to certify the case as a class action, saying that at least 400 individuals may have been harmed by the incident. The suit was filed late Tuesday in the U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, San Francisco Division.

“We have been contacted by many people who have been impacted by this heartbreaking incident and we look forward to getting them answers and a meaningful resolution,” said attorney Joseph Sauder.

“The value of the eggs and embryos that Plaintiff and other class members entrusted to Defendants — and for which Defendants accepted legal responsibility to store, preserve, and protect — is substantial,” according to the complaint.

“For some families, these fertility services provide their only opportunity to conceive a child,” it asserts.