The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Custody battle stems from surrogacy contract
Lorain man sues a woman saying she breached a surrogacy contract. She says she bonded with baby.
A Lorain man is suing a woman for $80,000 saying that she breached a surrogacy contract.
The suit was filed Dec. 14 on behalf of Thomas R. Mika and names Sanchia M. Weinstein, also of Lorain, as the defendant.
The suit makes two claims for relief: fraud and breach of contract.
Mika is seeking $30,000 in compensatory damages and $50,000 in punitive damages.
Weinstein did not respond to a request, through her attorney James N. Taylor of Elyria, for comment.
According to the filing, Mika and his thenwife as well as Weinstein and her then-husband signed a surrogate agreement Jan. 13, 2013, which stated Weinstein would receive $15,000 to give birth to a child after being artificially inseminated with Mika’s genetic material.
As a result of the contract, a girl was born Feb. 5, 2014.
As part of the contract, Weinstein would name the child according to Mika’s wishes, and then have no legal right to the child, the filing says.
In a 2014 case in Lorain County Juvenile Court, Mika was determined to be the biological father of the child, the suit says.
In June 2018, Weinstein brought a suit against Mika in Lorain County Juvenile Court seeking custody of the girl.
The case is still pending, but the court granted Weinstein temporary custody of the child, the filing says.
In an affidavit from the Juvenile Court case, which is attached to the civil filing, Weinstein said she had from the child’s birth to September 2017 a mother/daughter relationship “including unsupervised companionship, provided assistance and acted as the mother of said child.”
The affidavit says Weinstein’s contact with the child was terminated by Mika and his new wife, after having divorced the wife who had signed the surrogacy agreement.
Since Mika has remarried, the affidavit claims Lorain County Children Services removed the 14-year-old child of his new spouse from the pair’s home.
Children Services also was involved with the child Weinstein gave birth to, the affidavit said.
The affidavit claims the child is “living in a volatile home” with Mika, and that Mika and his wife “have an abusive, disruptive and argumentative relationship that is dangerous or detrimental for the child.”
Also, on “at least three occasions” the child has had to stay at Blessing House, a children’s crisis care center in Lorain, “in order to provide a safe haven,” the affidavit says.