Sofia Vergara has won a court battle with her ex-fiancé, Nick Loeb, over their frozen embryos. The pair have been locked in a legal dispute for years over who will receive custody rights of the embryos and now the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal in Louisiana has ruled in favor of Vergara, according to legal documents.
The "Modern Family" star and Loeb created the frozen pre-embryos via IVF in 2013 at Beverly Hills' ART Reproductive Center. The following year they split up and in 2015 Loeb filed a legal complaint in an effort to gain custody of the embryos to bring them to term.
"We signed a form stating that any embryos created through the process could be brought to term only with both parties' consent," he wrote in a 2015 open letter published in The New York Times. "The form did not specify — as California law requires — what would happen if we separated. I am asking to have it voided."
In response, Vergara filed legal documents in 2017 in California in an attempt to block Loeb from using the embryos without her written consent. Loeb's initial case was dismissed and his second attempt in a Louisiana court has now also been dismissed.
The court found that Loeb "is not domiciled in, does not maintain a residence in, and does not have the intent to be domiciled or a resident of any parish in the State of Louisiana," according to People. His legal team was accused of attempting to find a court that would be sympathetic to their case despite it not being in the proper jurisdiction, the outlet added.
"Furthermore, based on all of the facts ascertained through the deposition testimony, exhibits, affidavits and allegations contained in Appellant's petition and first amended complaint, it is clear that Mr. Loeb blatantly engaged in forum shopping when he selected, in concert with a member of the bar ... Plaquemines Parish to file the instant lawsuit, with full knowledge that it was the improper venue," the court documents read."Their behavior brings disrepute to and makes a mockery of the Louisiana legal system and the bar and is abhorrent."
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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