In 2003, a lesbian couple from New Jersey paid about $3,000 to Repro Lab, a Manhattan sperm and embryo bank, to store six embryos created from eggs taken from one of the women. When the couple approached the bank last year in order to retrieve the embryos, so they could be implanted into the other woman, the bank told them it had lost the embryos.
The couple’s demand for compensation for this clear breach of contract, for “pain, injury, mental anguish and emotional distress”? $3,000,000. Plus punitive damages. (New York Post; AP)
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To forestall potential comments: not every post on Overlawyered is an argument that the suit was unjustified. Sometimes the point is just about some issue raised by the suit — or, as in this case, about the amount of the plaintiff’s demand in the suit.
To make a lawsuit, you have to lose a few eggs.
If no more similar embryos can be created (ie. woman has no more eggs, or they are no longer able to obtain sperm from the same man, etc.) then the amount may be reasonable. Say if my wife was on her death bed, and we really wanted children, so we create some fertilized eggs and store them to be implanted into a surrogate at a later date. If the bank later told me “Oops, we lost those, sorry.” I think asking for such a large amount could be justified. I’d have to hear more particulars I guess.
What I think would be really interesting is to see how some Republican groups would react to this? Outrage at the loss of life? Or outrage at the attempt to get money by the women? Or some combination of thw two?
My grandmother was hit by an overloaded UPS handtruck and sent to the hospital. We sued for $50,000 and settled for $25,000.
Did we miss a bet by not suing for millions?
Seriously, it seems like a common thread in all of this is people suing for x million, regardless of the economic damage.
Yes, thsi suit does seem rather odd in light of, oh, I don’t know, Roe v Wade.
Of course, by the standards of some suits listed here on OL, $3mil is hardly large enough to comment on.
It is my understanding that stored blastocysts lose vitality with time. Might it be that the ladies waited too long to use their embryos. Even with fresh material there is only a 25% chance of a live birth, if I read the CDC chart correctly.
Lossing an actual million dollars is one thing, losing a LOTTO ticket is another.
It should be like film, you don’t get to sue for the potential of the image. The process is covered, the potential “My child would have solved AIDS, cancer and all else…” right out the door. But there is much money at stake.