Dad suing top Harley Street clinic for £1MILLION to pay for his daughter’s luxury lifestyle after his ex ‘tricked doctors into impregnating her with his frozen sperm’
He has launched a High Court legal battle and claims his ex forged his signature to access their frozen embryos
A DAD is suing a top Harley Street fertility clinic for £1million after claiming his ex-wife forged his signature so she could secretly conceive his child after they split up.
He claims doctors at the Hammersmith Hospital were tricked into impregnating her using a frozen egg fertilized by his sperm in October 2010, five months after their "volatile" relationship "irretrievably broke down".
The former couple, in their 40s, had previously had a son together using IVF and more of their eggs and sperm were being stored at the west London clinic run by IVF Hammersmith Limited of Harley Street.
The dad - now married to another woman - says his ex "forged his signature" to secure the release of the fertilized eggs without his say-so.
She gave birth to a daughter in 2011, who the court heard the dad "understandably loves", but he blames the clinic for implanting the embryo into his ex without his knowledge.
He is suing the clinic for breach of contract and demanding £1m for the "financial burden" of raising his daughter - now six - plus legal fees for a custody battle with her mother.
The seven-figure claim includes "hundreds of thousands of pounds" for private education, a nanny, ski holidays in Canada and an eight-seater Landrover Discovery.
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But Jeremy Hyam QC, for the clinic, today told Mr Justice Jay at London's High Court that they are not to blame and should not pay a penny.
He argued that even if the dad's signature on the "consent to thaw" form is found to be forged, the clinic should not have to cough up.
The barrister said the father had played a full part in the IVF process up to a matter of months before the final form was signed, and claimed he even signed one form even after the couple had split.
Fertility medics were not informed the couple had broken up until 18 months after the baby girl had been born, he said.
He added: "We did not expect - nor are we to be faulted for not expecting - duplicity of this nature."
Michael Mylonas QC, for the father, who lived in a £1.3m house in North London, said in his statement of claim: "In 2011 the claimant's ex-partner gave birth to their daughter after her mother had forged the claimant's signature in order to procure the thawing of one of their embryos.
";Written documentation signed by the former couple was supposed to put in place safeguards in relation to future treatment, including the thawing of embryos.
"In breach of those safeguards, the defendant allowed the embryo to be thawed and implanted.
"The claimant brings a claim for breach of contract.
"The obligation was to obtain his informed consent [to thaw the embryos] and they did not do that."
The judge responded: "You are saying that, if he didn't sign the form, there's no evidence that he gave informed consent. It's as simple as that."
Mr Mylonas added that "an increasing number of women are desperate to conceive" and claimed what happened was predictable.
Urging the judge to reject the claim, Mr Hyam said that even if the signature had been forged, the clinic took "proper care to ascertain that his reasonable consent was obtained".
He claimed the dad had given his "informed written consent" through earlier meetings and documents he signed.
Mark Donald, for the mother, who the court heard is "a teacher at a very good school" has yet to address the judge.
She denies forging the dad's signature, but is also the subject of a third party claim by the clinic, the court heard.
Comparing the situation to undergoing a heart operation, Mr Justice Jay told Mr Hyam: "You sign a form when you undergo a procedure - after the risks are explained - so that it is clear you understand.
"You are seeking to go behind the document and say that there is in fact an underlying informed consent."
The 10-day High Court case, with six barristers in attendance including two QCs, continues.
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