Custody of Embryos

Widow claims a failure to safeguard her late husband’s sperm by lawyer who allegedly advised him

Source ABA Journal

The widow of a software company CEO claims a lawyer breached a fiduciary duty by failing to safeguard the frozen sperm of the widow’s late husband.

Widow Katherine Pesic is suing lawyer Shelley Tarnoff along with the alleged former mistress of her late husband, Joyce Chin, who gave birth to twins in July 2013 using the frozen sperm, Law360reports. Other defendants in the California lawsuit are a fertility center and one of its doctors.

Pesic is suing as an individual and as the representative for the estate of her husband, who died in October 2012. Judge Theodore Zayner of Santa Clara Superior Court heard arguments in the case on Tuesday.

Pesic’s late husband is Ivan Pesic, the founder and CEO of Silvaco, according to Law360. Ivan Pesic donated his sperm after a cancer diagnosis in 2010, and the health issue was allegedly known to the fertility clinic. Chin became pregnant after Ivan Pesic’s death; Katherine Pesic says she should have inherited the sperm. Katherine Pesic is seeking $27 million, three times the amount Chin is seeking in child support in a separate suit.

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