Great news on the gestational surrogacy front! The Minnesota Court of Appeals upheld a gestational-surrogacy agreement (GSA) and affirmed the lower court ruling that a GSA was legally binding. The court also upheld the choice of law provision in the GSA and applied Illinois law as outlined in the GSA. It should be noted, however, that the opinion is "unpublished" thus limiting its authoritative value for subsequent cases.
A summary of the procedural history follows:
Appellant/J.M.A was hired to be a surrogate for Respondent/P.G.M.; the parties agreed to and signed a GSA, but had a falling out soon after. J.M.A. proceeded to have the child and refused to provide respondent with any information about the child’s whereabouts. Upon which, Respondent filed a paternity action, and the trial court concluded that respondent was the child’s father and denied J.M.A.’s parental rights.
J.M.A. appealed, arguing that a child’s parentage and custody could not be determined pursuant to a private contract. The appeals court found that the GSA is legally enforceable, and J.M.A was not coerced into signing the document. Likewise, the appeals court found the choice-of-law provision in the GSA was proper because the parties did not act in bad faith. Accordingly, the appeals court affirmed the lower court’s determination of parentage and custody in favor of respondent.
