Sofia Vergara wins another legal victory in years-long battle with ex Nick Loeb over frozen embryos

Sofia Vergara won another legal battle against her ex-fiance Nick Loeb in a years-long custody battle over frozen embryos.

A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge granted a permanent injunction stating that Loeb could not use the embryos without her consent, a blow to his case where he tried to establish rights by going as far as even naming the embryos.

Loeb even attempted to establish trusts for the embryos, according to TMZ, as he fought ‘tooth and nail for permission to bring the embryos to term.’ 

Just last month, Loeb lost yet another legal battle in his fight to obtain legal custody over their frozen embryos after a Louisiana appeals court ruled in favor of the Modern Family star. 

The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal in Louisiana upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit Loeb had filed in an attempt to claim custody of two embryos they froze seven years ago.  

In the ruling dated January 27, the appeals court ruled that Loeb’s lawsuit, which it declared as ‘abhorrent’, should be thrown out because it made a ‘mockery’ of Louisiana’s legal system.  

The appeals court also ruled that all documents related to the case should be unsealed.    

The legal saga dates back to 2015 when Loeb, 45, first filed a lawsuit against Vergara, 48, in a bid to bring to term two female embryos that they had created and planned to use with a surrogate.

The pair had signed a contract at the ART Reproductive Center in Beverly Hills when they created the embryos in 2013 that stated neither could use them without each other’s consent.  

Legal proceedings initially began in California but were later dismissed.

Loeb later moved the case to Louisiana because officials there consider embryos to be human beings. In California, which is where the embryos were frozen, they are referred to as products.

As part of the Louisiana lawsuit, Vergara was sued by her two frozen embryos. In the unusual lawsuit, the embryos were given the names Emma and Isabella and listed as plaintiffs.

‘Emma and Isabella seek that they be entrusted to their natural father Loeb, who is willing and desirous that they be born,’ the lawsuit said.  

In throwing out the case last week, the appeals court ruled that Loeb did not in fact live in Louisiana and accused him and his legal team of making a ‘mockery’ of the state’s legal system. 

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.’ 

The ruling also accused Loeb’s legal team of ‘blatantly engaging in forum shopping’ to find a court they hoped would be sympathetic to their case. 

‘Their behavior brings disrepute to and makes a mockery of the Louisiana legal system and the bar and is abhorrent,’ the ruling stated. 

The couple called off their engagement in 2014 after dating for four years.   

Vergara, who has an adult son, Manolo, from a previous relationship, has been married to Joe Manganiello since in November 2015. 

Loeb’s legal team say they are now planning to appeal to Louisiana’s Supreme Court.