SANTA ANA : Surrogate Mother, Couple Drop Suits

A Tustin couple and a surrogate mother who engaged in a landmark custody battle over a surrogate child have agreed to a legal truce.

Under a tentative settlement agreement, Mark and Crispina Calvert have agreed to drop their lawsuit against Anna Johnson if she withdraws a cross-complaint. The Calverts signed a $10,000 contract with the Garden Grove woman in 1990 to carry a child for them. During her pregnancy, however, Johnson told the Calverts she wanted to keep the child.

In response, the Calverts sought a court order to enforce the surrogacy contract, which was arranged by the Center for Surrogate Parenting in Beverly Hills.

The precedent-setting case was the nation’s first legal test of whether a surrogate mother with no genetic connection to the child has parental rights.

An Orange County Superior Court judge awarded custody to the Calverts, and the state Supreme Court later upheld that decision.

In September, 1992, the Calverts sued Johnson and the Beverly Hills surrogacy firm in Superior Court in Santa Ana, alleging fraud, breach of contract and infliction of emotional distress. They received an undisclosed sum from the surrogacy firm.

Ronald Lais, an Anaheim attorney who represented the couple, said Tuesday the Calverts dropped their lawsuit because Johnson, a former Marine, had few assets and would not have been able to pay a judgment.

“Why go through the time and effort to get a judgment?” Lais asked.

Richard Gilbert, an Orange attorney who represented Johnson, said she no longer wanted to pursue the matter because “taking money from the Calverts would be like taking money from her own child.”

Lais said the Calverts hoped that the agreement in the civil cases before Superior Court Judge Nancy Wieben Stock will settle the matter once and for all, adding that the couple want to “find peace and enjoy normal family relationship” with the child, Christopher, now 4.

But Gilbert said Tuesday the legal battle is far from over.

“She will never stop fighting for the child she gave birth to,” the lawyer said.