Fertility Doctor Files Claim to Make UCI Pay Legal Bills

Dr. Ricardo H. Asch, the UC Irvine fertility expert embroiled in scandal, is seeking a court order to compel the university to pay for his legal defense in a lawsuit over the use of allegedly stolen embryos.

In documents filed this week in Orange County Superior Court, Asch contends the university has a duty to defend him because it agreed to provide him with malpractice and liability insurance when he was recruited to UCI, where he became a tenured faculty member. In particular, that agreement should cover him against claims made by a Bakersfield couple, Susan E. and H. Wayne Clay, Asch contends.

In September, the Clays filed a lawsuit against Asch, his two partners and the university asserting the physicians stole their eggs or embryos and implanted them in other women without their permission. Asch and the two partners, Drs. Jose P. Balmaceda and Sergio C. Stone, operated the now-defunct UCI Center for Reproductive Health, which had clinics in Orange, Laguna Hills and Garden Grove.

The Clays’ case is one of more than a dozen similar cases now pending against Asch and his partners, who deny any intentional wrongdoing.

Asch’s attorney, Lloyd A. Charton of Santa Ana, could not be reached for comment.

Fran Tardiff, a spokeswoman for UCI, said Friday the UC general counsel’s office is reviewing each case separately and already has made a determination not to defend Asch in the Clay case or in any of the cases it has reviewed so far.

“The contention is that the physicians were operating outside what the university had requested them to do,” Tardiff said, adding that Asch and the other physicians also had withheld documents the university would need to defend them.

“If they wouldn’t give us the charts and records we needed to defend them, how could we?” she said.

Although no charges have been filed against the doctors, at least seven investigations are underway, including one by the U.S. attorney’s office on whether they not only stole the human eggs and embryos but also pocketed money owed to the university and conducted research on human subjects without their permission.

Asch, who now lives in Mexico for fear of arrest if he comes to the United States, has agreed to talk about the scandal under oath Friday in Tijuana.

In his claim for help in his defense in the Clay case, Asch contends he was persuaded by the university to come to UCI in the first place. Because the university agreed to provide him with malpractice and liability insurance, Asch did not obtain his own insurance, the lawsuit contends.

The university has attempted to “divorce itself” from Asch and avoid its legal obligations by characterizing any errors he made as intentional rather than negligent, the lawsuit suggests.

Asch already has spent more than $400,000 in his defense, “with no end in sight,” according to the court documents.

With the possibility that 40 to 50 similar claims will be made against him, Asch would not be able to properly defend himself without the university’s help, he contends.

In other legal action this week, an Irvine attorney filed complaints in Orange County Superior Court on behalf of three more women and their husbands alleging Asch and his partners misappropriated the women’s eggs, embryos or other tissue.