UC Will Save a Bundle by Cutting Losses, Say Insiders

Though officially $10 million poorer today, the University of California is nevertheless richer for settling with 50 couples who alleged three doctors at UC Irvine’s now defunct fertility clinic misappropriated their eggs and embryos, according to university officials, legal experts and medical ethicists.

By dispatching the bulk of lawsuits stemming from the UCI fertility scandal, the UC system has saved itself untold expense in future litigation costs and protects its coveted public image, they said. While some critics said the move also serves to deflect accountability, others said the settlement sends a powerful message.

“The settlement is an admission of wrong for oversight and underlying conduct,” said Alex Capron, a USC professor of law and medicine. “Ten million dollars provides an incentive not only to the university to avoid this, but to everyone who has responsibilities in the whole cloudy area of fertility treatments.”

UC regents attorney Byron Beam touted the settlement as a “good deal” for the university.

“I think the amounts that are being paid are reasonable and appropriate,” said Beam. “On the other hand, I don’t think there’s been any volunteering of monies or any throwing of monies at people who didn’t deserve it.”

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Some expressed surprise that UC officials weren’t stung by a much higher penalty in the wake of the scandal, which saw children conceived and raised without the knowledge of their biological parents.

But state Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Los Angeles), a ceaseless critic of the UC system’s management of the fertility scandal, said the settlement spares the whole system adverse publicity. It also prevents the public from rightly knowing “exactly what happened and who is responsible,” he added.

“There is no trial, no deposition, no face-to-face encounter,” said Hayden. “There’s no airing of the issue for the public’s benefit and I think that diminishes the possibility of accountability.”

But some legal experts disagreed with the characterization that the UC system walked away from these cases too easily. A $10-million payment is enough to get anybody’s attention, they said.

“I think this is a great deal for the regents,” said Walter Koontz, an attorney who is currently negotiating a separate settlement for six fertility patients that he represents. “They could have easily spent $10 million before they even got to trial with these cases.”

Legal observers did not believe the settlement would influence negotiations in the two dozen related lawsuits still pending against the university. The university will continue its drive to settle the strong cases, and force the weaker ones to trial, said Koontz.

“There’s no doubt in my mind, the university wants to avoid a trial in an egg misappropriation case at all costs,” he added. “But some other cases they may well force to the mat.”

Also contributing to this report were Times staff writers Julie Marquis and Esther Schrader.