Quebec couple sues fertility clinic over paternity test mix-up
A couple from Quebec's Montérégie region is suing a fertility clinic in Montreal, alleging the botched results of a paternity test led to a three-year misunderstanding about the real father of their daughter.
The couple is seeking $292,000 in damages from the OVO fertility clinic. The allegations have not been proven in court.
The lawsuit alleges the family "suffered enormously due to the error committed in transmitting the results" of the test. CBC News is withholding the names of the family members to protect the identity of the child.
The woman became pregnant in 2010. She had recently broken up with her partner and started seeing someone else.
Uncertain about which man was the father, she asked the clinic to do a paternity test.
Her lawsuit alleges the clinic called her with the results, confirming her ex-partner was the father of the child, but she never received a written copy of the results.
The little girl was born in 2011.
The girl took the last name of her mother's ex-partner. He was identified on the girl's birth certificate as her biological father, and was allowed to see the girl on a regular basis.
Child resembled stepfather more
The woman and her daughter lived with her new partner, and he was considered the girl's stepfather.
As the girl grew, the woman noticed that her daughter bore a striking resemblance to her current partner.
The lawsuit alleges it wasn't until the girl was almost three years old that the woman finally received a letter from the OVO clinic, saying it was impossible that her ex-partner was the father.
Another paternity test confirmed her current partner as the girl's biological father.
Girl caught between 2 'fathers'
The girl is now five years old. The lawsuit alleges she has suffered because of the mishap, and is now caught between her two "fathers."
The woman's new partner, the girl's actual biological father, alleges in the lawsuit that he was deprived of the paternity of his daughter for the first three years of her life, even though they were living under the same roof.
The situation is further complicated by the fact that the ex-partner, who believed for years that he was the girl's biological father, at some point launched legal action seeking sole custody of the girl. In the eyes of the law, he's still her biological father.
Clinic: story is 'more complicated than that'
Only the couple's version of events has been filed in court so far. The clinic has not yet filed a statement of defence.
The director of operations for the OVO clinic, Renée Cardinal, told Radio-Canada she didn't want to comment on the case as it was before the courts. She would only say that it's "more complicated than that," and that the clinic intends to contest the lawsuit.
Challenge to change birth certificate
If the couple decides to try and change their daughter's birth certificate, they may be in for a challenge.
"If there's already a father on the birth certificate then it becomes much more complicated because the biological father has to ask the court by application to have that father withdrawn," said Marie Christine Kirouack, who is an attorney with 25 years' experience in family law.
According to Kirouack, the law in Quebec says that if the father on the birth certificate has acted as a father for more than two and a half years, a court will not allow him to be withdrawn.
The man is considered to be acting as a father, Kirouack said, if he was publicly known as the father and felt that the child was his.
Kirouack said that this situation could have been avoided if a second paternity test was done.
"They're not 100 per cent certain," she said. "Should we take for granted that they're always right? No."
