Sofia Vergara’s ex-fiancé, Nicholas Loeb has won a round in their nasty battle over the custody of the frozen embryos that they have created together.
According to Radio Online, the actress was told to pay for her ex-fiancé’s legal services, a whopping $79,392.26 in attorney fees. A judge in Los Angeles settled on the amount right after Loeb demanded the Modern Family star to compensate him $120,000 for his attorney fees.
The court determined after evaluating the billing and declaration records that the payment Loeb sought did not justify the full fees thus, awarding him 35% of what he asked. Unfortunately for Vergara, the judge took her ex’s side when she disputed the claim that Loeb wasn’t entitled to any amount of money.
The actress contended that the motion “should be denied or heavily reduced to the extent it is based on block billing and seeks fees and costs for services not shown to be related to the successful portion of the anti-SLAPP motion.”
Radar Online reported however that according to the legal documents they have acquired, based on the foregoing, “the Court GRANTS the motion and orders that Plaintiff pay the Defendant’s attorney’s fees in the amount of $76,433, and costs in the amount of $2,959.26. Payment shall be made within 30 days of notice of this ruling.”
Loeb and Vergara started dating back in 2010 and got engaged in 2012 before breaking up two years after. Before the breakup, the couple sought into using In vitro fertilization and surrogacy in plans to have children together.
The two signed an agreement before starting IVF that stated one person will not be able to use the cryo-preserved material to rear a child without the explicit written consent of the other party. Two embryos are stored away at the ART Reproductive Center created by Vergara and Loeb.
Three plaintiffs took a right-to-live lawsuit against Vergara and her embryo’s trustee James Charbonnet back in December of 2016. The actress’s ex-fiancé asked for the custody of the embryos so that they could live and conclusively obtain a trust fund created for their future.
In 2017, the case was dismissed in Louisiana, a pro-life state because the embryos were conceived in California.
The Modern Family star is now married to Magic Mike and True Blood star Joe Manganiello and has a 27 year-old son from a previous relationship named Manolo.
The case is still on-going at the moment.
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