The last I read — for those following the Melissa Cook surrogacy triplets case — was that Cook had been granted a temporary stay from a Los Angeles Superior Court ruling that granted custody of triplets to a fellow known as “C.M.” in court documents. Court records seem to bear this out — that the stay was ordered on March 30, 2016, preventing both Cook and C.M. from removing the minors out of California until further order from the California Court of Appeal. At the time that legal development got a lot of press but it would appear that just yesterday (April 14, 2016) the Court of Appeal denied Cook’s application to keep C.M.’s earlier custody award from being executed and vacated the temporary stay.
[Post Script: The Court of Appeal did deny Cook’s application on April 14, 2016 and lift the stay (see U.S. District Court decision, Cook v. Harding et al., rendered by Judge Otis Wright II, June 6, 2016). On that same day the triplets were removed from the care of the Panorama City Medical Center in California and released to the care of their biological father, “C.M.” On January 31, 2017 Cook lost her challenge to the constitutionality of surrogacy agreements in California, but in July, 2017 she appealed to the US Supreme Court on jurisdictional grounds. In October the Supreme Court refused to hear her petition for review.]
CHRISTOPHER NOWLIN 