We previously blogged about Cleveland State University professor James Flynn whose triplets were allowed to go home with the surrogate who delivered them after Flynn and his then fiancee hadn’t returned to the hospital to visit the babies for several days. Flynn subsequently received custody of his children and brought suit against the hospital for improperly releasing his children to the surrogate. His attorney has sought a continuance of the upcoming trial as Professor Flynn has just died:

An attorney suing an Erie hospital for allowing a surrogate mother to take home triplets she’d given birth to wants to delay the trial because the biological father has died. Sixty-nine-year-old James Flynn, of Kirtland, Ohio, died Feb. 10.

Flynn and his wife, Eileen Donich, sued what is now UPMC Hamot in 2006, saying officials there wrongly allowed a Corry, Erie County, woman Mr. Flynn hired as a surrogate mother to keep the triplets and take them home with her after giving birth in November 2003. Hospital officials have said they were concerned because Mr. Flynn and his then-fiancee didn’t regularly visit the babies. The decision set off a custody battle that Mr. Flynn and Ms. Donich eventually won.

Ms. Donich wants to press forward with the suit, but Pittsburgh attorney Irving Portnoy tells the Erie Times-News he wants to delay the trial scheduled to begin March 25 because of Mr. Flynn’s death. An Erie County judge has yet to rule on the postponement.