ERIE, Pa. - A judge awarded legal custody to a surrogate mother who gave birth to triplets, saying she must work out visitation and other rights with the infants' biological father, who had also sought custody.

Erie County Judge Shad Connelly said his decision sets a precedent in Pennsylvania, which is one of 19 states without a law governing surrogacy.

"It is the hope of this court that a custodial tug-of-war will not begin here. It is additionally the court's hope that the Legislature will address surrogacy matters in Pennsylvania to prevent cases like this one from appearing before the courts without statutory guidance," Connelly said in his decision.

The case involves surrogate mother Danielle Bimber, 29, of Corry, and a man identified in court records as J.F., the biological father.

J.F.'s attorney, James Richardson, said his client would appeal.

"He feels strongly about this because he anticipated that this arrangement was going to result in him and his fiancee raising these children as their own, since he is the biological father," Richardson said. "The current ruling identifies a person as the legal mother of the children whom he did not anticipate having any involvement in the children's lives."

But Connelly said Bimber should be considered the triplets' legal mother because she is "not genetically related to the triplets, but carried them in her womb and then gave birth to them."

According to Connelly's ruling, Bimber agreed to become a surrogate mother with the Indiana-based agency Surrogate Mother Inc. at the end of 2001. The agency matched Bimber with J.F. and his fiancee and asked the parties to sign a contract.

The agency also located an egg donor, whose eggs were fertilized with J.F.'s sperm and implanted into Bimber. All three embryos developed into infants who were born Nov. 19, slightly premature, Connelly said.

Bimber testified she changed her mind about giving up the triplets because she was concerned about how J.F. and his fiancee acted after the babies were born.

She asked the staff at the hospital, Hamot Medical Center, if she could take the infants home and because the center has no policy regarding surrogate births, it allowed her to do so.

Connelly said J.F. and his fiance failed to provide Hamot with a court order allowing them to take the infants home. Without such an order, Hamot had no choice but to allow Bimber to take the children, said hospital spokesman Charles Hagerty.

Bimber then went to court to request that she become the legal mother of the babies. Connelly reviewed Bimber's surrogacy contract and invalidated it, saying it failed to name a legal mother for the triplets.

The woman who donated her eggs did not want to be involved in the children's' lives after her donation, Connelly said. J.F.'s finance could not be considered a legal mother because she was not married to the biological father, the judge said.

Connelly criticized J.F. for failing to name the children and for not visiting them regularly after they were born.

Richardson, J.F.'s attorney, declined to identify his client, who lives outside of Pennsylvania. He also decline to comment on the judge's statements about how J.F. handled the babies' births.

The director of Surrogate Mother Inc. also declined comment.