Gay Partner Can't Sue Hospital, Court Rules

The gay partner of a Massapequa man who was hit by a car in Manhattan doesn't have the right under state law to sue the hospital where the injured man died, an appeals court ruled Thursday.
In a 3-2 decision seen as a blow to gay rights, the Appellate Division Second Department in Brooklyn reversed an order by a Nassau County Supreme Court judge that would have allowed Neal Spicehandler's domestic partner to sue St. Vincent's Hospital for wrongful death.
The appeals court ruled that while Spicehandler and John Langan, 41, had a domestic partnership recognized in 2000 under Vermont law, their relationship did not allow Langan to sue the hospital under New York law.
The court acknowledged that Langan and Spicehandler had a committed relationship much like spouses in a traditional marriage. New York's wrongful-death statute allows spouses and other relatives to sue for negligent death. However, the court said a same-sex partner can't be viewed as a spouse.
"The thought that the surviving spouse would be of the same sex as the decedent was simply inconceivable," the appellate court said of the law's original intent.
In a forceful dissent, Judge Steven Fisher, once chief administrative judge for Queens, said the court majority "missed the point." Fisher said he couldn't conceive of how New York's interest in promoting traditional marriage was helped by denying access to the courts for members of recognized civil unions such as the one Spicehandler and Langan had.
Spicehandler, 41, died five days after Ronald Popadich drove into a crowd of 18 people near Madison Square Garden on Feb. 12, 2002. Spicehandler, a lawyer, had a broken leg and seemed on the way to recovery when he died.
Langan and Spicehandler's mother sued St. Vincent's for wrongful death and medical malpractice. The hospital denied wrongdoing.
Popadich pleaded guilty to murder in Spicehandler's death and was sentenced to up to 25 years in prison last month. He was also given a 30-year sentence in New Jersey for the 2002, murder of Lisa Gotkin, 40, a neighbor in Garfield, N.J.
Adam Aronson, the staff attorney for Lambda Legal who is representing Langan, said there might be an appeal.
"The majority decision is very clearly wrong and demonstrably wrong in several different ways," he said.
from Newsday