NY Hospital Appeals Civil Union Recognition

June 22, 2004

A suit that produced a landmark ruling recognizing for the first time in the US that a civil union performed in Vermont is valid in another state is being challenged in a New York appeals court.

The case involves the partner of a gay man who died in a New York City hospital.

The hospital is appealing a lower court ruling last year that found John Langan could sue the hospital over the death of his partner Neal Conrad Spicehandler.

In February 2002, Spicehandler was struck by a car driven by a New Jersey man who was on a days-long hit-and-run spree that ultimately injured two dozen people on several Manhattan streets.When he was taken to St. Vincent's, in Greenwich Village, with a broken leg, the only person Spicehandler asked the staff to call was Langan, who in turn called Spicehandler's other family members.By the time Langan arrived at the hospital, Spicehandler was being taken into surgery to repair the leg.

A couple of days later, on Valentine's Day, Spicehandler's broken leg was operated on a second time.He, Langan and the rest of the family all thought he would be fine, and were told that he would be released from the hospital within a few days.

Langan waited for Spicehandler to return from the surgery that night, visited with him and kissed him goodnight.Early the next morning, Langan was awoken by a call from St. Vincent's Hospital telling him that Spicehandler was dead.

The couple had been together since 1986.In November 2000, shortly after civil unions became legal in Vermont, 40 family members and close friends attended a ceremony where the couple exchanged vows and rings.Over the years, Langan and Spicehandler's biological families recognized them as spouses and considered them part of their families.

When St. Vincent's was unable to satisfactorily explain how the routine surgery turned fatal, Langan and Spicehandler's mother, Ruth, sued St. Vincent's for wrongful death and medical malpractice.They seek to recover for Spicehandler's pain and suffering before he died, as well as lost financial support.

The hospital argued that Langan was not entitled to sue because same-sex unions are not legal in New York.

Nassau County Supreme Court Justice John Dunne disagreed. Dunne noted that common-law spouses from other states are regularly recognized as spouses in New York and said, [I]t is impossible to justify, under equal protection principles, withholding the same recognition from a union which meets all the requirements of a marriage in New York but for the sexual orientation of its partners.

The hospital appealed and Tuesday a four-judge appeals court heard oral arguments in the case.

Paul Blutman, the lawyer for St. Vincent's told the appeals court that Dunne had overstepped his authority and contradicted the state Legislature's decisions not to recognize gay partners as spouses.

Judges can't change law where the Legislature has spoken, attorney Blutman said.

But, Lambda Legal, arguing for Langan said that Dunne was upholding a long legal history in the state.

New York has a long history of respecting a legal spouse status that was created somewhere else, even if New York wouldn't allow that spouse to be created here, Lambda lawyer Adam Aronson said.

Aronson argued that Langan and Spicehandler's relationship was entitled to equal protection under New York's constitution and that their 15-year relationship was equivalent to a marriage and should be treated as such.

New York's highest court has ruled that a gay partner is equivalent to a family member in a case involving a rent-controlled apartment, Aronson said.

New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and five New York state bar associations have filed briefs supporting Langan.