Troublesome Ruling In New York On Partnership Rights

From How Appealing and QueerDay comes reports about an appellate ruling in New York State in the case of Langan v. St. Vincent's Hospital which basically said that John Langan of Vermont could not sue St. Vincent's Medical Center for allegedly causing the wrongful death in 2003 of his partner, Neal Spicehandler, with whom he had executed a civil union in Vermont in 2000.

In a 3-2 decision, the majority claimed that under New York law only a legal spouse can sue for wrongful death and that "[a]ny contrary decision, no matter how circumscribed, [would] be taken as [a] judicial imprimatur of same-sex marriages." However, in a dissenting opinion which ran for 14 of the decision's 19 pages, Justice Steven W. Fisher wrote that "this case is not about marriage" and chided the majority for misconstruing the case as one about same-sex marriage rather than about the state's wrongful death statute and a person's right to equal protection under the law.

Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, Langan's attorneys, vowed to appeal to the Court of Appeals, New York State's highest court. As I mentioned this February, this seven member court is being closely watched because it is still an open question how they will treat a case of first impression dealing with the legalization of same sex marriage in the State of New York.

Court watchers are still waiting for a ruling in Andersen v. Sims, a similar case in Washington State which could make that state the second state to end the ban on same-sex couple being issued marriage licences. Of course, the entire country of Canada legalized same sex marriage earlier this year. I wonder which neighbor state, Washington or New York, will be first to join their progressive neighbors to the North?