In what is believed to be the first major ruling of its kind, the Connecticut Supreme Court has ruled that a lesbian widow who was in a same-sex marriage has legal rights that predates their marriage and marriage equality (even in addition to civil unions) in Connecticut. The widow filed a medical malpractice suit, and the alleged malpractice and misdiagnosis occurred between 2001 and 2004 (prior to marriage equality being the law of the land in Connecticut). She also filed for damages due to loss of companionship, which can only be done in Connecticut if married at the time. The justices took the word of the lesbian widow that the couple would have been married at the time if the state had permitted same-sex marriage and has allowed the suit to go forward.
The decision was unanimous.
From therepublic.com:
HARTFORD, Connecticut — Lawyers say the Connecticut Supreme Court has issued a first-of-its-kind ruling in the country saying some legal rights of same-sex couples predate the state's 2008 approval of gay marriage.
The high court Wednesday overturned two lower courts and ruled a widow from Middletown can sue a doctor for damages in a medical malpractice case for the loss of her spouse's companionship and income.
Margaret Mueller and Charlotte Stacey married in 2008 after 23 years together. Mueller died of appendix cancer in 2009. They sued Mueller's doctor alleging she misdiagnosed Mueller's cancer from 2001 to 2004.
Lower courts ruled Stacey couldn't sue for loss of companionship, saying only married couples had that right and Stacey and Mueller didn't marry until 2008.
Gay rights advocates say the ruling affirms gay couple's rights.
And, from
greenfieldreporter.com:
The state Supreme Court issued a 6-0 decision overturning two lower court rulings and allowing a widow to sue a doctor in a medical malpractice case for the death of her spouse and the loss of her spouse's companionship and income. The alleged malpractice occurred from 2001 to 2004, a time when only married couples were allowed to sue for loss of spousal "consortium."
"It's another example of the Connecticut Supreme Court leading the way in recognizing that the love and commitment of same-sex couples is exactly the same as different-sex couples," said Ben Klein, a lawyer for Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders in Boston. "This will be an influential and important decision that other courts will look to."
The Connecticut case involved Margaret Mueller and Charlotte Stacey, insurance industry workers who lived in Stamford and Norwalk. They had a civil union in Connecticut in 2005 and got married in Massachusetts in 2008 after 23 years together under that state's gay marriage law, shortly before the Connecticut Supreme Court approved gay marriage.
Mueller was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2001. In 2005, however, Mueller and Stacey learned the diagnosis was wrong and she actually had appendix cancer. Mueller died in 2009 at age 62. Stacey said her death could have been prevented if the original diagnosis had been correct.
Mueller sued for malpractice, and a jury issued a $2.4 million verdict in her favor against one doctor, Iris Wertheim, after her death, said Stacey's lawyer, Sean McElligott. Another doctor named in the lawsuit, Isidore Tepler, settled the malpractice claims.
The trial court and the state Appellate Court ruled against Stacey in her effort to sue Wertheim for loss of consortium, saying Stacey and Mueller weren't married as required under the law.
"The Supreme Court sought fit to rectify this injustice," said Stacey, 63, who now lives in Middletown. "It validates my loss of my spouse for the fact that what I suffered for the seven years that Marge had cancer ... and all that I gave up and all that I don't have because she died because of the malpractice."
The Supreme Court said it wasn't legally possible for Stacey and Mueller to be married or in a civil union at the time of the misdiagnosis, and the justices accepted the couple's contention that they would have been married long ago if allowed.
You can read the opinion
here.