The Southern Poverty Law Center has filed suit in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama, challenging Alabama's refusal to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states.
The plaintiff, Paul Hard, was legally married in a Massachusetts ceremony to David Fancher. Paul and David were residing in Alabama when David was killed in a car wreck. Then:
When Hard arrived at the hospital, a receptionist refused to give him any information about his husband, David Fancher. He was told he was not a member of Fancher’s “family” and that gay marriages weren’t recognized in Alabama.
After a half hour of inquiries, a hospital orderly finally told Hard, “Well, he’s dead.”...
A funeral home director cited Alabama law in insisting that the death certificate indicate Fancher was never married – even though Fancher and Hard were legally married in Massachusetts, but lived in Alabama...
The suit also demands that Hard receive his rightful share of the proceeds from a pending wrongful death suit, and that Alabama issue a corrected death certificate for Fancher that lists Hard as the surviving spouse...
Hard is now suing the trucking companies involved in the wreck. Fancher had collided in the dark with a large truck strewn across the northbound lanes of Interstate 65 north of Montgomery.
In Alabama, however, proceeds from a wrongful death case must be distributed pursuant to the laws of intestate succession (even though Fancher died with a will and Hard was the sole beneficiary). And because Alabama refuses to recognize lawful same-sex marriages entered out of state, current state law means that Hard cannot be deemed the surviving spouse and cannot share in the proceeds of the lawsuit.
Here's wishing all success to Paul Hard and his counsel at Southern Poverty Law Center in fighting the good fight in Alabama.