California man wins right to sue over partner's death
Thursday, March 17, 2005
A California appellate court on Tuesday ruled that the state's recent changes in its domestic-partnership laws gave a gay man the right to file a wrongful death lawsuit in his same-sex partner's death, even though the partner died before the laws took effect.
The decision was a victory for Charles Karel Bouley II, a radio talk-show host and author who goes by the single name Karel. Bouley, who is also an Advocate.com columnist, filed suit against Long Beach Memorial Medical Center 11 months after his partner, Andrew Howard, died there in May 2001; Bouley contends that the hospital's ineffective care was responsible. The hospital's attorneys responded that Karel did not have the right to sue under California law because he was neither married nor related to Howard. A lower court ruled in the hospital's favor last year.
But Tuesday's decision overturned that ruling, asserting that updates to California domestic-partnership laws in 2002 and 2005 must be applied to Karel's case. Among other rights, the laws give registered domestic partners the legal standing to file a wrongful death lawsuit such as Karel's.
"Yesterday was an important day for gay equality, but mostly it was an important day for Andy," Karel told Advocate.com, referring to his late partner of 11 years. "It was my job to take care of Andrew in his life, and it was my job to take care of him after his death. The law said that I could not do that, so I had to change the law."
more...
http://www.advocate.com/new_news.asp?ID=15449&sd=03/17/05listen live to Karel at
http://www.kgoam810.com/listenlive.asp he is going to be talking about this at 9 p.m.
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
