Lesbian denied
standing to file wrongful death suit for loss
of partner

A judge on New York State's Long Island has dismissed the wrongful death suit filed by the lesbian partner of a woman killed in a car accident, ruling that she has no case because the two women were not legally married. Linda Saegert of Valley Stream, N.Y., filed the suit after her partner of 18 years, Victoria Sarafino, died after being hit by a car in 2003, but Saegert will not be allowed to pursue the case in Sarafino's name, reports New York City's Newsday. New York supreme court judge Daniel Palmieri noted that existing state law makes "a legal distinction between same-sex partners and heterosexual spouses," adding that the state judiciary's appellate division had already ruled that "a same-sex partner, as executor, has no standing to sue in wrongful death on the partner's own behalf," according to Newsday. Although the judge was only following previous court precedent as he was required to do, the ruling dismayed gay rights advocates. "Here in the state of New York, you have different classes of people," Alphonso David, a staff attorney with Lambda Legal, told Newsday. "Same-sex partners are assigned a second-class-citizen badge." Said Saegert, 53, who owned a house and business with Sarafino, whom she married in a Unitarian ceremony: "We did everything that's the criteria for a nuclear family. We were a couple as well as any husband and wife." Because Saegert was named the beneficiary and executor of Sarafino's will, the court decision does allow her to continue pursuing damages related to the pain and suffering her late partner experienced in her dying moments. Were she not so named, Saegert would not have legal standing in that case either. (The Advocate)