Meghan Freed on Same Sex Loss of Consortium Claims

Meghan Freed was featured in a Connecticut Law Tribune article entitled “DOMA Decision Brings Wave of Litigation Involving Same-Sex Partners.”

A partner in a same-sex couple, Charlotte Stacey, sought loss-of-consortium damages in the same medical malpractice case that saw the estate of her deceased partner, Margaret Mueller, collect $2.45 million.

The trial court and then the state Appellate Court, however, said that the couple had to be married at the time of the malpractice in 2004, so a loss of consortium was unavailable to her.
But in a state Supreme Court ruling that gay rights supporters call the first of its kind in the country, Stacey will be given the opportunity to make a claim for loss-of-consortium damages as long as her lawyers can prove the couple would have been married had state law allowed it then.

Meghan Freed, a Hartford lawyer who vice chairs the Connecticut Bar Association’s LGBT Section, noted that the loss-of-consortium ruling would impact a fairly limited group of state residents, especially since Connecticut same-sex couples married already have the right to maintain loss-of-consortium claims.

“That said, despite the likely limited size of the group of potential plaintiffs following the Mueller decision, it is a progressive ruling in that it gives retroactive rights to same-sex couples who were denied the right to marry.”

Full article here.