For a second time, the Grieving Families Act (GFA) was left on the cutting room floor last year. Bereaved families of color behind the legislation were devastated.
The bill aims to reform the state’s wrongful death laws that were crafted in 1847. Advocates of the bill have said the existing laws “are exceedingly discriminatory and racist by design” because they exclude close family members from receiving any money from wrongful death suits.
The bill, sponsored by Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal and Assemblymember Helene Weinstein (S.6636/A6698), passed in the State Senate and Assembly in 2022. Hochul had already vetoed a previous version.
“Forty-eight other states have modern wrongful death laws, making New York one of the shameful few that put expenses and profits over the value of a human life. We’ve denied countless family members the proper consideration for their loved ones, since our 175-year-old statute considers only economic loss,” said Hoylman-Sigal, who chairs the Judiciary Committee.
The amended version had a shorter statute of limitations and limited who could file a claim for grief and anguish to close family members. Hochul vetoed it on December 29, 2023. In a letter, she said she supports the goals of the bill but it would “fundamentally alter the legal framework” for wrongful death claims in the state, and could have costly “unintended consequences” for insurance and healthcare facilities.
“While I remain open to working collaboratively to find holistic solutions that support impacted families without introducing potential unintended consequences, I believe that further deliberations are needed,” Hochul wrote.
Advocates and electeds were hurt at the last day’s-ditch disapproval. They had held a rally on December 18, 2023, begging the governor to sign GFA. They said Hochul refused to meet with them before the deadline.
“Governor Kathy Hochul’s veto of the Grieving Families Act is a grave miscarriage of justice that puts the safety of New Yorkers in jeopardy and upholds a perverse standard of morality in current New York law,” said New York State Trial Lawyers Association (NYSTLA) President David Scher. “With this veto, she is denying victims their day in court, making it more advantageous to kill than to injure, and putting corporate profits over patient safety. This veto is an abject failure of leadership to grasp the impact of grief on loved ones, from young children who have lost a parent to parents who have lost a child, to the families of victims of gun violence, to expectant families and communities of color.”
Attendees at the rally included family members of wrongful death victims who have turned to advocacy to be heard, such as Bruce McIntyre, partner of the late Amber Rose Isaac, who died after giving birth at a hospital during the pandemic; Mandy Fletcher, mother of the late Maison Callender; Jose Perez, partner of the late Christine Fields; Shawnee Gibson, mother of the late Shamony Gibson; and Alfida Arrevillaga, mother of the late Marlon Arrevillaga.
“To have your soulmate ripped away on what is supposed to be the happiest day of your life is a pain that is unimaginable until you go through it yourself,” said McIntyre in a statement. “Black women are dying in hospitals at a record rate, and there is no deterrent at all. The law makes it free to kill. My son Elias will never experience the warmth of his mother’s heart. Fortunately, these outcomes are preventable and it is not too late for other families.”
The act, supported by the victims’ families, seeks to cover families for emotional grief and anguish in wrongful death cases, including accidents stemming from negligence or criminality; medical malpractice cases, including misdiagnosis and failure to diagnose; and pregnancy-related deaths.
In the current system, according to the Common Justice from New York State’s Office of Victim Services (OVS), families of people of color, children, retirees, the disabled community, and women who lost their lives as a result of someone’s tragic mistake typically receive less compensation for the loss of their loved ones than families of white and/or male victims receive because of the widespread structural racial-and-gender pay and opportunity gaps throughout the state and society.
“As someone who has lived the devastation of the current wrongful death law, it is my personal commitment to ensure that justice knows no bounds, and no family, irrespective of race, ability, or age, is denied the recourse they deserve because of their economic status,” said Senator Cordell Cleare in a statement. “The governor must reform the law and sign the Grieving Families Act, offering long-awaited justice to the bereaved and deterring these preventable deaths. We must put the power back in the hands of the people. It is absolutely unacceptable that, in the midst of a Black maternal health crisis and rising infant mortality, we remain in the same place [as] we were in 1847.”
Rebecca Fischer, executive director of New Yorkers Against Gun Violence, said that even though it’s been over a year since the “horrific” mass shooting at a grocery store in Buffalo, in which a white gunman targeted Black shoppers, the victims’ families continue to suffer from unimaginable grief and loss every day.
“Everyone who is grieving and healing from trauma like what happened to me, and worse, deserves to heal in their own time,” said Zaire Goodman, survivor of the mass shooting in Buffalo. “There are no time limits on what we are going through. I was lucky and survived. Ten other families can’t say the same thing. They have a right to be compensated for their family members who were murdered by a racist. They will grieve that loss forever.”