Center Square: Hochul urged to veto latest wrongful death proposal

By: Christian Wade

A coalition of groups are urging Gov. Kathy Hochul to veto the latest version of a bill that would dramatically expand the state's wrongful death laws, claiming the move will drive up costs for businesses and consumers. 

The revised Grieving Families Act, which is expected to land on Hochul's desk within days, calls for updating the state’s nearly 180-year-old law governing wrongful deaths to allow families to seek emotional damages. Under the current law, they can only sue for financial damages, like lost wages. 

However, groups opposing the measure are asking Hochul to reject the plan again, saying its approval would have "devastating economic impacts" on the state's public and private sectors. 

"Insurance premiums are already higher in New York than almost any other state in the country," the coalition wrote to Hochul. "If signed into law, this legislation would deter business retention and creation, make it harder to retain and recruit medical professionals, and strain our local governments’ limited budgets." 

The coalition, which includes the Business Council of New York State, the New York chapter of the National Federation of Independent Businesses and the Lawsuit Reform Alliance of New York, said despite years of legislating, the issue lawmakers who approved the plan haven't provided a fiscal analysis of the impact of the changes on local governments, state agencies and the private sector. 

"Any claim that this bill has no fiscal implications, as the sponsors’ memo states, is misleading and absurd," they wrote. "Not only will the private sector, including our healthcare system, be saddled with enormous new costs under this bill, so too will our government services, school systems, public transportation infrastructure, and public hospitals."

To be sure, Hochul has vetoed similar proposals to expand the law, most recently in January, when she rejected a version of the current legislation. However, the plan's backers amended the bill to scale back the list of family members eligible to sue, limiting it to spouses or domestic partners of the deceased. The Assembly and Senate passed it in June but differences between the bills needed to be worked out before landing on Hochul's desk. 

Hochul had suggested that she would support a watered-down "compromise" plan that exempts medical malpractice claims. However, backers of the legislation declined to remove that provision, saying that it would limit the types of cases eligible for litigation.  

New York’s current wrongful death law, which has been on the books since 1847, doesn't allow for non-economic losses in such civil lawsuits. It doesn't permit recovery for pain and suffering, mental anguish or loss of companionship for surviving family members. It also restricts civil awards to pecuniary or tangible monetary damages.

Critics argue that the antiquated law prevents grief-stricken families from recovering damages for their emotional suffering, including the survivors of 10 victims killed in a 2022 mass shooting at the Buffalo supermarket.

But business groups have pushed back hard against the current and previous proposals to expand the law, arguing that it would impose unfair financial burdens on businesses, hospitals and the insurance industry. They say those added costs would drive up medical insurance costs and liability premiums.

“Polling shows again and again that households throughout New York and around the country are facing an affordability crisis," Tom Stebbins, executive director of the Lawsuit Reform Alliance of New York, said in a recent statement. "The last thing we need is another mandate that will decimate the financial stability of struggling families, small businesses, and essential services." 

The group has singled out efforts by Democratic lawmakers to expand damages available in wrongful death suits, which it argues would "perpetuate New York’s lawsuit abuse crisis and would make the state an outlier on wrongful death liability."  

New York City also leads the country for "questionable " slip and fall claims, according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau, which says the lawsuits are causing insurance premiums to skyrocket for building owners, who are ultimately passing along the higher costs to tenants, homeowners and consumers.