Niagara Gazette: Hochul hears from all sides in fight over wrongful death payouts

By: Joe Mahoney

Pitting physicians against trial lawyers, a major lobbying battle is intensifying behind the scenes concerning a proposed revision to a wrongful death statute that has been on the books for 175 years.

The doctors want Gov. Kathy Hochul to veto the legislation — the Grieving Families Act — now sitting on her desk. The lawyers are urging her to sign the measure after it was overwhelmingly approved this year by both chambers of the Legislature.

Hochul could also insist on amendments to the bill. But exactly what she will do remains a matter of speculation.

The umbrella group for county governments — the New York State Association of Counties — is asking Hochul to veto the measure.

The counties have advised the governor’s office they are concerned that the legislation could lead to county taxpayers being used as a “piggy bank” to make whole individuals who are primarily to blame in wrongful death cases.

“By expanding the damages individuals can recover in wrongful death suits, this legislation would inflate damage awards, increase costs for local governments, and require funding be taken from other programs and services as a result,” Stephen J. Acquairio, NYSAC’s executive director, wrote in a letter to Elizabeth Fine, counsel to the governor.

“This will make it more difficult to deliver essential services to the people of New York and could potentially diminish the quality of services, which may lead to more lawsuits,” Acquario warned.

The New York Trial Lawyers Association, various law firms and their allies in the Legislature have also been ratcheting up the pressure on Hochul to approve the Grieving Families Act.,

“This year we passed the Grieving Families Act because we all know that the value of a person’s life is more than their paycheck,” state Sen. Sean M. Ryan, D-Buffalo, a lawyer, states in a video message posted Wednesday by the Trial Lawyers Association on Facebook and Twitter.

The bill would revise the existing wrongful death statute, enacted in 1847, by permitting family members of wrongful death victims to recover compensation for their emotional anguish.

Advocates say the current law unfairly precludes the emotional hurt people feel when they have lost someone close to them and does not provide financial compensation for the loss of a person who was unemployed at the time of death.

The advocates also note that just two other states, Alabama and Delaware, deny survivors the ability to be compensated for grief and noneconomic losses.

Assemblyman Ron Kim, D-Queens, at a legislative hearing this week, said he sees the measure as “game-changing legislation to amend the wrongful death statute to properly capture the emotional and traumatic damages that often do not get factored in. It would change the nursing homes and hospitals and all the industries to deal better with older adults.”

But chambers of commerce and other business groups are warning the bill would result in higher liability insurance premiums, with one projection suggesting the increase to medical professional liability would amount to 40%.

In his letter to the governor’s office, Acquario predicted the legislation will “encourage frivolous lawsuits, further increasing costs for local governments through higher insurance premiums, inflated settlements, expansive damages, and increased attorney fees.”

Meanwhile, the Medical Society of the State of New York, an influential lobby representing doctors, argues that if the bill is signed without amendments “we risk hospital, emergency room, primary care and urgent care closures.”

“These consequences will most severely impact safety net care providers in underserved communities, placing those with below average access to quality care at risk and compromising the social equity the bill’s proponents seek to achieve,” the Medical Society states in its analysis of the Grieving Families Act.

While the group representing trial lawyers is a major proponent of the legislation, another attorney organization, the Defense Association of New York is taking a very different stance, opting to urge Hochul to veto it.

The New York Law Journal reported Wednesday night that the Defense Association, a group whose members work for individuals and parties targeted for wrongful death litigation, argues the legislation is flawed and would leave “courts and juries with no guardrails to determine who should be compensated or how to fairly assess and calculate appropriate damages.”

The chief sponsors of the bill are Assemblywoman Helene Weinstein, D-Brooklyn, and Sen. Brad Hoylman, D-Manhattan.