BILL NUMBER: S4958

SPONSOR: PARKER
 
TITLE OF BILL:  An act to amend the executive law, in relation to
eligibility of domestic partners for compensation from the crime
victims' board

 
PURPOSE:

This bill would allow people maintaining significant and long-term, yet
not legally formalized, relationships with homicide victims to be eligi-
ble for compensation from the Crime Victims Board for actual out of
pocket losses and counseling expenses such people would include, for
example, elderly siblings or relatives sharing living quarters in a
mutually interdependent relationship, adult partners in long-term
committed relationships not formalized by marriage and those who have
parent-child relationships but have not entered into a formal adoption
arrangement.

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

              

Section 1 would amend section 624 of the Executive Law to include domes-
tic partner as a person who would be eligible for compensation from the
Crime Victims Board when the victim died as a direct result of such
crime.

Section 2 would amend section 624 of the Executive Law to add a new
subdivision defining domestic partner. Domestic partner is defined as
someone who is either in a domestic partnership, named as the benefici-
ary or covered person under the other person's employment or insurance
benefits, or is dependent or mutually interdependent on the other person
for support.

Section 3 amends section 626 of the executive law to add counseling for
surviving family members who are already eligible under section 626 as
an acceptable out of pocket loss.

Section 4 provides the effective date.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

Currently, the Crime Victims Board has no authority to compensate family
members of homicide victims unless such persons are a relative listed
explicitly in Exec. 1. sec. 624 or unless they are principally dependent
on the victim for financial support. In the absence of such financial
dependence, a long-term living companion, or a person in a parent child
relationship not formalized by an adoption order, may not recover under
the current statute.

A recent trend in New York has been to broaden the definition of family
to include persons who maintain long-term substantial relationships but
not formalized by marriage licenses or orders of adoption. In fact, in
response to the World Trade Center attack on September 11, 2001, the
Governor extended the definition of family to domestic partners of
victims of the attack in order to make them eligible for compensaion. In
addition, BRASCHI V. STAHL ASSOCIATES CO., 74 N.Y.2d 201, (1989), the
Court of Appeals stated that for purposes of protection from eviction
under the New York City rent control law, the term "family" not be
rigidly restricted to those people who have formalized their relation-
ship by obtaining, for instance, a marriage certificate or an adoption
order.. but instead should find its foundation in the reality of family
life.

ID., at 211. Such persons are readily distinguishable from "mere room-
mates",. ID. at 212. New York City recently initiated a new policy on
paid bereavement leave for City employees who live with a partner
outside of marriage. The impact of a partner's death despite the lack of
legal formalization of a relationship is recognized by this legislation.
Although the Crime Victims Board statute already defines "family" very
broadly, Exec., L, sec. 621 (4), definition is currently used only for
narrow purposes and not to determine who should receive compensation for
out of pocket loss and counseling expenses, Those persons within this
broader definition of family are no less traumatized by the crime-caused
death of a person with whom they maintain a committed relationship than
are those who have legally formalized their relationship prior to the
commission of the crime.

By combining the existing statutory definition of "family" with a
requirement that the claimant show that he or she had a long-term inter-
dependent relationship with the victim, the statute would more clearly
reflect societal changes and would more fairly compensate those whose
lives are forever changed by the homicide of a loved one.

 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

2017-18: S7012
2015-16: S584A REFERRED TO FINANCE/passed assembly
2013-14: 5215/A4024 - REFERRED CRIME VICTIMS, CRIME AND
CORRECTION/Passed Assembly
2011-12: S629/A3592 - REFERRED TO CRIME VICTIMS, CRIME AND
CORRECTION/Passed Assembly

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

The Crime Victims Board has estimated that approximately $28,000 per
year from existing appropriations would be required to cover awards to
the additional eligible claimants under this bill.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect on the one hundred eightieth day after it
shall have become law.