GLAD Files Amicus Brief in Massachusetts Loss of Consortium Lawsuit
GLAD has filed an amicus brief in the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in a medical malpractice case involving an alleged failure to appropriately test for and diagnose breast cancer. The case raises the question of whether the now-surviving same-sex spouse has the right to bring a claim for the loss of her wife’s consortium. The women were not—and legally could not have been—married at the time the alleged malpractice was discovered in 2003. However, they applied for and received a marriage license on May 17, 2004, the first day marriage licenses were legally available to same-sex couples in Massachusetts; and they were married on May 20, 2004. Massachusetts law categorically denies claims of loss of consortium where a couple is unmarried. However, in this case, it was impossible for the couple to be married at the required time. Therefore, GLAD argues that if the common law does not make room to accomodate this situation, it violates the equal protection guarantees of our state Constitution because it creates an insurmountable barrier for one group of people to access a legal claim that would otherwise be available to them.