Expands eligibility for those who receive awards under crime victims' compensation to include a domestic partner; defines domestic partner; further provides for out-of-pocket loss to include the cost of counseling for surviving family members of homicide victims.
NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A4089A
SPONSOR: Glick (MS) 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 eligible 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 quar-
ters 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: This bill would amend Executive Law section
624 to allow a family member of a homicide victim, who resided with the
victim at the time of such crime and with whom the victim maintained a
long-term relationship characterized by emotional and financial commit-
ment and interdependence, to be eligible for compensation from the Crime
Victims Board when the victim died as a direct result of such crime.
The term "family" is currently defined in Executive Law. sec. 621(4).
This bill also would amend Executive Law sec. 626 by adding a new subdi-
vision 4 to provide that out of pocket loss shall include the cost of
counseling for surviving family members of homicide victims who are
otherwise eligible pursuant to section 624(1 )(b).
JUSTIFICATION: Currently, the Crime Victims Board has no authority to
compensate family members of homicide victims unless such persons are
relatives 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 adult living compan-
ion, 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 "fami-
ly" 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, 2000, the
Governor extended the definition of family to domestic partners of
victims of the attack in order to make them eligible for compensation.
SEE BRASCHI V. STAHL ASSOCIATES CO., 74 N.Y.2d 20r, (1989), in which 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 relation- ship 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:
2000: S.3217 Referred to Crime Victims, Crime and Correction A.6204
Referred to Governmental Operations 2002: A.4980 Reported from Govern-
ment Operations and Referred to Ways and Means 2003-04: A. 1033 Reported
Referred to Ways and Means 2007-09: S.2416A Referred to Crime Victims,
Crime and Correction A.4526 Advanced to third reading calendar
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 eight-
ieth day after it shall have become law.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
S. 1422--A A. 4089--A
2009-2010 Regular Sessions
SENATE - ASSEMBLY
January 30, 2009
___________
IN SENATE -- Introduced by Sens. SCHNEIDERMAN, ADAMS, BRESLIN, DUANE,
KRUEGER, OPPENHEIMER, PARKER, SAMPSON, SAVINO, STAVISKY, THOMPSON --
read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to
the Committee on Crime Victims, Crime and Correction -- reported
favorably from said committee and committed to the Committee on
Finance -- committee discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted as
amended and recommitted to said committee
IN ASSEMBLY -- Introduced by M. of A. GLICK, GOTTFRIED, PERRY, SPANO --
Multi-Sponsored by -- M. of A. CLARK, COLTON, DINOWITZ, JACOBS, JOHN,
O'DONNELL, SWEENEY, WEINSTEIN, WRIGHT -- read once and referred to the
Committee on Governmental Operations -- committee discharged, bill
amended, ordered reprinted as amended and recommitted to said commit-
tee
AN ACT to amend the executive law, in relation to eligibility of domes-
tic partners for compensation from the crime victims' board
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Paragraph (b) of subdivision 1 of section 624 of the execu-
2 tive law, as amended by chapter 427 of the laws of 1999, is amended to
3 read as follows:
4 (b) a surviving spouse or domestic partner, grandparent, parent, step-
5 parent, child or stepchild of a victim of a crime who died as a direct
6 result of such crime;
7 § 2. Section 624 of the executive law is amended by adding a new
8 subdivision 1-a to read as follows:
9 1-a. For the purposes of this section, "domestic partner" means a
10 person who, with respect to another person:
11 (a) is formally a party in a domestic partnership or similar relation-
12 ship with the other person, entered into pursuant to the laws of the
13 United States or of any state, local or foreign jurisdiction, or regis-
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
SA LBD04517-02-9
S. 1422--A 2 A. 4089--A
1 tered as the domestic partner of the other person with any registry
2 maintained by the employer of either party or any state, municipality,
3 or foreign jurisdiction; or
4 (b) is formally recognized as a beneficiary or covered person under
5 the other person's employment benefits or health insurance; or
6 (c) is dependent or mutually interdependent on the other person for
7 support, as evidenced by the totality of the circumstances indicating a
8 mutual intent to be a domestic partner including but not limited to:
9 common ownership or joint leasing of real or personal property; common
10 householding, shared income or shared expenses; children in common;
11 signs of intent to marry or become a domestic partner under paragraph
12 (a) or (b) of this subdivision; or the length of the personal relation-
13 ship of the persons.
14 § 3. Section 626 of the executive law is amended by adding a new
15 subdivision 4 to read as follows:
16 4. Out-of-pocket loss shall also include the cost of counseling for
17 surviving family members of homicide victims who are otherwise eligible
18 pursuant to paragraph (b) of subdivision one of section six hundred
19 twenty-four of this article.
20 § 4. This act shall take effect on the one hundred eightieth day after
21 it shall have become a law.
