Senate Bill S215

                                BILL NUMBER:S215

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 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:
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 commitment 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
subdivision 4 to provide that out of pocket loss shall include the
lost 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 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, 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 201, (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
relationship 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
roommates". 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
interdependent 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 Government 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
2009-10: S.1422A/A.4089A (Passed Assembly)
2012:    REFERRED TO CRIME VICTIMS, CRIME AND CORRECTION

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.