R002876
Tuesday, April 02, 2002 10:56 AM
Public Comment
Kenneth L. Zwick, Director
Office of Management Programs
Civil Division
U.S. Department of Justice
Main Building, Room 3140
950 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, DC 20530
Dear Mr. Zwick
I have read proposed regulations and the commentary concerning
eligibility procedures for compensation under the victim compensation law.
I am writing to urge you to change the approach concerning the
designation of personal representatives to enforce and receive compensation
as a result of the September 11 events.
The creation of the fund to manage airline liabilities, give sure
compensation to victims and avoid diversions of effort into investigations of
possible fault and legal liability are all worthwhile, but do not adequately
explain the best reason for this fund - to allow the entire country, in some
measure, to shoulder the burdens of this attack, and make tangible measure
that this was an assault on the entire country.
This means that the hallmark of the administration of the fund needs
to be practical justice and fairness, not tied to idiosyncratic issues of
local law and certainly not subject to varying outcomes based on extraneous
circumstances.
Unfortunately, the proposed approach fails these elemental questions
of fairness. You should adopt a federal standard, and use a broadly
inclusive federal definition of the critical person - the personal
representative. In particular, you should recognize the dignity and effect
of long-standing domestic partnership relationships, including gay and
lesbian relationships.
The proposal intends to use state law to find persons entitled to
compensation and use state law definitions, or equivalents, to define the
person entitled to administer compensation - the personal representative.
This would lead to varying results, even withi\n a state. In Maine,
for instance, creditors, including contractors, may qualify as personal
representatives of an estate. Domestic partners may register as long term
contracting parties in Portland, Maine's largest city, but not elsewhere.
Some county jurisdictions routinely approve adoption of children by gay
couples, while others have never done so. Personal representatives may be
nominated in a will.
Claims for wrongful death are maintained under Maine law by the
Personal Representative for the benefit of the heirs, not the devisees of a
will. This means the Personal Representative who is a domestic partner may
not be entitled to any portion of a claim, which must be distributed to
sometimes distant relatives instead.
The claims fund proceeds for an eligible individual are reduced by
collateral sources - these claims, for disability or death insurance,
survivor benefits, etc. are often contractual in nature with a named
beneficiary. The interplay of this with all of the other factors means that
individuals would have varying motivations to shop for forums where they are
advantaged in some way.
There are probably places in America which still define either
domestic partner or gay/lesbian relationships as meretricious or even
illegal. Millions of children are born each year in unmarried relationships.
Allowing the varying details of state and local laws to dictate how the
national purposes behind the victim compensation fund will function is not
sound.
The domestic partners and children of these murdered Americans deserve
to come first. No one was heard to quibble about their martial status or
living arrangements when so many of them sacrificed their lives to save
others.
Comment By:
James F. Cloutier, Esq.
City Councilor
Portland, Maine