On July 2 Superior Court jury in Stamford Connecticut awarded $2.45 million for the estate of Margaret Mueller who died as a result of a wrong cancer diagnosis by doctors at the Stamford Hospital. The suit alleged the defendant M.D. wrongly diagnosed Ms. Mueller with ovarian cancer when in fact she had appendix cancer. As a result Ms. Mueller was subjected to three and a half years of useless intravenous ovarian cancer chemotherapy and was deprived of the correct treatment for her appendix cancer which progressed untreated. Ms. Mueller died of her cancer in January 2009. She was 62.
The case is the first in which a same-sex partner sought loss of companionship damages for losing her civil union partner (known in the law as loss of consortium). That claim, brought by Margaret’s partner Charlotte Stacey, was dismissed prior to trial on the basis that Ms. Stacey and Ms. Mueller were not recognized partners at the time of the wrong diagnosis.
The Norwalk couple, who had been domestic partners since 1985, joined in a civil union ceremony in November 2005. In April of 2005 Governor Rell had signed Connecticut’s Civil Union Statute, which came into effect that October. The trial lasted for three weeks, and the jury deliberated for two and a half days before reaching its verdict.
Of the $2.45 million, 55% of the finding was against the defendant M.D., and 45% was against a former defendant who entered into a confidential settlement prior to trial.
