Kornowicz v. Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Western NY

Case Status

Open

Case Description

Supreme Court, Erie County, Index No. I-2008-7844 (direct)

The NYCLU filed this case after an insurance company in the Buffalo area denied spousal health care benefits to a validly married lesbian couple.

Jeanne Kornowicz, a school psychologist at the Cheektowaga Central School District, asked her employer to provide health coverage for her wife, Joy Higgins, whom she married in Canada in 2006. She filed for the benefits in February after learning of the NYCLU’s victory in Martinez v. County of Monroe, in which an appeals court unanimously ruled that New York State must recognize valid out-of-state marriages of lesbian and gay couples.

The school district repeatedly asked its insurance carrier, Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Western New York, to grant Kornowicz’s request for spousal coverage. The insurance company refused to comply with the terms of its contract with the district and its legal obligations, as articulated in the Martinez decision, to provide spousal coverage.

Plaintiffs argued that under the Martinez ruling, the insurance company’s denial of Kornowicz’s request for benefits violates New York’s “marriage recognition rule.” It also violates the prohibition against sex discrimination set forth in the state's Human Rights Law.

Serving as counsel on the case are Matt Faiella, Palyn Hung, Arthur Eisenberg, Christopher Dunn and cooperating attorney Richard Lipsitz.

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