HIV-gay bigotry, wrongful death and the ADA

Appalling and legally interesting. From GayCityNews:

Claude Green was driving his truck in Welch on June 21, 2005, with Billy Snead as a passenger, when he suddenly suffered heart failure. Snead was able to guide the truck to a stop and administer CPR, reviving Green who gasped for breath. While Snead continued to minister to Green, Chief Bowman arrived at the scene and physically pulled Snead away from Green, exclaiming that Green was HIV-positive.

Bowman called 911 for an ambulance and blocked Snead from attempting to resume attending to Green. When the ambulance arrived, Bowman told the emergency workers that Green was HIV-positive, which they recorded, but it appears that they attempted CPR while driving him to the hospital. Bowman also went to the hospital and informed the emergency staff there that Green was HIV-positive. Green died shortly after reaching the hospital from heart disease.

Green was not HIV-positive.

Note, first, that Green died in June of 2005. This case has been waiting judgment for a long time now.

What the federal judge ruled:

Judge Faber's analysis was lengthy, complicated by the fact that the U.S. Supreme Court has not definitely resolved all the relevant issues. He concluded that due process and equal protection claims resulting from the death of somebody because of civil rights violations committed by a government actor could be brought under federal civil rights statute, and furthermore that the Americans With Disabilities Act claim also survived to the extent it arose from denial of services to a person with a disability.

Green alleged that her son qualified as a person with a disability because Bowman wrongly perceived him to be HIV-positive.

Faber's opinion noted that there was no indication anywhere in the court record that administering CPR to an HIV-positive person would present any special risk of transmission, casting doubt on what would undoubtedly be the defendants' main theory of justification for Bowman's actions in blocking care for Green.

Significant issues remain to be sorted out in this litigation, but at this initial stage, Faber's ruling permits the case to go forward on the basis that the estate may have a valid federal civil rights claim against the city and Bowman for the way in which Green was treated on the day of his fatal heart attack.