Fair death could become civil rights issue

INDIANAPOLIS, Oct. 4 (UPI) -- Indiana's top attorney said he won't raise civil union issues defending the state against a woman suing after her partner died at the Indiana State Fair.

Alisha Brennon, a Chicago woman whose same-sex partner, Christina Santiago, was killed when a stage collapsed at the state fairgrounds, filed three lawsuits seeking damages for the death of Santiago, one of seven people who died in the incident.

Illinois allows same-sex unions but Indiana does not and does not recognize same-sex unions from other states.

Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller said he would seek dismissal of the case, "but not on the basis of a civil union," he told the Chicago Tribune in an e-mail.

"We generally believe it will be up to the Legislature to decide whether to rewrite the laws concerning liability and beneficiaries, and up to the courts to decide how to interpret those laws," Zoeller said.

Two of Brennon's lawsuits seek damages from concert organizers and security. The third, filed in federal case, challenges Indiana's $5 million cap on damages.

As the lawsuits wend through Indiana and federal courts, one of the defendants or a judge likely will ask whether Brennon's and Santiago's civil union was legal once they crossed from Illinois into Indiana, law experts told the Tribune.

"It's an inevitable legal battle," said Andrew Koppelman, a family law professor at Northwestern University Law School. "It has to happen. They're going to give her money as this woman's spouse, so someone has to say whether you get to give it to her or not."

The issue could be raised by a judge or by one of the other defendants trying to use the civil union issue to win a dismissal, Koppelman said.

Donald Gjerdingen, a professor at Indiana University Law School, said any of the lawsuits Brennon filed likely will morph from a wrongful death case into a civil rights matter.

"There are just so many ways this issue could be raised," Gjerdingen said. "As a case, it is just a perfect example of the issues that come up because of the patchwork of laws that we have and the federal Defense of Marriage Act that took effect in the 1990s."