Court Upholds Virginia Governor's Right to Intervene in Hugh Finn Case

By Liz Townsend

One of the continuing court cases stemming from the death of Hugh Finn, the man with severe disabilities who died in 1998 when his wife ordered his feeding tube removed, was resolved March 3 when the Virginia Supreme Court upheld Gov. James Gilmore's right to intervene in the case, even though his efforts were unsuccessful.

"Today, the court acknowledged my duty to protect the general welfare of all citizens of the Commonwealth," Gilmore said in a statement after the ruling was announced. "This decision reinforces my belief that all Virginians deserve equal protection under the law."

Family members who opposed the feeding tube withdrawal said they were pleased with the decision. "It made my whole day," Finn's father Thomas told NRL News. "The governor went out on a limb for us; it was so good to have him win."

Finn's mother Joan agreed. "It's a positive step for the citizens of Virginia to know they can count on the governor for help in questionable cases," she said.

Hugh Finn died on October 9, 1998, after starving and dehydrating for eight days without a feeding tube. His wife Michele Finn asked for the tube removal in June 1998, three years after Finn was severely injured in a car crash in Louisville, Kentucky. Finn was moved to the Annaburg Manor nursing home in Manassas, Virginia, in February 1996 so he could be near his parents and siblings, according to the Washington Post.

Although members of Finn's family vehemently opposed his wife's request, Circuit Court Judge Frank A. Hoss ruled August 31 that Hugh Finn's feeding tube could be removed. Hoss's decision was based on doctors' testimony that Finn was in a "persistent vegetative state" (PVS) and that there was "clear and convincing" evidence he would not want to remain alive in that condition, according to the Post.

Thomas Finn continues to insist that Hugh was aware of his environment and that he did not want to die. He spent five and a half hours with his son every day at Annaburg Manor, giving him a shave, brushing his teeth, and making sure he was being well cared for.

Finn told NRL News that Hugh occasionally responded to the people around him. "He would make noises when people would say the rosary," Finn recalled. "We sometimes got other responses- not every day, but sometimes."

When he told Hugh that Michele Finn was trying to have his feeding tube removed, "Hugh's face turned dark red, his mouth went up to a point, and his hands shook," Finn said. "I tried to calm him down for 45 minutes. He knew he was being put to death."

Gilmore filed an emergency appeal October 1, but both Hoss and then the state Supreme Court denied it. Gilmore's petition was based on two factors: that testimony showed that Finn may not have been in a persistent vegetative state, and that even if he was,

"he is nevertheless not dying," Gilmore said in his appeal, according to the Associated Press. "On the contrary, the manifest purpose and effect of denying him food and water is to initiate a dying process not previously present."

However, the Supreme Court ruled that Finn was in a persistent vegetative state and that under Virginia law PVS patients are considered to be terminally ill; therefore, removing their feeding tubes "merely permits the natural process of dying" and is therefore legal, the Post reported.

On November 5, 1998, less than a month after her husband's death, Michele Finn filed a lawsuit asking for compensation for her court costs and punitive sanctions against the governor and other state officials. The lawsuit described Gilmore's emergency petition to stop the feeding tube withdrawal as "ill-advised, improvident, and spurious," according to a case summary in the Supreme Court decision. Mrs. Finn claimed the governor was motivated by purely political reasons and that he had no standing to interfere in the case.

Judge Hoss, the same judge who ordered Hugh Finn's feeding tube removed, ruled on November 25, 1998, that Gilmore's suit was "not warranted by existing law" and that any challenge to the law should be "made in the political arena and not in the court, certainly not in the manner that it was done in this case." He awarded Michele Finn $13,124.20 for court costs but denied her request for punitive sanctions.

However, the unanimous state Supreme Court rejected Michele Finn's arguments and reversed Hoss's decision, ruling that the governor has a duty to intervene if he has a reasonable, good faith legal basis for suspecting that a citizen's rights may be threatened. The court found that the legal theory behind Gilmore's lawsuit was "not totally without merit," even though it was rejected by the court, and therefore the governor had a legitimate reason for filing suit and is not liable for Michele Finn's court costs.

(There is one more court case resulting from the Finn case that has not been resolved. A lawsuit is still pending over a 1999 bill passed by the Virginia state legislature awarding Michele Finn $48,000 and John Finn, Hugh Finn's brother who opposed the feeding tube removal, $10,000 for their legal costs. The money has not yet been paid due to a taxpayers' lawsuit challenging the "appropriateness" of the payments, according to the Post.)

In his statement after the ruling, Gilmore acknowledged the pain felt by Hugh Finn's family. "Hugh Finn's parents, brother, and other relatives, and even the close relatives of Michele Finn, have suffered tremendous loss and endured emotionally difficult times," Gilmore said. "I sincerely hope this ruling will help heal their wounds and help them to move on with their lives."

The Finns still believe they were right to fight for Hugh's life and they continue to grieve for their son. "I pray to God that no one else has to face this," said Joan Finn. "It was hard to have strife within the family, but we knew that if we didn't do anything we would always feel guilty."

"I will never get over it," Thomas Finn insisted. "During the night I just get up and think of Hugh. He was a part of me and my wife, but we couldn't do anything to stop his death. I would hate to see anyone else go through what we did."