1. What was the plaintiff’s claim in the intermediate appellate court?
2. What was the appellate court’s decision?
3. What rationale did the court give for its decision?

Lifson, J.
The underlying facts of this case are not in dispute. After many years of living together in an exclusive intimate relationship, Neil Conrad Spicehandler (hereinafter Conrad) and John Langan endeavored to formalize their relationship by traveling to Vermont in November 2000 and entering into a civil union. They returned to New York and continued their close, loving, committed, monogamous relationship as a family unit in a manner indistinguishable from any traditional marital relationship.