Where Do We Draw the Line? Euro Court Rules

Where do we draw the line? Sisterhood is a weak argument, said the European court nixing a claim of two sisters to be treated the same as two lesbians in law:

"Elderly Spinster Sisters Lose Bid For Inclusion In UK Gay Partner Law
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff

Two elderly sisters who live together have lost their final appeal in a discrimination case that claimed they were victims of discrimination under Britain's civil partner law.

Joyce Burden, 90, and her 82-year-old sister Sybil (pictured) claimed that the partner law should have included any two people living in an interdependent relationship.

By not being included in the law they claim they could lose the their family home if either of them dies because the other could not afford to keep the home and pay Britain's death duty tax.

The women fought their case all the way to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

On Tuesday the court in 15-2 ruling rejected their claim.

In arguments before the justices an attorney for the women argued that the taxes would be unfair since unmarried same-sex couples are exempt from the tax under the civil partnership law.

The court was told that the law breached their human rights under the European convention.

The civil partnership law was passed in 2004. It grants same-sex couple of all of the rights and obligations of marriage except the name.

When the case began in 2006, Joyce Burden said that "If we were lesbians we would have all the rights in the world. But we are sisters, and it seems we have no rights at all."

In UK law there is a 40 percent inheritance tax an exemption for the first $500,000. Married couples, and couples in civil partnerships, are exempt from the tax.
The sisters’ house cost about $14,000 to build in 1965 but was recently valued last at about $1.6 million. That would mean the surviving sister would be required to pay nearly $600,000 in death tax.

Both women live on their social security.

The women have lost the case through the British legal legal system, including an appeal to the House of Lords.

A panel of seven judges on the European court in a split decision also ruled against them. The ruling by the Grand Chamber was their last stop."

posted by maggie at 10:36 AM | link

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