Gay Man Should Get Partner's Pension, Eu Court Says

[LaoPo]

Gay Man Should Get Partner's Pension, EU Court Says (Update1)

By Stephanie Bodoni

April 1 (Bloomberg) -- A gay man can claim a share of his dead partner's pension if the circumstances of their relationship are comparable to marriage, the European Union's highest court ruled in a case that could help define the rights of same-sex couples in parts of Europe.

Tadao Maruko, a 65-year-old German who has waged a three- year fight for his partner's life savings, argued he was discriminated against by a pension fund that refused to recognize the couple's partnership on par with marriage. The European Court of Justice today stopped short of setting a precedent for same-sex couples across the 27-nation EU, leaving the final say in each case to national courts.

``The refusal to grant the survivor's pension to life partners constitutes direct discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation if surviving spouses and surviving life partners are in a comparable situation as regards that pension,'' ruled the Luxembourg-based EU court. The ruling means national courts in Europe must check whether the conditions identified by the court have been met.

Different Approaches

The ruling may help align the different approaches to civil partnerships and marriages in the EU. With the exception of a few countries, such as France and Austria, the decision will affect the rights of same-sex couples in most EU countries, said Maruko's lawyer Helmut Graupner. The present system is a ``mosaic'' of laws, he said at a hearing last year.

Same-sex couples can't be denied the right to their dead partner's pension on the grounds that they aren't a married couple in those countries that offer life or civil partnership for gay couples and similar rights to spouses for a survivor's benefits, the EU court ruled today.

``After this decision Mr. Maruko will for sure get the pension,'' said Graupner today in a telephone interview. ``There's no other way.''

Lawyers for the German pension fund didn't agree with Graupner's view that the decision was clear-cut. The EU court wouldn't have left it up to the national courts to decide if it had wanted to change the present system, Andreas Bartosch, a lawyer at Haver & Mailaender, said in an interview at the court today.

German Court

``It leaves the door open for national pension funds to continue making their own decisions'' on a case by case basis, said Bartosch.

After Maruko's partner, a costume designer, died in 2005, the German theater pension fund in charge of the savings told Maruko that only married couples have a right to a widower's pension. The German court dealing with Maruko's appeal asked the EU tribunal whether civil partnerships should be included and, if not, whether it qualified as discrimination.

The ruling will affect mainly those EU nations that treat the civil unions of gay couples similarly to marriages, such as in the U.K. Graupner said today that it won't have the same effect in France or Luxembourg where gay unions aren't seen as being equal to marriage, or in Austria, where only marriage between a man and a woman is legally recognized.

The case is C-267/06 Tadao Maruko v. Versorgungsanstalt der deutschen Buehnen.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=206...mp;refer=europe

Note:

A male friend of mine officially married (in his EU country) his Thai boyfriend just to make sure this bf was secured of his pension in case he should die earlier than the Thai bf.

But, it can work two ways as 2 days ago I heard of another gay marriage where the foreign boyfriend (non Thai) divorced his 'husband' knowing he had his citizenship, after 5 years... Thank you very much....

It's not only the Farang man marrying a Thai girl facing problems, sometimes.

LaoPo

[Ijustwannateach]

This is going to raise all sorts of interesting questions. I'm not opposed to it in principle, but it may not make economic sense (and so though it benefits those who fall under the ruling now, it may mean that fewer persons get pensions later).

I think a better check (for gay OR straight) would be a "years served" test for the partner- in other words, to qualify for the pension after the partner's death, the other partner must have been demonstrably in the marriage-like relationship at least 20 years or so, or from a time dating before the partner's retirement and collection of the pension. That prevents the moral hazard of, say, the 90-year-old pensioner marrying a younger woman (or man) and dying a year or two later, leaving the state owing that person decades and decades of pension payments.

"S"

[LaoPo]

I didn't read it yet, but here is another article, this time from the BBC, on the same subject: (with sub links on the right hand side)

EU backs gay man's pension rights

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7324824.stm

LaoPo