Information Note on the Court’s case-law 17
April 2000
Cornwell v. the United Kingdom - 36578/97
Judgment 25.4.2000 [Section III]
Article 14
Discrimination
Allowance available only to widows: friendly settlement
[This summary also covers the judgment of the case Leary v. the United Kingdom, no. 38890/97, 25 April 2000.]
The applicants are widowers who were refused widows' benefits on the ground that such benefits were available only to widows and not to widowers.
The Government have reached a friendly settlement with each of the applicants whereby they will pay to the applicants, respectively, £11,904.60 and £12,226.20, being the sums to which they would have been entitled for the relevant period if they had been widows. Furthermore, the applicants will receive, on an extra-statutory basis, the amounts they would have received if they had been widows, until the entry into force of new legislation which will grant equal treatment to widowers.
© Council of Europe/European Court of Human Rights
This summary by the Registry does not bind the Court.
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