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Supreme Court judgment gives further recognition to rights of cohabiting partners
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The ever-developing law for cohabiting partners took another step forward after a landmark ruling in the Supreme Court allowed an unmarried woman’s appeal to receive a survivor’s pension from her deceased partner’s public sector pension scheme.
In
Re Brewster for Judicial Review (Northern Ireland) [2017] UKSC 8 the appellant Ms Denies Brewster resided with her partner Mr William Leonard McMullan at their jointly owned home in Coleraine Northern Ireland for some 10 years. The couple became engaged on Christmas Eve 2009 and tragically only 2 days later Mr McMullan died unexpectedly at the age of 43. Mr McMullan had no children and died intestate.
For 15 years prior to his death Mr McMullan was employed by Translink Northern Ireland’s public transport service. During his employment with Translink Mr McMullan paid in to his Local Government Pension Scheme administered by the statutory body NILGOSC. The pension scheme was administered pursuant to the Local Government Pension Scheme (Benefits Membership and Contributions) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2009 (the 2009 Regulations). The Department of the Environment for Northern Ireland (DENI) is responsible for...
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