Citing Supreme Court, Judge Awards Benefits To Same-Sex Widow

[DriftingCrow]

http://www.npr.org/2013/07/30/207057223/citing-supreme-court-judge-awards-benefits-to-same-sex-widow?sc=tw
Source: NPR Author: Nina Totenberg

"Another barrier to recognition of same-sex marriage appears to have fallen. On Monday a federal judge ordered a law firm to pay survivor's benefits to the widow in a same-sex marriage, and on Tuesday the law firm said it was happy to comply and would not appeal. The decision is the latest in a series of court rulings equalizing benefits for legally married same-sex couples in the aftermath of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling."

"Tobits and Ellyn Farley, a litigator at Cozen O'Connor, were married in Canada in 2006, and their marriage was recognized under Illinois law. But when Farley died of cancer four years later at the age of 37, her parents told her employer that they, not Tobits, should receive the $40,000 in death benefits under the firm's profit-sharing plan." The firm filed papers in 2011 saying that DOMA prevented the widow from receiving the benefits.