Supreme Court refuses secretary of state permission to appeal CANDEY Court of Appeal win

CANDEY successfully defended Ms Langford in an application brought by the Secretary of State for Defence for permission to appeal the decision of the Court of Appeal concerning Ms Langford’s rights to a pension and compensation following the death of her partner. Lords Wilson, Briggs and Kitchin held that the Government’s appeal failed to raise an arguable point of law.

This decision followed our successful appeal to the Court of Appeal in July 2019. Ms Langford’s appeal to the Court of Appeal concerned Article 30 of the Armed Forces and Reserve Forces (Compensation Scheme) Order 2011, which confers benefits on surviving adult dependants of deceased members of the scheme. The point in issue was the human rights compatibility of a rule – widely replicated across other public sector pension and compensation schemes – that a surviving adult dependant is disentitled from those benefits if he or she remains formally married to an ex-partner. Ms Langford contended that the Rule was discriminatory within the meaning of Article 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights (‘ECHR’) read with Article 1 of the First Protocol (‘A1P1’). She relied on the Supreme Court’s judgment in Brewster v Northern Ireland Local Government Officers’ Superannuation Committee [2017] 1 WLR 519 (‘Brewster’), in which it was held that a rule requiring unmarried partners to be formally nominated was unlawful on the grounds of unjustified discrimination.

This decision brings an end to nearly 10 years of litigation for Ms Langford.