TOWNLEY v. THE UNITED KINGDOM
Inadmissible
David Thór Björgvinsson;Giovanni Bonello;Lech Garlicki;Ledi Bianku;Nicolas Bratza;Stanislav Pavlovschi
The applicant, Mr John Townley, is a British national who was born in 1942 and lives in Liverpool. He was represented before the Court by Royds Rdw, solicitors in London. The United Kingdom Government (“the Government”) were represented by their Agent, Mr C. Whomersley of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The facts of the case, as submitted by the parties, may be summarised as follows. The applicant’s wife died on 8 February 1991. On 11 January 2002, the applicant made a claim for widows’ benefits. On 16 January 2002 he was informed that his claim had been disallowed as he was not a woman. On 7 February 2002 the applicant made a request for reconsideration. On 13February 2002 the applicant was informed that the legislation had not changed and that he was not eligible for such benefits. He subsequently appealed against this decision. On 10 April 2002 he was advised that his appeal had been struck out because it had been introduced out of time. The applicant did not appeal further as he considered or was advised that such a remedy would be bound to fail since no such social security benefit was payable to widowers under United Kingdom law. The applicant was not in receipt of child benefit at the time of his claim. The domestic law relevant to this application is set out in Runkee and White v. the United Kingdom, no. 42949/98, §§ 40-41, 25 July 2007 and Hobbs, Richard, Walsh and Geen v. the United Kingdom, nos. 63684/00, 63475/00, 63484/00 and 63468/00, judgment of 26 March 2007.