LONDON, April 29 (UPI)

Two elderly sisters in Britain lost a long legal fight Tuesday against inheritance taxes that could cost the survivor their house when one of them dies.

The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg ruled 15-2 that the British inheritance tax system does not discriminate against Joyce and Sybil Burden. The sisters argued that they were denied equal treatment because married couples and gay partners in their situation do not have to pay inheritance tax.

The sisters, now 90 and 82, have lived their entire lives in the same house in Marlborough in Wiltshire. If one dies before the other, the survivor would have to pay an inheritance tax of 40 percent of the value above 300,000 pounds ($600,000). The tax would be collected again when the surviving sister dies.

The Burdens began a letter-writing campaign in the 1970s. They went to the European court after Britain adopted a law in 2004 that gives registered gay couples the same inheritance rights as married couples.

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