The Christian owners of a Cornish guesthouse who were sued over their policy of restricting double rooms to married couples have won permission to take their case to the Supreme Court.
Peter and Hazelmary Bull’s double room policy has been in place since they opened the Chymorvah guesthouse in 1986.
The policy, which stems from their deep-rooted Christian faith, has been consistently applied to all unmarried couples whether homosexual or heterosexual.
Sued
The Bulls were sued by Martyn Hall and Steven Preddy, a gay couple in a civil partnership.
Mr Hall and Mr Preddy were denied double bed accommodation at the guesthouse in September 2008, and brought a claim of sexual orientation discrimination.
Their legal case against the Bulls was paid for by the taxpayer-funded Equality and Human Rights Commission.
Defends
The Bulls’ legal defence was funded by The Christian Institute, a national charity which defends the religious liberty of Christians.
In January 2011 Bristol County Court ruled that the Bulls had broken equality laws, and ordered them to pay £3,600 in damages.
However, the judge accepted that his ruling did affect the Bulls’ right to religious liberty and allowed an appeal.
Hearing
In February three judges in the Court of Appeal upheld the County Court’s ruling that the guesthouse policy breached equality laws.
No date has been set for the hearing at the UK Supreme Court.