Court rules elderly sisters are not legal couple

STRASBOURG, France (Reuters) - Two elderly British sisters who have always lived together lost a legal appeal on Tuesday to win the same inheritance rights as couples.

Joyce and Sybil Burden -- born in 1918 and 1925 -- have spent decades fighting British rules which mean that when one of them dies, the other will face a large inheritance tax bill and may be forced to sell their home in southern England.

The sisters took their case to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg after a 2004 British law which gave gay and lesbian couples the same rights as married heterosexual couples to be able to pass property tax-free between partners.

The pair argued cohabiting family members should have the same rights but the European Court rejected their case by a 15-2 vote, upholding a ruling made in December.

In a written ruling, the court said the sisters' relationship was not legally binding and did not therefore carry the same weight in the eyes of the law.

"The absence of such a legally binding agreement between the applicants rendered their relationship of co-habitation, despite its long duration, fundamentally different from that of a married or civil partnership couple," the court said.

"The fact that the applicants had chosen to live together all their adult lives did not alter that essential difference between the two types of relationship."

The sisters have no further avenue of appeal.

(Reporting by Gilbert Reilhac, writing by Crispian Balmer; Editing by Robert Woodward)