S.F. man sues after late husband’s pension fund refuses benefits

Plaintiff Robert Pritchard, left, and his late husband, Thomas Conwell Plaintiff Robert Pritchard, left, and his late husband, Thomas Conwell Photo: National Center Lesbian Rights Photo: National Center Lesbian Rights Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close S.F. man sues after late husband’s pension fund refuses benefits 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

A gay San Francisco man sued his late husband’s union pension fund Friday for refusing to recognize their marriage and pay him a widower’s pension benefits.

Robert Pritchard, a hospice nurse, and Thomas Conwell, a hotel telecommunications engineer, wed in 2008 after the state Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage in California. When Conwell died of a brain disease in February 2012, the pension plan of his union, Stationary Engineers Local 39 of the International Union of Operating Engineers, told Pritchard that Conwell had been “single at the time of his retirement and death” under the plan’s terms.

But the lawsuit, filed in federal court in San Francisco, said the pension plan expressly defines a spouse as “a person to whom a participant is legally married,” without reference to gender.

Pension plan officials invoked the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which defined marriage as the union of a man and a woman and denied federal benefits to same-sex spouses. But Pritchard’s lawyers said DOMA hadn’t applied to private pension plans even before the U.S. Supreme Court declared the law unconstitutional in June 2013.

“While DOMA has been the source of extreme discrimination against LGBT people and their families, it provides absolutely no defense in this case,” said one of Pritchard’s lawyers, Amy Whelan of the National Center for Lesbian Rights.

In a statement released through his lawyers, Pritchard said, “My husband’s death is the worst thing that ever happened to me. ... My family is just like other families, and no one should be denied rights because of who they are.”

Lawyers for the pension fund could not immediately be reached for comment.

The couple met in 2005. They quickly became inseparable, their lawyers said, and worked together on historic preservation projects, including an unsuccessful effort to save the Sacred Heart Church in the Western Addition neighborhood.

Conwell had worked at the San Francisco Hilton Hotel for more than 30 years, as a union member, when he took disability retirement in July 2011. His lawyers said Pritchard accompanied him when he applied in person for a disability pension that month and made their marital status clear on the application form.

“Everybody knew they were married,” said attorney Julie Wilensky of the Civil Rights Education and Enforcement Center. “To be told (later) that they were single and to be denied benefits was traumatic.”

The plan paid Pritchard $14,641.52, the annuity Conwell was owed for the seven months between his retirement and his death, but denied him spousal benefits, the suit said. Wilensky said those benefits should amount to about $900 a month for the lifetime of Pritchard, who is in his mid-50s.

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @egelko