SACRAMENTO -- Registered domestic partners will continue to get the same tax benefits as married couples who transfer property under a recent court ruling that upheld a 2003 decision granting that right.

The ruling last week by the Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Jack Sapunor upheld the California Board of Equalization decision to extend to domestic partners a property tax exemption originally written for spouses.

Under tax code dating back to 1979, people who inherit property after the death of their spouses are exempt from the category of "change in ownership," which would subject them to reassessment of the property's value.

The board's rule change was inspired by several cases in which surviving partners were forced to sell their homes because they couldn't afford to pay the higher taxes once the property was reassessed.

But county tax assessors who opposed the rule change sued last year, fearing it could invite tax cheating and cut revenue. They argued that the board's decision was unconstitutional because domestic partners were not included in the original tax law passed by voters.

Sapunor rejected that argument, in part citing a law that since was passed by state lawmakers that explicitly granted property transfer rights to domestic partners. The law -- authored by state Sen. Carole Migden, D-San Francisco, who also had spearheaded the board's decision as its then-chairwoman -- took effect in January.

Shannon Minter, an attorney who represented Equality California, one of the intervening defendants in the lawsuit, called it "a significant victory" for gay rights.

"We're very relieved that the court affirmed this commonsense and humanitarian rule," he said Friday.

Attorneys for the lead plaintiff, Sutter County Tax Assessor Michael Strong, did not return a call for comment.