On Monday, a District Court judge denied a request by FedEx to throw out a lawsuit by a woman seeking benefits following the death of her wife, a longtime employee.

A couple for more than 30 years, Stacey Schuett and Lesly Taboda-Hall lived in Sebastopol, California, with their two daughters. One day after they were married on June 19, 2013, Lesly died after a lengthy battle with uterine cancer.

She was a FedEx employee for 26 years at the time of her death, and her pension was fully vested.

But FedEx refuses to recognize Schuett as her surviving spouse. Their claim is that because DOMA was in effect when they wed, it still applies.

But the Defense of Marriage Act was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court just months after Lesly's death, meaning federally-regulated retirement plans were required to recognize legal same-sex marriages.

"My wife earned her benefits during her decades of service to the company," said Schuett. "No employer should be permitted to ignore our families and refuse to provide the hard-earned benefits of dedicated and skilled employees like Lesly."

Her case has been taken up by the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), Feinberg Jackson Worthman & Wasow, the Civil Rights Education and Enforcement Center, and the Birnie Law Office.

NCLR attorney Amy Whelan says companies should be celebrating DOMA's demise, "not trying to resurrect it for widows of FedEx employees who are fighting to receive the basic benefits their spouses earned during decades of service."