SAN FRANCISCO -- The California Supreme Court gave a green light Thursday for four men to go ahead with a lawsuit against a Los Angeles nightclub for allegedly charging higher admission prices for men than for women.

The four men claimed the Century Supper Club in the Century City district of Los Angeles charged them $20 for admission while charging women $15 or admitting them for free on several occasions in 2002.

The court, in a ruling issued in San Francisco, said the men did not need to have asked for the lower price given to women in order to proceed with their Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit.

Instead, the panel said, the fact that they paid the allegedly higher price was enough to permit the lawsuit based on two California anti-discrimination laws.

Chief Justice Ronald George wrote, "Each plaintiff presented himself for admittance, paid the price of admission and entered the establishment."

George said for a unanimous court, "It cannot be said that defendant had no duty to refrain from discriminating under these circumstances."

The ruling allows the lawsuit to go to trial in Superior Court. It overturns a decision in which the Court of Appeal in Los Angeles dismissed the case in 2005, saying the men could sue only if they had actually requested the lower fee and been refused.

The lead plaintiff in the case is Marc Angelucci, a Glendale lawyer who heads the Los Angeles chapter of the National Coalition of Free Men, a group that fights gender discrimination against men. The other plaintiffs are Edgar Pacas, Elton Campbell and Jeff Kent.

The state laws under which the case was filed are the Unruh Civil Rights Act and the Gender Tax Repeal Act.

The Unruh law requires business establishments to provide equal accommodations regardless of factors such as sex, race and religion.

George wrote in the court's decision that a gender-based discount is in itself a denial of equal treatment that triggers the application of the law.