Rejection of the widow's pension claim of a twice-divorced woman

Facts

[A.], born in 1947, married [B.] in June 1967 and had a son with him. They divorced in October 1977. [A.] remarried in July 1984 with M., from whom she divorced in November 1987. After the death of her first husband [B.] in March 1998, [A.] applied for a widow's pension from the Compensation Fund of the Canton of Bern, which was refused on the grounds that the duration of her last marriage was less than 10 years. [A.] appealed against this decision, but the Administrative Court of the Canton of Bern dismissed her appeal.

Considerations

According to the Federal Tribunal, although [A.] met the conditions of Art. 24a para. 1 let. a OASI at the time of her first divorce, she cannot claim a widow's pension due to the death of her first husband. Indeed, the assimilation of the divorced woman to the widow provided for in Art. 24a OASI only concerns the case where it is the last ex-husband who dies. The previous case law (ATF 116 V 67) therefore remains applicable, according to which the divorced woman who remarries while her ex-husband is…