Facts
The present case concerns the question of whether the defendant can claim integrity compensation for the accident-related reduction in visual acuity of the right eye. The dispute is whether the uncorrected or the - by means of glasses or contact lenses - corrected visual acuity should be used in determining the integrity damage.
The lower court decided that the uncorrected visual acuity is decisive. The Swiss Accident Insurance Fund (SUVA) argued that in the case of correction of a reduction in visual acuity by glasses or contact lenses with the effect of normal vision, there can be no talk of a severe impairment of physical integrity.
Considerations
The Federal Supreme Court decided that the wording of Art. 24 para. 1 ATIA is clear: The claim to integrity compensation requires that the insured person suffers a permanent and significant impairment of physical or mental integrity as a result of the accident. Whether this impairment can be more or less completely compensated by an aid is irrelevant. The integrity compensation is intended to compensate for non-material disadvantages, regardless of the possibility of compensation by means of aids.
The arguments of SUVA, according to which a deviation from the principle of abstract and egalitarian assessment of integrity compensation is postulated…