Facts
On October 22, 1994, A. suffered a whiplash injury in a traffic accident. Since then, he has been receiving a full disability pension from the Disability Insurance as well as a supplementary pension for his spouse and child pensions. The Accident Insurance granted him a disability pension from 1997 onwards. A. sued the responsible insurance company X. for damages. The High Court of the Canton of Lucerne ordered X. to pay A. an amount of CHF 273,027.40 plus interest.
A. filed an appeal with the Federal Supreme Court and claimed a total of CHF 635,942.- plus interest. The insurance company and the High Court requested the dismissal of the appeal with costs.
Considerations
The Federal Supreme Court states that the time of the damaging event is decisive for the applicability of the General Part of the Social Insurance Law (ATSG). Therefore, the coordination rules of the individual social insurance laws in force at the time apply in the present case.
The Federal Supreme Court notes that overcompensation of the injured party should be avoided. For this purpose, third-party benefits are only to be credited if they are related to the event, materially, temporally and personally congruent. Crediting of social insurance benefits that do not relate to the same period as the damage is not permissible, as the required temporal congruence is lacking.
Regarding the crediting of disability pensions from the Accident Insurance…