Facts
[T.] held the position of chairman of the board of directors of X. SA, a company affiliated with the Compensation Fund of the Canton of Ticino. As the company was in default with the payment of the parity contributions, the Fund had to serve a notice and a writ of execution on the company. X. SA was dissolved by a shareholders' resolution on August 7, 2001. The Fund claimed damages of CHF 65,691.70 from [T.], with joint and several liability with the other members of the board of directors. [T.] objected, noting that the company in liquidation had not been placed "in a state of bankruptcy or lack of assets" and that damages could only be claimed in such circumstances. The Fund therefore waived the implementation of the contested decision, but reserved the right to bring an action for damages against the company's governing bodies if the prerequisites were met in the future.
With the absence of realizable assets, X. SA was ex officio deregistered on March 10/14, 2003. The deregistration was revoked one week later, before being definitively confirmed on April 21/27, 2004. By decision of January 20, 2006, the Fund again approached [T.], asking him to pay damages of CHF 60,743.75 for the loss caused by the non-payment of contributions for the period 2000 - June 2001.
Considerations
The Federal Tribunal dismissed the Fund's appeal. It considered that the administrative decision of July 3, 2002 had not become res judicata, as the Fund had not brought legal action within 30 days of becoming aware of the objection, as prescribed by the applicable regulations at the time. The Fund had in fact annulled this decision by the communication of August 30, 2002, waiving the implementation of the decision and reserving the possibility of subsequently bringing the correct…