Facts
The case concerns the question of whether the social welfare office of the City of Zurich is entitled to third-party payment of retroactive disability insurance benefits. L., born in 1930 and deceased on July 1, 1992, had registered with the disability insurance for benefit entitlement on October 15, 1985. By decisions dated April 6, 1994, the compensation fund awarded her a half disability pension from September 1, 1986 and a full disability pension from April 1, 1988 to July 31, 1992. The social welfare office of the City of Zurich requested that the retroactive pension payments be transferred to it for offsetting against the social assistance benefits provided. The compensation fund rejected this request.
Considerations
The Federal Insurance Court first examined the applicability of Article 85bis of the Ordinance on Disability Insurance (IVV), which bears the marginal title "Retroactive payments to third-party providers". It concluded that this provision, which entered into force on January 1, 1994, is applicable in the present case in terms of intertemporal law. Article 85bis IVV grants the institutions mentioned in paragraph 1, which have provided advance payments, a claim to have the retroactive pension payment paid out to them up to the amount of their advance payments.
In terms of norm control law, the court considered Article 85bis IVV to be in accordance with the law and the constitution. The provision is a coordination norm between disability insurance and…