Facts
The case concerns an insured person born in 1930, to whom the Disability Insurance Commission of the Canton of Bern granted a full disability pension, reduced by 30% according to Art. 7 of the Disability Insurance Act (IVG), on February 26, 1976. However, the Compensation Fund AGRAPI granted him an unreduced pension by decision of April 26, 1976, as it had overlooked the ordered reduction in benefits. In a revision procedure, the Disability Insurance Commission decided on February 22, 1978, to continue paying the insured person the full disability pension, reduced by 30% due to alcohol abuse. The Compensation Fund also overlooked this decision and continued to pay the unreduced pension. It was not until the Disability Insurance Commission ordered the 30% reduction due to alcohol abuse again on June 25, 1981, that the Compensation Fund noticed its error and ordered the retroactive reduction of the pension from August 1, 1976, as well as the reimbursement of the pension amounts wrongly paid during this period, totaling CHF 16,243.
Considerations
The Federal Supreme Court first had to clarify whether the revocation or reduction of the disability pension could be made retroactive and thus lead to a reimbursement claim. It specified its previous case law to the effect that the reconsideration of a previous decision generally entails the obligation to reimburse the benefits received unjustly (Art. 47 para. 1 AHVG in conjunction with Art. 49 IVG). An exception only applies if the error leading to the reconsideration occurred in the assessment of a specifically disability insurance-related aspect (Art. 85 para. 2 IVV).
In the present case, however, the error of the Compensation Fund was not made in the assessment of the pension reduction according to Art. 7 IVG, but in the implementation of the decision of the Disability Insurance Commission in a pension decision. Consequently, this was not a specifically disability insurance-related aspect, so…