Facts
The case concerns a compensation fund that asserted a claim for damages under Art. 52 AHVG against one of its affiliated employers in bankruptcy proceedings. The compensation fund did not attend the two creditors' meetings on June 2, 1992 and November 11, 1992.
The Federal Supreme Court had to assess whether the compensation fund had reasonable knowledge of the occurrence of the damage on June 2, 1992, so that the one-year preclusion period under Art. 82 para. 1 AHVV was triggered on that date. The compensation fund's damage compensation order of June 22, 1993 would then have been late.
Considerations
The Federal Supreme Court affirmed the compensation fund's reasonable knowledge of the damage on June 2, 1992. Although the compensation fund had not attended this creditors' meeting and therefore had no actual knowledge of the proceedings discussed there, according to established case law, it is the reasonable knowledge of the damage that is decisive, not the actual knowledge.
The Federal Supreme Court stated that it would have been reasonable for the compensation fund as a creditor to send a representative to the creditors' meeting. The compensation fund is obliged to follow the course of the bankruptcy proceedings and to take note of the filing of the collocation plan and the inventory. Therefore, its reasonable knowledge of the damage was to be affirmed on June 2, 1992.
Furthermore, the Federal Supreme Court found that a partial damage for the compensation fund would have been objectively recognizable on June 2,…