Facts
The appellant X. was checked in a tram of the Zurich municipal transport company (VBZ) on January 10, 2007, as he only had a ticket valid from 9 a.m. onwards. He then received a payment slip with the request to pay a surcharge of CHF 80.-. After unsuccessful objections and appeals at the cantonal level, X. filed a "constitutional appeal" to the Federal Supreme Court.
The Federal Supreme Court examined whether the submission met the requirements of one of the types of appeals under the Federal Supreme Court Act. It concluded that the surcharge is of a private law nature and therefore does not fall under public law. Thus, neither the appeal in public law matters nor the civil law appeal is admissible.
However, the appellant has the subsidiary constitutional appeal open, as no other appeal under the Federal Supreme Court Act is admissible.
Considerations
The Federal Supreme Court states that the surcharge serves to remunerate the control effort on the part of the transport company and is therefore of a civil law nature. Even though the surcharge has a legal basis in the…