Facts
A., a trained vehicle mechanic born in 1975, applied to the Disability Insurance (DI) for benefits on September 4, 2012. The DI office of the Canton of Zurich initially denied his claim for benefits. After a partial upholding of the appeal by the Social Insurance Court of the Canton of Zurich and a bi-disciplinary assessment by the Swiss Medical Assessment and Business Center (SMAB AG, Bern) in the fields of psychiatry and orthopedics/traumatology, the DI office again denied its obligation to provide benefits, as a primary addiction issue was present.
The Social Insurance Court of the Canton of Zurich dismissed the insured's appeal, in which he had demanded a disability pension from September 2013.
The insured filed an appeal in public law matters, requesting that he be awarded the statutory benefits of the Disability Insurance, in particular a pension from February 2013 at the latest.
Considerations
The Federal Supreme Court changes the previous case law in such a way that dependency syndromes or substance use disorders that have been unequivocally diagnosed by specialists can no longer be categorically denied any relevance under disability insurance law. Rather, they must be subjected to a structured evidentiary procedure in accordance with BGE 141 V 281, just like other mental illnesses, in order to assess their impact on the ability to work.
In the present case, the psychiatric expert witness attested to the insured's full…