Rejection of Admission to the Pension Fund of Company Y AG due to the Disability Assessment of the Disability Insurance

Facts

[S.], born in 1954, was a self-employed entrepreneur from 1979 to 1990 and subsequently employed by Company Y AG until his dismissal at the end of July 1992. Due to a back condition, he was awarded a full disability pension by the Disability Insurance as of October 1, 1990. Subsequently, he was retroactively admitted to the Company Y AG pension fund at the VERA Collective Foundation as of November 1, 1990, with a reservation in the supplementary area for lumbovertebralsyndrome and its consequences. After the award of the full disability pension, the occupational pension insurance was retroactively annulled.

[S.] later applied to be retroactively admitted to the BVG (Occupational Pension Act) insurance of Company Y AG as of November 1, 1990 and to receive the disability pensions as of August 1, 1992. The VERA Collective Foundation rejected this request.

[S.] then filed a lawsuit with the Administrative Court of the Canton of Bern, requesting that the VERA Collective Foundation in liquidation be obliged to retroactively admit him to the pension fund and pay the disability pensions. The Administrative Court dismissed the lawsuit.

Considerations

According to case law, pension funds that use the same concept of disability as the Disability Insurance are bound by the disability assessment of the IV (Disability Insurance) office, unless it proves to be clearly untenable.

The Federal Supreme Court confirmed that…