Rejection of a Health Insurance Company's Request for Continuation Against a Debtor

Facts

In the debt collection proceedings, the insurance company [X.] (the appellant) as the debt collection creditor served a payment order on the debtor [Z.] (the respondent). When the appellant filed the request for continuation, the debt collection office rejected it on the grounds that the order to remove the objection had not been validly served on the respondent. The appellant then filed a complaint with the supervisory authority, which dismissed the complaint. The appellant then filed a complaint against this judgment of the supervisory authority with the Federal Court.

Considerations

The Federal Court held that according to its case law, service is deemed to have been effected if the addressee fails to collect the item within the 7-day collection period, provided that he could have expected the service. However, this is only the case if there is already a procedural legal relationship that obliges the parties to cooperate. In the present case, however, the respondent did not have sufficient knowledge that proceedings had been initiated to remove his objection, and therefore did not have to expect a decision on the removal of the objection within a reasonable period of time. Therefore, the service of the order to remove the objection could not be considered as having been effected, despite two failed attempts at service.

The Federal Court therefore dismissed the complaint of the…