Claim of the legal successor to the vested termination benefit of occupational pension provision

Facts

The case concerns the claim of the legal successor (brother of the deceased) to the vested termination benefit of the mandatory occupational pension provision of the deceased. The deceased was insured with the GastroSocial Pension Fund until his death in February 2005. The issue is whether an insured event (age, death, disability) had already occurred at the time of withdrawal from the pension institution on 14 January 2005.

Considerations

The DFC holds that the insured event of "death" only occurs with the actual occurrence of death and not already with the underlying incapacity to work. Incapacity to work or earn that precedes death is not a necessary conceptual element of the insured risk of "death". The entitlement to survivors' benefits under the OPA thus arises with the death of the insured, at the earliest, however, with the termination of full salary continuation. Since the…