Partial Upholding of the Administrative Court Appeal against the Distribution Plan of a Partial Liquidation

Facts

Banks A. and B. had insured their personnel with the cooperatively organized X. When they were taken over by G. and L. respectively in early 1994, the latter terminated the respective affiliation contract with X. as of December 31, 1994. This also affected the IT personnel who had moved to company M. Apparently, S. and T. also terminated their respective affiliation contract with X. as of December 31, 1994. On December 18, 2000, X. submitted a distribution plan to the Federal Social Insurance Office, which approved it by decree of April 25, 2002. G. (which had previously taken over L.), the pension fund of G., M. and the pension fund of M. unsuccessfully appealed against this to the Federal Appeals Commission for Occupational Old-Age, Survivors' and Disability Pension Provision. They then appealed to the Federal Supreme Court, which partially upheld the appeal.

Considerations

The Federal Supreme Court considers the distribution plan to be sufficiently clear and comprehensible in principle. However, it is to be criticized that the respondent did not calculate the coverage capital of the departing and continuing members on the same cut-off date. For the departing personnel, it based this on December 31, 1994, while it determined the coverage capital of the continuing members as of January 1, 1995. This is not permissible, as the partial liquidation must be carried out on a uniform cut-off date.

Further…