Facts
The plaintiff, a civil engineering technician, suffered a severe disability in an accident that impaired his earning and promotion prospects. The Cantonal Court calculated the future disability damage by subtracting the actual monthly salary of CHF 3,000 and the SUVA pension of CHF 889 from the possible monthly income of CHF 5,000. This resulted in a loss of earnings of CHF 1,111 per month, which the Cantonal Court capitalized. The defendants challenged the calculation, in particular the application of Activity Table 20 instead of Table 23 for temporary pensions. The FJA upheld the procedure of the Cantonal Court.Considerations
The FJA stated that in cases like the present one, an activity table should generally be used to capitalize the damage, as the duration of employment cannot be precisely estimated in the individual case. A restriction to the general retirement age would be too rigid and would not take into account possible employment after retirement. In the present case, it was quite conceivable that the plaintiff would remain employed beyond the age of 65 due to his disability and the lack of restriction on his life expectancy.
However, the Cantonal Court wrongly fully credited the SUVA pension against the damage and accordingly reduced the plaintiff's claim for compensation. According to the case law, SUVA can only reclaim against the liable party to the extent that its benefits and…