Facts
This decision concerns a dispute between an insured person (the claimant) and an insurance company (the defendant) regarding the prescription of daily allowances in case of illness. The Federal Tribunal had to rule on the beginning of the prescription period for these allowances.
The claimant was incapable of working due to illness and claimed daily allowances from his insurance. The insurance company considered that these allowances were prescribed in their entirety two years after the beginning of the incapacity to work, in accordance with the previous case law of the Federal Tribunal. The claimant contested this position, arguing that each daily allowance should be considered separately and that the prescription period only began to run for each day of incapacity to work.
Considerations
The Federal Tribunal decided to change its case law on this issue. It now considers that when the insured person can claim a separate allowance for each day of incapacity to work, these benefits do not prescribe in a lump sum but separately, from the day for which each of them is due after the medical certificate of incapacity to work and the expiration of the waiting period.
This solution is more in line with the nature of the daily allowances, which are intended to…