Facts
The State of Israel filed a complaint against the rulings of the Debt Collection Office Bern-Mittelland, which refused to extend the deadline for filing an objection against a payment order and rejected the objection as late. The Federal Supreme Court dismissed the complaint.Considerations
The Federal Supreme Court stated that the debt collection office has discretion in extending the deadline for filing an objection under Art. 33 para. 2 DEBA, taking into account the specific circumstances. In the present case, the ten-day deadline for filing the objection began on August 21, 2009 and ended on August 31, 2009. The objection filed on October 6, 2009 would have been timely only with an extension of the deadline by 36 days.
The Federal Supreme Court considered it permissible for the supervisory authority to regard an extension of only one month, i.e. until the end of September 2009, as appropriate. In doing so, it took into account that the State of Israel had a legal representative in Switzerland and had already been informed about the initiation of the debt collection…