Facts
The dispute concerns the question of whether the defendant founding associations must be liable for the damage resulting from the undue payment of old-age pensions to Hedwig Stutz in the amount of CHF 17,140. Hedwig Stutz provided an incorrect date of birth (January 20, 1910 instead of January 21, 1910) when she joined the OASI in 1952. Based on this information, an insured person's card with an incorrect insured person's number was issued to her. In 1971, a couple's disability pension was granted to her husband. When she applied for an old-age pension in 1972, Hedwig Stutz provided the correct date of birth and mentioned that her husband was receiving a disability pension. However, the compensation fund official proceeded to reconcile the accounts based on the incorrect insured person's number and granted her an individual old-age pension in addition to her husband's couple's disability pension, which proved to be undue.Considerations
The Federal Insurance Court considers that the compensation fund official was negligent, but that this negligence cannot be qualified as gross negligence within the meaning of Art. 70 para. 1 let. b OASIA. Although the official failed to verify the consistency between the information on the insured person's card and that provided in the pension application form, this error cannot be considered a serious breach of basic duty of care, as the inaccuracy of the insured person's card could relatively easily go unnoticed. Furthermore, the official had no reason to expect the information on the insured person's card to be incorrect. The omission to take into…