Facts
By decision of the marriage protection judge of the district court X. of August 27, 1969, the common household of the spouses Ida and Erwin [S.] was suspended for an indefinite period and the husband was obliged to pay his wife a monthly maintenance contribution of 650 francs. In the previous divorce proceedings, which were deleted following the withdrawal of the complaint, a psychiatric expert opinion had been ordered on Ida [S.], according to which she suffered from paranoid schizophrenia. By decision of February 4, 1970, the compensation fund rejected Erwin S.'s application of October 14, 1969 for the granting of a disability pension in favor of his wife, on the grounds that the insured person herself did not agree with this application and did not claim any benefits from the disability insurance.
Considerations
In his appeal, Erwin [S.] argued that he was legally obliged to maintain his wife and therefore had a legal right to disability insurance benefits. By decision of November 23, 1970, the AVS appeals commission of the canton of Zurich rejected the appeal. The husband could no longer assert the material rights of his wife, as she had already waived the disability insurance benefits in a binding manner. The mental illness suffered by the insured did not change this, as it was not serious enough to impair her discernment and thus her capacity to act.
The…