Death due to an accident at work or occupational disease of a disability pensioner who was entitled to an accident insurance disability pension. Partially approving gloss to the resolution of the Supreme Court of 14 December 2022, III UZP 4/22

Abstract

In a resolution of the Supreme Court of 14 December 2022, it was adopted that family members are also entitled to lump-sum compensation in the event of death as a result of an accident at work or occupational disease of a disability pensioner who had the right to a disability pension established in a decision of a pension authority on the basis of the provisions of the Act on Pension Benefits from the Social Insurance Fund, and who fulfilled the statutory prerequisites for granting him the right to a disability pension in connection with an accident at work or occupational disease. The Supreme Court expressed the convincing view that the concept of a disability pensioner who was entitled to an accident insurance disability pension also includes such a person who had an established right to a disability pension from the so-called general health condition and fulfilled (in abstracto) the conditions for the right to an accident insurance disability pension. However, in the opinion of the author of the gloss, the method used by the Supreme Court to reach this conclusion is not entirely convincing.