JUDGMENT OF 12. 6. 1980 — CASE 107/79 SCHUERER v COMMISSION
In Case 107/79
THE COURT (First Chamber) composed of: A. O'Keeffe, President of Chamber, G. Bosco and T. Koop-mans, Judges, Advocate General : J.-P. Warner Registrar: H. A. Rühi, Principal Administrator
gives the following
JUDGMENT
Facts and Issues
I — Facts and written procedure
II — Conclusions of the parties
III — Submissions and arguments of the parties
1. Submission based upon the absence of a statement of reasons in the decisions in question and wrong reasons for the decision rejecting the complaint
2. Submission on the infringement of Article 78 of the Staff Regulations in so far as the defendant awarded the applicant a pension on the basis of the third paragraph of that provision instead of the second paragraph
3. Alternative submission: appointment of a board of medical experts
Decision
Costs
I —. Facts and written procedure
1. The second and third paragraphs of Article 78 of the Staff Regulations read as follows:
2. The applicant entered the service of the Commission on 7 July 1958. She had a post in Grade Β 3 in Directorate General XII when, on 1 September 1978, she was retired prematurely on grounds of total invalidity.
II —. Conclusions of the parties
(a). the accident at work on 26 October 1976;
(b). inflammation of the bronchi caused by the inhalation over a period of 14 months of dust injurious to the health in an insanitary office;
III —. Submissions and arguments of the parties
1. Submission based upon the absence of a statement of reasons in the decisions in question and wrong reasons for the decision rejecting the complaint
2. Submission on the infringement of Article 78 of the Staff Regulations in so far as the defendant awarded the applicant a pension on the basis of the third paragraph of that provision instead of the second paragraph
3. Alternative submission: appointment of a board of medical experts
1. This application, dated 2 July 1979, has been brought by a former official of the Commission who was retired on 1 September 1978 on grounds of total invalidity.
2. The applicant claims that the Court should reverse the Commission's decision of 14 August 1978 awarding her invalidity pension under the third paragraph of Article 78 of the Staff Regulations and the Commission's decision of 3 April 1979 rejecting the complaint through official channels brought by the applicant on 5 October 1978 under Article 90 (2) of the Staff Regulations seeking annulment of the decision of 14 August 1978 and the award of her pension on the basis of the second paragraph of Article 78 of the Staff Regulations. The application also seeks the appointment of a board of medical experts.
3. The second and third paragraphs of Article 78 of the Staff Regulations of Officials provide as follows :
4. On 26 October 1976 the applicant sustained a fall on a stairway at the Commission in Brussels. The application states that:
5. On 3 August 1978 the Invalidity Committee which was convened on the initiative of the defendant and was composed of Dr Callebaut, appointed by the Commission, Dr S'Jongers, appointed by the applicant, and Dr Veniory, appointed by the first two doctors, concluded :
6. In a supplementary memorandum sent to the defendant on 8 January 1979 the Invalidity Committee stated that:
7. As the Court has already stated in its judgment of 13 July 1972 in Case 29/71 Vellozzi [1972] ECR 513, the existence of an occupational disease causing total or partial permanent invalidity of the official and giving him the right to benefit under Article 73 or Article 78 of the Staff Regulations as the case may be must appear clearly and precisely from the relevant conclusions of the Invalidity Committee referred to in Article 13 of Annex VIII to the Staff Regulations.
8. It appears from the Invalidity Committee's first report, upon which the disputed decision of 14 August 1978 is based, that the applicant's invalidity results neither from an occupational disease nor from a public-spirited act nor from having risked her life to save another human being, which are the several conditions for the application of the second paragraph of Article 78 of the Staff Regulations. As for the other condition for the application of that provision — an accident in the course of or in connexion with the performance of an official's duties — the report does not rule out the invalidity's being possibly the result of such an accident. The somewhat ambiguous wording used in that regard was clarified by the supplementary memorandum of 8 January 1979.
9. Accordingly, the defendant may not be criticized for having inferred from the first invalidity report that a relationship of cause and effect between the alleged accident and the invalidity had not been established and for having understood the phrase the invalidity... may arise from an accident in the course of the performance of her duties as explained in the supplementary memorandum, namely, that in medicine it is often difficult to reject theoretically the hypothesis of some link between an accident claimed by the patient and the pathology of which he complains. Thus, the Commission was justified in taking its decision to award the applicant's pension on the basis of the third paragraph of Article 78 of the Staff Regulations relying on the opinion of the Invalidity Committee, since that committee had not found that the applicant's invalidity satisfied any one of the conditions for the application of the second paragraph of Article 78 of the Staff Regulations.
10. It does not appear from the file in the case that the composition of the Invalidity Committee or its working methods have been called in question by the applicant. The said committee validly reached a decision in the light of the various medical reports submitted by the applicant and after her having been an in-patient for four days in a teaching hospital. In these circumstances its conclusions must be regarded as final and may not be disputed in the absence of any new matter of fact arising.
11. That new matter of fact may not consist in the production by the applicant of medical certificates calling in question the conclusions of the Invalidity Committee but putting forward no ground which would suggest that that committee did not have knowledge of the principal facts contained in the applicant's medical records.
12. The appointment of a board of medical experts should therefore not be ordered and the application must be dismissed.
13. Under Article 69 (2) of the Rules of Procedure, the unsuccessful party shall be ordered to pay the costs.
14. The applicant has failed in her submissions.
15. However, under Article 70 of the Rules of Procedure, in proceedings by servants of the Communities, institutions shall bear their own costs.
On those grounds, THE COURT (First Chamber) hereby:
1 Dismisses the application.
2 Orders the parties to bear their own costs.