On 24 February the Department of Administrative Cases of the Senate repealed the judgment of the Regional Administrative Court which rejected the application for establishing the legal fact that the applicant was dependent on the deceased husband – a participant in the elimination of the Chernobyl nuclear accident consequences – and for granting state social benefits to the applicant.

In the present case, the State Social Insurance Agency (SSIA) refused to grant the applicant a state benefit as the surviving spouse of a participant in the elimination of disaster consequences of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant (NPP). The Regional Court, having examined the application for annulment of the SSIA decision, acknowledged that since the applicant was receiving a state old-age pension, the applicant's main source of income was a pension and not the funds the applicant received as an aid from her husband. Consequently, the applicant was not dependent on the deceased spouse and there are no grounds for granting the benefit.

In its judgment, the Senate has analyzed the existing case law and found that it is varied regarding this matter and the issues of establishing a legal fact regarding the existence of dependency of persons have been assessed by both courts of general jurisdiction and administrative courts. The Senate does not agree with the conclusion of the Regional Court that the mere fact that the applicant receives an old-age pension, regardless of its amount, is grounds for declaring that the applicant was not dependent on the deceased spouse. In reaching that conclusion, the Regional Court has failed to identify and asses a number of the following legal and factual circumstances.

The Senate acknowledges that in order to conclude whether the applicant was dependent on the deceased spouse, it is not sufficient to establish merely the fact that the applicant receives an old-age pension without assessing the financial situation of the person. The Senate has analyzed the legal provisions in its judgment and points out that this was not the aim of the legislator either, when providing in the Chernobyl Law the right to receive benefits for the family, including a spouse, of the deceased participant in the elimination of the consequences of Chernobyl NPP accident. When assessing the spouse's dependence on the deceased participant in the elimination of the consequences of Chernobyl accident, it is important to note that it is not uncommon for the family members of participants in the elimination of the consequences of Chernobyl accident, including the spouses, to have taken care of such participants during their illness and disability, which in turn affected their ability to work and gain income. Thus, a situation may arise where, while the spouse is caring for a participant in the elimination of the consequences of Chernobyl accident, the main source of family subsistence is the participant's income. The applicant also stated that she had been forced to work part-time due to her husband's illness, and that she had not been able to work at all during the last ten years before her husband's death because she was taking care of him as he had number of illnesses and disability. The Senate points out that such circumstances should also be assessed. The Senate therefore has set aside the judgment of the Regional Administrative Court and remitted the case.

Judgment of the Senate, Case No SKA-56/2022 (A420306517)

 

Information prepared by Baiba Kataja, the Press Secretary of the Supreme Court

Tel.: +371 67020396; e-mail: baiba.kataja@at.gov.lv