The position of the Supreme Court overturns the compensation of military pensioners

The Supreme Court of Montenegro announced the legal position that the beneficiary of the pension and disability insurance (PIO) can sue for damages in civil proceedings only after he has exhausted legal means to assess the legality of the decision on the determined amount of pension according to the rules of administrative procedure/dispute.

Military pensioners, whose monthly income was not adjusted by an additional 2007 percent in 11,89, are in trouble, since now the higher courts are overturning the original judgments on compensation that were passed in their favor.

How to go to the Administrative Court, when we have no solutions

They sought their rights in regular court proceedings in the past years, and after the subsequent position of the Supreme Court, which was signed by the president of the Civil Department, Branimir Femić, they consider that they were "completely discriminated against".

"The legal position of the Supreme Court is an impossible mission for us. How can we go to the administrative procedure when we have not even received a decision on the adjustment of the pension, which we should complain about? This is pure discrimination," said military pensioner Simo Marić, who acquired this status in 2005.

He explains that with the new legal position, military pensioners are referred to the Administrative Court for all their rights, even though the decision of the PiO Fund literally states that all adjustments are made automatically, without a special decision. The plaintiffs in the cases are beneficiaries of rights from the pension and disability insurance of Montenegro - military pensioners.

As military personnel, in accordance with the Law on the Armed Forces of Yugoslavia, they were entitled to a pension from the Social Insurance Fund for military insured persons in Belgrade, from where they were paid their pension. After that, the payment was taken over by the Ministry of Finance, and with the adoption of the new Law on PIO on August 15, 2007, the obligation was taken over by the PIO Fund.

Asked to standardize the practice

The legal position of the Supreme Court changes the previous judicial practice, after a significant number of military pensioners were awarded large compensations. That position was adopted on June 25 of this year, and it was only recently published.

Previously, on February 20 of this year, the Basic Court from Podgorica addressed the Civil Division of the Supreme Court with a request "for the purpose of standardizing court practice in cases initiated by lawsuits by military pensioners for the compensation of material damages in the form of the difference in pensions paid by the PIO Fund".

"Given the fact that the decisions determining the amount of the pension have the nature of an administrative act, pensioners do not have the right to compensation for damages in the form of a reduced pension before the regular courts, if they did not previously protect their rights related to the regularity of the determined pension in an administrative procedure, i.e. in an administrative dispute", the president of the Civil Division of the Supreme Court concluded in his legal position.

In addition to Femić, the following judges stood behind this attitude: Dušanka Radović, Vesna Begović, Natalija Filipović, Rade Kovačević, Dragica Milačić, Radojka Nikolić, Nataša Božović, Ranka Vuković, Vesna Jočić and Snežana Aleksić.