Justice and equality for the victims of duty

(To Nicolò Giordana)
31/03/17

The recent sentence of the Supreme Court of Cassation, 27 March 2017, n. 7761, in rejection of an appeal presented by the Ministry of Defense, has established a principle that is marked by a change of protection: no longer a one-way protection of the interests of the Administration (the economic interest) but of the individual (l human interest). The cassation lawyers have in fact established that the monthly allowance in favor of the victims of duty must be equal to that payable to the victims of the mafia and terrorism.

The issue has drawn from an appeal brought to the Labor Court of Florence to ensure that he was recognized status a victim of duty in order to be granted welfare benefits. The judge appealed, for the purpose of the preliminary investigation, condemned the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of the Interior to the recognition requested with the relative privileges. Appealed by the State Administration, the Florentine Court of Appeal confirmed what was established by the judge of first aid in whole.

At the Supreme Court the dispute was confirmed as defined in the previous degrees of judgment. First the correctness of the principle of jurisdiction was reiterated by the Ordinary Court and not the Military or Administrative one. Secondly, a thorough and in-depth legal research was carried out, thanks to which the magistrates of the College arrived at the summit.

Article. 4, c. 238, L. 350 / 2003 has doubled the amount of the life allowance in favor of the victims of the mafia and terrorism; on the contrary, the art. 4, dPR. 243 / 2006 has established that the victims of duty should be paid 258,23 Euro, which outlines an unreasonable inequality of treatment between the victims of the two species. The Council of State, with various pronunciations, has emphasized this problem by stating that the crystallization of the responsibility for the victims of duty compared to what is perceived by the victims of organized crime and terrorism reveals an unjustified difference in treatment.

Based on this trends of the Administrative Justice, the Judge of Legitimacy has therefore affirmed that the monthly amount of the annuity must be the same for each category of victims being this the only logical solution viable in the light of the principle of fairness established at primary level by the art. 3 of the Constitution.

A doubling, therefore, that will allow the victims of duty the perception of about 500,00 Euro rather than the precedents established by the dPR. 243 / 2006.

(photo: defesa.it)