Judgment 1849
87th Session, 1999
World Health Organization
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Considerations 18-19
Extract:
"The Tribunal considers that, in accordance with its jurisprudence, if an official receives an overpayment by mistake it should be reimbursed. Nevertheless, the organization should take into account any circumstances which would make it unfair or unjust to require repayment. [...] In the Tribunal's opinion there is no indebtedness by the complainant to the organization. It was responsible for making payments on behalf of the United Nations, but has been fully reimbursed. The organization therefore, was not entitled to withhold the grants due or make deductions from salary under rule 380.5.2 since the complainant was not indebted to it."
Reference(s)
Organization rules reference: STAFF RULE 380.5.2 OF WHO
Keywords:
amount; criteria; debt; deduction; equity; exception; recovery of overpayment; refund; unjust enrichment;
Judgment 1366
77th Session, 1994
Universal Postal Union
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Considerations 13-14
Extract:
The complainant's education grant gave rise to an overpayment. He pleads that there is a time limit for the recovery of overpayments. The UPU observes that "any payment made in error may be recovered" but it has nevertheless waived some of the sum due. "In the circumstances the time limit the union has set is much to the complainant's advantage and his plea under this head therefore fails."
Keywords:
amount; education expenses; recovery of overpayment; refund; time bar; time limit; unjust enrichment;
Considerations 11-12
Extract:
The complainant's education allowance gave rise to an overpayment. He alleges breach of the rule against retroactivity. "He is wrong. [...] What is at issue is the recovery of overpayments; and the complainant [...] must have been aware of the patent disproportion between the advances he was receiving and the education expenses he had actually incurred. So he may not properly plead any mistake in interpretation."
Keywords:
amount; education expenses; non-retroactivity; recovery of overpayment; refund; unjust enrichment;
Judgment 1347
77th Session, 1994
Pan American Health Organization
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Considerations 15-16
Extract:
The complainant received a study allowance for her tuition costs in an amount greater than she was entitled to. The PAHO asked her to repay the overpayment and took away some of her responsibilities. She regards the removal of certain responsibilities as unwarranted disciplinary action. But "the PAHO was entitled to take administrative action to prevent lapses in the future. Changing her duties for those reasons may not be regarded as a disciplinary measure either."
Keywords:
allowance; amendment to the rules; disciplinary measure; education expenses; organisation's interest; post description; recovery of overpayment; unjust enrichment;
Consideration 14
Extract:
The complainant received financial aid from the PAHO to pursue her studies. Her university waived part of her tuition fees so that the cost to her was less than the amount she collected. "Having obtained financial benefits to which she was not entitled, the complainant was under an obligation to refund the over-payments and the PAHO was entitled to recover them."
Keywords:
allowance; amount; education expenses; recovery of overpayment; refund; unjust enrichment;
Judgment 1195
73rd Session, 1992
Universal Postal Union
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Considerations 4-5
Extract:
The complainant having received undue payment, the Union claimed a refund. The complainant challenges this on the grounds that "because of prescription the debt has become unenforceable. There is indeed a widely recognised principle that lapse of time may extinguish an obligation, but the difficulty here is that the Union's rules set no time limit for such extinctive prescription." However the Tribunal holds that the time between the payment of the material sums and the Union's request for their repayment "was not long enough to warrant declaring the undue payments irrecoverable. Not only is the period of extinctive prescription much longer in most national systems of law, but the complainant pleads no personal difficulty or hardship in making repayment: the Union is not claiming lump-sum reimbursement but is spreading it over eighteen months."
Keywords:
debt; domestic law; reasonable time; recovery of overpayment; refund; time limit;
Consideration 3
Extract:
"It is a general principle of law that any sum paid on a mistaken assumption of fact is recoverable. And since the complainant received payment on the assumption that her husband was her dependant and since that assumption later proved to be mistaken, the sums she received are, according to that principle, recoverable."
Keywords:
family allowance; general principle; recovery of overpayment; refund; right;
Judgment 1111
71st Session, 1991
International Criminal Police Organization
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 2
Extract:
The complainant, having tendered her resignation, was mistakenly paid a termination indemnity upon the transfer of Interpol's Headquarters to Lyons. The organisation ordered repayment. "[T]he Secretary General's decision to claim the sum back from her is a discretionary one. In deciding whether to demand full or part repayment he takes accounts of such factors as the staff member's good or bad faith, the sort of mistake that has been made, the organization's own and the staff member's negligence and the inconvenience which the demand, made necessary by the organization's own oversight, will put the staff member to. So the Tribunal will exercise only a limited power of review over the decision."
Keywords:
discretion; good faith; judicial review; negligence; recovery of overpayment; terminal entitlements;
Consideration 5
Extract:
An earlier decision had informed the complainant that she would not qualify for a termination indemnity if she refused to move to Lyons when the organization moved there. However, a later decision granted her the indemnity. The Tribunal observes that "the very inconsistency between the two decisions shows that the later one, which had no basis in law, was a mistake." Since the decision was materially wrong Interpol was entitled under Article 30 of the Staff Regulations to claim payment back from her.
Reference(s)
Organization rules reference: ARTICLE 30 OF THE INTERPOL STAFF REGULATIONS
Keywords:
recovery of overpayment; withdrawal of decision;
Judgment 497
48th Session, 1982
Pan American Health Organization
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Summary
Extract:
As the money [an education grant] was paid by mistake, prima facie it is recoverable. "But the extent to which recovery will be ordered depends on the circumstances of the case. In this case the Tribunal considers that it will be sufficient if the complainant repays half."
Keywords:
allowance; condition; education expenses; recovery of overpayment; unjust enrichment;
Judgment 123
20th Session, 1968
International Atomic Energy Agency
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 3
Extract:
In approving the complainant's request for application for repatriation grant, the organisation misinterpreted the material provisions. Payment to the complainant was approved ex gratia. It was however subject to a provision which the organisation "implicitly waived [...] by refraining from claiming repayment of this amount in the course of the present procedure. [The] complainant's right to keep the money he has received is thus not in question."
Keywords:
ex gratia; recovery of overpayment; repatriation allowance; unjust enrichment;
Judgment 81
14th Session, 1965
International Telecommunication Union
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 5
Extract:
"Although it is true that the right to recovery of payments made by mistake is generally recognised and may, in consequence, be assimilated to a statutory right, [the official] would not have been in a position to claim the reimbursement of the payments he had made, with full knowledge of the facts, into the [...] funds, by virtue of a decision which had been rendered final as far as he was concerned. Neither has the complainant any right to do so."
Keywords:
contributions; pension; recovery of overpayment; refund; right; unjspf;
Judgment 53
9th Session, 1961
World Health Organization
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 4
Extract:
"In the absence of relevant provisions in the Staff Rules, the general principle of law according to which the payer is entitled to pursue the recovery against the payee of sums paid in error is applicable to the present case."
Keywords:
applicable law; general principle; no provision; recovery of overpayment;
Consideration 4
Extract:
"Decisions taken in respect of recovery are subject to review under the conditions provided for in paragraphs 1 and 2 of Article VII of the Statute of the Tribunal."
Reference(s)
ILOAT reference: ARTICLE VII, PARAGRAPHS 1 AND 2, OF THE STATUTE
Keywords:
competence of tribunal; recovery of overpayment;
Consideration 4
Extract:
"It is open to the organization to require by decision taken in reasonable time reimbursement in whole or in part of the overpayment, account being taken of all the circumstances of the case, including inter alia the bona or mala fides of the official, the nature of the error, the degree of negligence of the organization and of the official and the hardship caused to the official by any subsequent recovery in consequence of an error of the organization."
Keywords:
complainant; general principle; good faith; negligence; organisation; reasonable time; recovery of overpayment; request by a party; time limit;
