On the dies a quo of the time limit for the recognition of the right to a lump sum payment for permanent non-disabling injuries (analysis of the Supreme Court Judgment of 19th February 2015)

Abstract

A request for classification of permanent non-disabling injuries must be made within a period of five years from the day following "the date on which the triggering event of the compensation occurs" (art. 43.1 of the Spanish General Act on Social Security) after which, administrative action to claim said classification extinguishes, as consequently does any legal action. In these types of injuries, there is no legal determination of what must be understood as the triggering event of the compensation, nor therefore of the date on which the calculation of the time limit must start. Previously, the Supreme Court and legal doctrine had considered that the right came into being and said calculation started based on the objective information of the medical diagnosis of the non-disabling injury. However, the Supreme Court Judgment of 19th February 2015 changed this criterion, and, in a teleological interpretation that attempts to ensure that workers will not lose compensation due to a delay in the exercise of the action, links the triggering event to the effective awareness of the labour-related origin of the injury and of its legal relevance by workers, and sets the dies a quo for the time limit as the date on which both points are accredited in the ruling of the Spanish National Institute for Social Security. In this paper, we analyse the background and legal grounds of this judgment.