44
asserted that “he feels frustrated since during his employment at the Comptroller,
he was considered a senior officer [and later on] due to the circumstances, he
had to work [...] for illiterate people.”108
128.
Furthermore, also by means of statement rendered at the public
hearing held before the Court, Mr. José Baltasar Vitkovic Trujillo emphasized that
the effects of the reduction in the pension were “huge” since “his idea was to
provide [his] children with the education they […] deserve” and that he was
prevented from doing so due to the circumstances.109
129.
Finally, the Tribunal notes that the representative submitted the
affidavits of 95 members of the Association or their next-of-kin, the admissibility
of which was objected by the State and not their content (supra para. 34). That
is, the State alleged that the statements should not be admitted upon considering
that “they [were not] related to the subject-matter of the claims of the present
procedure” but it did not question the truthfulness of their content regarding the
non-pecuniary damage suffered by such people. In that regard, the Court has
already declared such evidence to be admissible upon considering it was relevant
and pertinent to analyze to non-pecuniary damage suffered by the victims (supra
para. 34).
130.
It spring from said statements that the victims of the case at hand
suffered from frustrations and emotional anguish due to the sudden and
dramatically deterioration of their economic situation.
131.
Hence, the Court considers that a natural expectation of a discharged
or retired employee is to enjoy the freedom and rest implied in labor benefits,
counting on the economic guarantee and security that the payment of the full
pension represents for the beneficiary who is entitled to it after making the
corresponding contributions. By means of their statements, the victims have
referred to their particular case and to the case of the 273 members of the
Association in general, to inform on the elimination or curtailment of the
enjoyment of their dismissal or retirement, insofar as they were forced to obtain
new jobs, to bind their patrimony and person by taking out loans or selling their
assets, or adapting to a new socio-economic reality, precisely in the stage of their
lives in which they could do without a job and in which the acquired right to a
pension would guarantee economy tranquility. In the case under study, while the
outcome was neither certain nor inevitable, it was a plausible situation --not
merely possible-- within the likelihood given the subject’s natural and foreseeable
development, a development that was disrupted and upset by the noncompliance with the rulings of the Constitutional Court.
132.
Therefore, the Court notes that the reading and analysis of said
statements allow concluding that the 102 victims concerned (100 that presented
affidavits and two that rendered a statement at the public hearing) and the
remaining 171, suffered from a clear uncertainty and defenselessness due to the
non-compliance with the rulings of the Constitutional Court, which at the same
time caused them psychological anguish and suffering for the impossibility or
limitation to enjoy their expectations and responsibilities with a pension suddenly
reduced. Such alterations in the conditions of existence of the victims constitute
non-pecuniary damage derived, however, from the lack of compliance with the
108
Cf., statement of José Luis Guillermo Ruiz Boto, supra note 99.
109
Cf., statement of José Baltasar Vitkovic Trujillo, supra note 99.